FRANKFURT, July 1 (Xinhua Silk Road) -- At a MediaMarkt electronics store in Frankfurt on Monday, the air-conditioning aisle had been stripped nearly bare. A single display model of a Midea mobile air conditioner stood beside its box, as an employee prepared to pack it away for a customer who had already reserved it.
Minutes later, two shoppers arrived to try their luck after failing to secure a suitable unit online. They said they had been looking for a Midea PortaSplit, a renter-friendly model that requires no complicated installation or major changes to the home.
The scene points to a broader shift in Europe's cooling market, as repeated heatwaves push more households to seek immediate and easy-to-install solutions.
During the June 19-25 period, parts of Europe experienced one of their hottest late-June spells on record, as heatwaves continued to shatter temperature records across the continent.
On Joybuy, JD.com's European online retail brand, sales of air conditioners during the period surged nearly 40 times the figure in the first week of June. The heatwave coincided with Joybuy's summer Black Friday campaign, further fueling demand for cooling products. Sales of Midea PortaSplit air conditioners rose nearly 42 times, while floor fan sales climbed more than 80 times and neck fan sales jumped more than 120 times.
In late June, the Xiaomi Store in Paris recorded an 84-percent week-on-week increase in foot traffic, while overall sales grew 79 percent from the previous week. Long queues formed outside the store from as early as 10 a.m., with many customers waiting for fans to be restocked.
"From May to June, fan sales increased by 48 percent year on year. Demand currently exceeds supply, and newly restocked fans on Xiaomi's online store in France typically sell out within half a day," a Xiaomi representative told Xinhua.
-- Heat exposes Europe's cooling gap
For decades, air conditioning was not considered a necessity in many European homes. In countries such as Germany, France and Britain, many consumers used to see hot weather as a brief summer episode. That perception is changing as heatwaves become more frequent, intense and persistent.
The World Meteorological Organization has warned that Europe is the fastest-warming continent, with temperatures rising at around twice the global average rate. It said the recent heatwave in Europe shattered temperature records and affected human health, ecosystems, agriculture, infrastructure and labor productivity.
Credit insurer Allianz Trade said in a recent report that "extreme heat is emerging as a structural economic risk, with Europe highly exposed." Many buildings in Europe were not designed with extreme heat in mind, the report said, noting that only 19 percent of European households have air conditioning, compared with 90 percent in the United States.
For vulnerable groups such as the elderly, children and people with chronic diseases, cooling is increasingly tied not only to comfort, but also to health and safety.
Yet for many European households, the question is no longer simply whether they need cooling, but whether they can install it.
A key constraint is housing. Many residential buildings are old and were not designed with air-conditioning pipes or outdoor units in mind. For tenants, installing a fixed split air conditioner often requires approval from landlords. In apartment buildings, facade rules, noise concerns and building management requirements can add further hurdles.
Even when installation is allowed, consumers may face high costs and long waiting times. The result is a clear market gap: more Europeans want cooling, but many still need solutions that work with rented homes, older apartments and strict building constraints.
-- R&D tailored to local needs
These barriers have turned product design into a test of local understanding and cross-border collaboration.
After a pilot launch in 2024, Midea formally launched the PortaSplit, a mobile split air conditioner, in Europe in 2025. The product quickly sold out in some channels and became difficult to find, with some second-hand listings reportedly pushing prices up to around 3,000 euros (3,400 U.S. dollars), more than triple its standard retail price of 999 euros (roughly 1,000 U.S. dollars).
E-commerce data also shows how quickly demand has surged. This year, as heat arrived earlier and demand accelerated, online platforms and social media groups have seen more posts seeking air conditioners, asking about restocking and sharing user experiences. Inquiries about the PortaSplit have stood out.
"Since its launch, user feedback has mainly focused on two aspects: effective cooling in spaces such as attics, and low noise," said Dong Yunjun, head of the residential air-conditioning business at Midea's European R&D Center.
Attics, top-floor apartments and sun-facing bedrooms are often among the hardest spaces to cool in Europe, driving demand for flexible, room-specific solutions rather than whole-house systems.
Tobias Strobel, head of technical innovation for residential air conditioning at Midea's German R&D Center, noted that the engineering specifically targets European housing realities.
"From the bracket to the air conditioner itself, the product is designed to avoid drilling and complicated construction as much as possible. It does not require professional installers or structural changes to the home," Strobel said.
The outdoor unit is relatively light, he added, and the bracket adapts to various European window styles, including regular windows, roof windows, French windows and balconies.
A German consumer told Xinhua that he has wanted to install an air conditioner in his rented apartment for years, but drilling and the placement of an outdoor unit had always been the biggest obstacles.
"I applied to my landlord for many years but never received approval," he said. Even if a landlord agreed, he added, neighbors' concerns over noise and restrictions on changes to the building's appearance would still have to be considered. This year's prolonged heat pushed him to look again for an alternative that does not require fixed installation.
Installation bottlenecks are also emerging in parts of Europe. A Spanish air-conditioning dealer told Xinhua that Spain has long been a relatively stable market for air conditioners because of its hot summers, but this year has brought a new uptick in demand. In normal times, customers might wait about three days for installation. Now the waiting time has stretched to around 10 days. In some parts of Germany, waiting times for installing a traditional split air conditioner can stretch into months.
Dong emphasized that this adaptability is a direct result of China-Europe cooperation, combining China's manufacturing strength and supply-chain capacity with German engineering insight into local housing structures, regulatory requirements and consumer habits.
"This is the result of China-Europe cooperation and win-win collaboration," Dong said. "Only by truly understanding local market pain points can companies create products that better meet the needs of local consumers."
-- The logistics and last-mile imperative
However, delivering physical products is only half the battle. As demand spreads from one product to a wider range of cooling goods, the ability to deliver quickly has become another part of the competition.
Chinese-made fans, ice makers, mobile air conditioners and smart temperature-control devices are moving quickly through e-commerce platforms and local warehouses. Stable cross-border transport, local warehousing and last-mile delivery are becoming crucial in helping turn supply into faster delivery for households.
Logistics links such as the China-Europe Railway Express have provided steady support for cross-border supply chains. To meet surging demand for air conditioners, fans and ice makers, Chinese enterprises are using local warehouse networks in Europe to speed up turnover, replenish stock and shorten delivery times.
Backed by JD.com's local warehousing network in Europe and its JoyExpress delivery system, large home appliances ordered on Joybuy can be delivered as soon as the next day. The platform also confirms housing layouts before delivery and provides services including delivery, installation, removal of old machines and recycling of used equipment.
Seif, a Paris-based Joybuy delivery worker, said that during peak demand, he recently delivered and installed seven air conditioners and fans between 7:30 a.m. and 3 p.m.
"Many customers were surprised by our delivery speed," he said.
A Joybuy representative said the platform is speeding up replenishment of popular cooling products such as air conditioners. Its procurement team is actively coordinating supply and stockpiling with upstream brands, with more air conditioners expected to arrive in the coming weeks. The platform will also work to keep prices stable, the representative said.
Joybuy's services now cover more than 30 major European cities, including London and Birmingham in Britain, Paris in France, Cologne and Dusseldorf in Germany, and Amsterdam and Rotterdam in the Netherlands.
As Europe's climate rapidly warms, the transition of cooling products from seasonal luxury to health-and-safety necessity is accelerating.
For Chinese companies, this shift represents more than a short-term sales spike. It is a test of their ability to integrate manufacturing strength with localized R&D and agile delivery networks to meet Europe's long-term climate adaptation needs.
(Contributed by Ma Yueran)
A single purchase
