What’s it About?
In 2023 China became the world’s largest exporter of cars. Fear that “the Chinese are coming” and are going to dominate the world’s auto markets, particularly with EVs has steadily enveloped many nations around the world. The US, EU, and other major markets have already responded with tariffs against a huge potential barrage of cheap EVs.
Join the author on a personal exploration of the Chinese car market that began in 2007. See the vehicles that helped propel China from producing cars for China, to producing cars for the world.
Tellingly when the author back in 2007 began test-driving cars in China the talk in the UK was that a huge number of Chinese cars were about to hit the island. This started from the remnants of MG Rover, the crumbs of which were fought over by various Chinese producers. They were joined by others who felt a growing confidence as China became the largest car producer and market in 2008. Only after nearly two decades is China on the verge of delivering that promise.
Find out about the false starts, squandered opportunities, and often plain poor business sense that held back the development. Many of these systemic problems are still in play today.
Who are the Chinese producers to really watch for as China creates EV champions that only Tesla in the West can compete against in terms of innovation, performance and desirability?
The story starts with the Rover 75 which helped change the Chinese car industry and on the way talks about some of the winners and losers including BYD, Geely, Chery, MG, Brillance, and Lifan.
With China’s pivot to what it calls new energy vehicles, EVs and PHEVs to the rest of us, the story starts to accelerate. Vast amounts of cash land in the industry and we see the birth of companies such as Nio, Li Auto and XPeng.
Can some of the Chinese companies emulate the success of the Japanese and Koreans before them and become household names or will on the cusp of success politics get in the way?
