More than 150 brands, more than 30,000,000 new cars are sold every year, and a focus on rapid development proves that China means things.
The People’s Republic is an industrial colossus – a rolling stone that does not intend to slow down. They build cities that accommodate more people than the population of Australia in an area of half of the size of Greater Sydney. They can take roads and towers and tunnels in the time that it takes our government to approve pre-planning for a roundabout.
So it should not be a surprise that their car industry is easily the most powerful on the planet, with more annual turnover than Europe and the US together.
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I was not aware of all this when I enjoyed some Easter chocolate. I didn’t know how big my eyes were about to open.
Paasmaaddag went in a flight to Shanghai as guests of GWM Australia. The plan was to spend two days at the car show, to film a few videos and make the first ever Carexper Live Cross, live in sunrise from Shanghai.
The first thing we noticed was the variation in cars.
GWM, Byd, Haval, Zeekr, Chery – they were just the ones we recognized. There were dozens of cars that we googled on the ride from the airport to the hotel. Surprisingly, the German brands were little in between. I even think I have seen more Cadillacs and Buicks than Mercedes.
But arriving at the car show was what really blew us away. I went to SEMA in Las Vegas, which is probably the largest car show I have seen.
This brought Sema to shame. Designed to look like a four-leaf clover from above, the National Exhibition and Convention Center Shanghai has 13 giant halls, each around 30,000 square meters-that is each approximately three rugby fields. And the car show filled nine.
There were brands that you have never heard of, brands that you will hear soon, and brands that are well established all over the world.
GWM was a big player in the show and took half a hall only with their displays, which covered everything, from the Kleine Ora Good Cat to the massive tank 700 and a Twin-Turbo V8 drivers.
BYD also had a huge standard, together with people like NIO (the brand Electric Vehicle and Battery swapping company) and Chery. Who all dominated the corridors in which they were with their different sub -brands.
And the cars. Everything you can imagine was there. Small economic bins, EV Off-Readers, even “flying cars”-I say it because they are actually just glorified drones with wheels on it.
Here in Australia, many like to think that Chinese cars are rough and rushed, beaten together in a cabin by people who don’t know what they are doing. I am here to tell you, you could not be further of the truth.
Yes, the development cycle of China is accelerated compared to old car manufacturers and yes, they continue to throw new models.
But they don’t mess around. They have filled their ranks with staff of some of the largest and most trusted brands around the world. They have sent their engineers to some of the best schools in the world and they put enormous amounts of energy into market research to ensure that the vehicles they produce meet the expectations of customers.
Believe me, if you want to do something in China, there is 27 phone calls and a long list of people to draw. These cars are not just hit against each other. They are carefully planned and built according to a standard – even if that standard is different from what the good people had of Holden.
China plays in the middle of catching up with old brands that have more than 100 years of expertise. They have done all this in the last 30 years, and now they make SUVs that produce 900 Nm of torque and are just as luxurious as a premium euro brand for a fraction of the price.
China is coming, I will probably buy one of their cars in the very near future -the Icar -Pick -Up is very tempting to park in addition to my future super duty from Ford Ranger.
If you want to hate them, or throw them or just call out loudly without real backup for your logic, please continue. She only encourages that to push harder.
If you don’t want to buy a Chinese-built car, there’s nothing wrong with that. But what they do is offering vehicles that lower the accession threshold for new car buyers. That can only be a good thing.
So I think China has won in that sense.
