Chinese air-conditioners become Europe's summer lifeline as heatwaves intensify

Steven Scholtysek moved into an attic apartment in Hamelin, Germany, just as Western Europe was entering its hottest June on record. Temperatures across the region climbed above 40 degrees Celsius. Living under a roof in that kind of heat, he quickly discovered, made normal life nearly impossible.

Then he found the PortaSplit—a portable air-conditioning unit made by Midea, a Chinese appliance manufacturer. The device came with a lightweight outdoor unit that could sit on a windowsill, requiring no permanent installation, no drilling into walls, no modifications to the building's exterior. For someone living in a city with strict historic-preservation rules, this was the solution he'd been searching for. "It was a game changer," Scholtysek says now.

His experience has become the story of Europe's summer. A brand almost nobody in the region had heard of six months ago has become ubiquitous. The PortaSplit has sold out in stores across France, Spain, Germany, and the UK. Units are appearing on resale websites marked up to two or three times their original price of around 750 euros. Someone even created a website—MideaFinder—dedicated entirely to tracking where these machines are still in stock. Midea told Chinese state media that sales in those four countries surged more than 70 percent compared to the same period last year, though the company's European office has not confirmed the figure to independent journalists.

The appeal is partly practical and partly circumstantial. Europe has historically had low rates of air-conditioning ownership. The continent's summers were once mild enough that most buildings were designed without cooling systems. But the heatwaves are intensifying, and the architectural constraints remain. The PortaSplit's window-mounted design sidesteps both problems at once. Denis Yurchak, a 27-year-old in Vienna, discovered the machine while researching cooling options and found himself drawn into what he calls "a kind of cult about Midea." After posting about his PortaSplit on social media, he began receiving messages from strangers asking about it every day. During the worst heat, he ran it continuously.

Midea is not alone in this surge. TCL Technology, another Chinese manufacturer, reported that air-conditioner sales in France jumped more than 300 percent year-on-year. Gree, one of the world's largest AC makers, told the BBC that demand this summer has been "noticeably stronger," with many customers buying their first air-conditioner ever. The World Health Organization's Europe office has acknowledged that while air-conditioning is not a sustainable long-term solution to extreme heat, it remains "crucial to protect populations at increased risk from high temperatures."

But the environmental cost is substantial. Air conditioning accounts for 7 percent of global electricity consumption and generates 2.7 percent of the world's carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels and industry. Some European politicians and environmental advocates have long resisted the technology, arguing that the hot air expelled by outdoor units could raise temperatures in densely populated areas. Others view air-conditioners as wasteful purchases for what is typically just a week or two of discomfort. Yet in late June, when France recorded its hottest day on record, hundreds of schools were forced to close. The country's power utility subsequently committed 80 million euros to installing cooling systems in schools and community centers.

What has caught the attention of Chinese state media is not just the sales numbers but what they represent: a shift in how Chinese products are perceived in Europe. The PortaSplit is marketed as a fusion of German engineering—Midea has a research center in Stuttgart—and Italian design. Scholtysek, the engineer in Hamelin, was struck by this. "The marketing and design, it was not typical to what I was used to of older Chinese products," he says. "The quality was comparable to what I was used to from Europe." He was so impressed that he bought shares in Midea stock. For Adrien Olar, a 26-year-old in France who purchased his first air-conditioner—a PortaSplit—the experience felt transformative. For days before it arrived, he had been spraying water on his face to stay cool. Now, he says, stepping into his room "is like going into a fridge." Ralph Kobsik, Midea's general manager for Europe, has told the BBC that the company sees "considerable long-term growth potential" in the region and plans to continue investing in technologies tailored to European consumers. The question now is whether this moment of crisis-driven demand will reshape how European consumers think about cooling—and about where their appliances come from.