It’s ironic. I’ve been slammed so many times on European car websites for saying that the Chinese are coming. European car makers have been asleep at the wheel and it’s heartbreaking, it was all so predictable.
The design team of the BMW i3 had the foresight, they saw it coming. In retaliation, the old powers within BMW basically made their life hell. So, they left for China.
VW kicked out Herbert Diess, who also saw it coming. But Mercedes gave it quite a good shot, only to be welcomed by the hordes of backward thinking EU car ‘journalists’ who don’t like the design of Benz’ EVs.
I’ve said it before and will saying again, EU manufacturers have 3 years to turn things around, or they will become another British Leyland. Stellantis is already there with their 15 different brands of the same Peugeot.
adventmix on
Crazy how the status quo lasts for decades and then upends in just a few short years. I remember how not so long ago Chinese car brands were a laughing stock and deemed just as inferior copycats at best, while the Germans were the undisputed leaders in quality and innovation.
litlandish on
Can somebody answer one simple question – why europeans are so naive?
Treewithatea on
Love these. What’s not mentioned in the title is that the article is exclusively talking about the Chinese market but classic Redditors arent gonna click an article, are they?
Its a paywall article so i couldn’t quite read whats in this but its no surprise that China is heavily pushing their own car industry within their own borders. ICEs are very very complicated things and even with Chinese companies having some insight into German engines, they were ultimately never even close to competing in that regard. EVs are far simpler and China happens to also be the biggest manufacturer of battery packs which is a huge inherent advantage.
But whats more puzzling is that recent VW numbers in China were actually decent as they have increased sales year to year in China. BMW is selling incredibly well right now, idk their China numbers but in Europe BMWs EVs are selling really well.
RelevanceReverence on
Renault and PSA aren’t.
Soft-Cry-9752 on
Can you guys ship it to Southeast Asia and sell it to us with discount? Thanks, love from Southeast Asia 🫡
Jazzlike-Tower-7433 on
Can someone post the article content?
Leading_Stick_5918 on
We done f’d up..
We will see big european brands close for good within 5-10 years. Europe could be a grave yard of old car manufacturers.
3f3nd1 on
Doesnt China subsidize its car industry heavily as it did with Solar?
MojordomosEUW on
It seems to be really difficult making cheap, good looking EVs. Imagine a retro looking, affordable Mercedes or BMW EV (think Hyundai 74 EV). Even people not fully onboard the EV train would buy those (including me).
vtskr on
It’s funny how no one in comments actually read the article
DOE_ZELF_NORMAAL on
Europe subsidise on the consumer side when purchasing any EV. China subsidise the manufacturing of their own EVs. This means European cars are not subsidised in China and chinese cars are double subsidised in Europe.
Yes, European car brands have been sleeping, they were basically making money doing nothing. But these anti-competitive practises by china don’t help. They could’ve subsidised on the consumer side too like the rest of the world, but they don’t care about playing a fair game. The exact same thing happened with solar panels, let that be a lesson to Europe!
Cyclonit on
Lets not forget that this is by design of our economic system. Our system does not reward long term strategy. It only cares about short term investments. Investors can change horses any time. So why bother working on long term projects at all?
Also, the same investors that earned money by investing into European industries can pivot to betting against it, when the time comes and still make money out of it.
Dektivac on
I run a company fighting chinese and indian competitors every day: 25 years ago china was subsidizing exports dolar for dolar and paying for all the shipping fees. They were seling for just about half the cost of productiin and making profit. West did nothing except accusing their own bussines of lazyness.
14 Comments
It’s ironic. I’ve been slammed so many times on European car websites for saying that the Chinese are coming. European car makers have been asleep at the wheel and it’s heartbreaking, it was all so predictable.
The design team of the BMW i3 had the foresight, they saw it coming. In retaliation, the old powers within BMW basically made their life hell. So, they left for China.
VW kicked out Herbert Diess, who also saw it coming. But Mercedes gave it quite a good shot, only to be welcomed by the hordes of backward thinking EU car ‘journalists’ who don’t like the design of Benz’ EVs.
I’ve said it before and will saying again, EU manufacturers have 3 years to turn things around, or they will become another British Leyland. Stellantis is already there with their 15 different brands of the same Peugeot.
Crazy how the status quo lasts for decades and then upends in just a few short years. I remember how not so long ago Chinese car brands were a laughing stock and deemed just as inferior copycats at best, while the Germans were the undisputed leaders in quality and innovation.
Can somebody answer one simple question – why europeans are so naive?
Love these. What’s not mentioned in the title is that the article is exclusively talking about the Chinese market but classic Redditors arent gonna click an article, are they?
Its a paywall article so i couldn’t quite read whats in this but its no surprise that China is heavily pushing their own car industry within their own borders. ICEs are very very complicated things and even with Chinese companies having some insight into German engines, they were ultimately never even close to competing in that regard. EVs are far simpler and China happens to also be the biggest manufacturer of battery packs which is a huge inherent advantage.
But whats more puzzling is that recent VW numbers in China were actually decent as they have increased sales year to year in China. BMW is selling incredibly well right now, idk their China numbers but in Europe BMWs EVs are selling really well.
Renault and PSA aren’t.
Can you guys ship it to Southeast Asia and sell it to us with discount? Thanks, love from Southeast Asia 🫡
Can someone post the article content?
We done f’d up..
We will see big european brands close for good within 5-10 years. Europe could be a grave yard of old car manufacturers.
Doesnt China subsidize its car industry heavily as it did with Solar?
It seems to be really difficult making cheap, good looking EVs. Imagine a retro looking, affordable Mercedes or BMW EV (think Hyundai 74 EV). Even people not fully onboard the EV train would buy those (including me).
It’s funny how no one in comments actually read the article
Europe subsidise on the consumer side when purchasing any EV. China subsidise the manufacturing of their own EVs. This means European cars are not subsidised in China and chinese cars are double subsidised in Europe.
Yes, European car brands have been sleeping, they were basically making money doing nothing. But these anti-competitive practises by china don’t help. They could’ve subsidised on the consumer side too like the rest of the world, but they don’t care about playing a fair game. The exact same thing happened with solar panels, let that be a lesson to Europe!
Lets not forget that this is by design of our economic system. Our system does not reward long term strategy. It only cares about short term investments. Investors can change horses any time. So why bother working on long term projects at all?
Also, the same investors that earned money by investing into European industries can pivot to betting against it, when the time comes and still make money out of it.
I run a company fighting chinese and indian competitors every day: 25 years ago china was subsidizing exports dolar for dolar and paying for all the shipping fees. They were seling for just about half the cost of productiin and making profit. West did nothing except accusing their own bussines of lazyness.