Chinese AC makers are now rushing emergency supplies into Europe.

Midea’s factories are working overtime to increase production. The company is also using the China-Europe Railway Express, cutting delivery time to around 15–25 days, 25 days faster than sea freight. After arrival, local subsidiaries are accelerating customs clearance and distribution so European households can get units as quickly as possible.

Gree’s European channels have been fully sold out, and overseas agents are urgently restocking to meet local cooling demand.

This is exactly what my previous essay was about: Europe’s AC problem is not a lack of demand. It is the failure to turn cooling into a low-friction household system.

European household AC penetration is still only around 20%, far below the global average. In countries such as France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the UK, the real bottleneck is not only the price of the machine. It is installation: old buildings, exterior-wall restrictions, co-ownership approval, certified technicians, landlord permission, electrical work, high labor costs, and long waiting times.

That is why Midea’s PortaSplit has become so revealing.

It is not just another air conditioner. It is a product designed to bypass Europe’s installation bottleneck.

Midea’s plug-and-play PortaSplit mobile split AC has reportedly sold out in Germany, the UK, France, and the Netherlands. Shipments this year have already exceeded 200,000 units, more than double last year’s full-year sales. German programmers have even built paid inventory-tracking websites to monitor real-time stock across thousands of stores.

This is what product-market fit looks like under institutional friction.

PortaSplit does not require wall drilling. It does not require professional installation. It can be installed by hand and moved later. Midea also kept the outdoor unit under 10 kg, making it light enough for ordinary households to handle. By moving the compressor into the indoor unit, the outdoor unit becomes much smaller and easier to fit across different European window types.

Gree is seeing the same pattern. From January to June 2026, Gree’s retail sales in France reportedly rose 50% year on year. Its no-install, plug-and-play mobile AC units have sold out across regional channels, while orders for wall-mounted split ACs remain strong. But fixed split AC installation schedules in France have already been pushed back to the end of August.

In China, a split AC is a household appliance.in France, a fixed split AC often becomes a small residential project.

So Europe’s heat wave is not only creating demand for air conditioners. It is revealing which companies can redesign products around Europe’s broken installation system.

Chinese companies are not just selling cheaper machines. They are selling a way around European friction.