An engineer from “a well-known German car company” photographed the Ceres 5 design from China – Photo: Drive
The global auto industry is changing at a breakneck pace. Electric vehicles can play a role in that transition.
The rise of Chinese carmakers is also an undeniable factor. They grow and develop at an extremely fast pace, which has now alerted international car companies.
Stereotypical notions about Chinese cars in the past (design plagiarism, bad tech, poor safety) have gone down a lot, at least for brands that have ambitions to reach beyond China. Such brands (BYD, MG, Zikr…) are now able to compete fairly in all aspects compared to international cars, while having a huge advantage in sales value.
The ongoing Munich 2023 (Germany) exhibition is perhaps a warning to international car makers who are still ignoring the potential threat from China. The number of cars they will bring to the 2023 event is double that of the last time (2021). The number of participating brands also doubled and there was no shortage of formidable names like BYD or MG.
BYD is now the “king of electrified vehicles” globally, with only one competitor who can chase them down, not a “traditional” car company: Tesla – Photo: Autocar
With quality and design not inferior to “surprising rivals”, the wariness of long-time international carmakers in the face of young Chinese automakers is quite evident. Some images recorded by Drive newspaper clearly show this at the Munich 2023 exhibition.
If a decade ago, Chinese automakers always focused on checking their competitors at a single event, now the opposite is true. Engineers from international carmakers did careful research, even taking photographs of notable elements seen on Chinese cars in Munich.
An engineer from a European car company examines and photographs the interior of a Chinese car model – Photo: Drive
According to Drive, the rise of Chinese cars is the reason why many popular brands are looking to move into the luxury car segment. They realized that they could not compete with the Chinese on price. Some examples that can be mentioned include Kia and Mazda.
European automakers may not have realized this problem before, partly because Chinese cars have not penetrated this market much. However, the “invasion” of the 2023 Munich Exhibition by Chinese cars has made many parties realize the truth.
If the Chinese are able to perform well internationally in the service, warranty and delivery areas as products improve, many international car companies will be in trouble.
(tags to translate)Chinese cars
