Electric car: What if we had overvalued the Chinese threat?
In full transition to electric cars and always more connected, the automotive industry must also face new entrants. In recent years, Chinese manufacturers have mainly set sail for Europe, at a time when the sector is in crisis. However, will we all drive in byd, Xpeng and Xiaomi in the future? Nothing is less certain, because the European market is not entirely available to Chinese brands.
A Chinese industry that kicks the anthill
Chinese manufacturers have taken a considerable lead in the transitions currently experienced by the automotive industry, with young companies and a domestic market very inclined to the electric car. The value chain of the latter is largely located in China, even for Western models, many components of which are sourced in the Middle Empire. As a result, Chinese manufacturers are often the latest technological advances in the electric car, especially in battery.
Chinese manufacturers have also been forced to redouble their innovation in order to deal with foreign brands on their own market. Indeed, Chinese customers have long considered their national manufacturers as reserved for the entry -level, the easiest favorite favoring imported cars. However, local brands have now succeeded in improving their perceived value and competing with Western manufacturers, in particular via a technological escalation that appeals to new generations, which are the engine of consumption in China, while the average buyer of a new vehicle in Europe is increasingly aged.
Now strong on their national market, Chinese manufacturers are trying to find their place internationally. This is already the case in Russia, especially since the withdrawal of Western manufacturers, or even in South America, mainly with thermal models at aggressive prices. But Chinese electric cars are also a force for their international manufacturers, as in Southeast Asia, since the Japanese groups, which have a quasi-monopoly in this region of the world, have missed the train of the electric car which kindly occupies a growing market share.
In Europe, it is also above all with their electric cars that Chinese brands are trying to find a place. Traditional manufacturers logically fear this massive arrival of models that Chinese brands are able to put on the market in record time, sometimes in less than two years.
A technological advance not as important as it seems
After trying electric cars from the main Chinese manufacturers who are currently attacking Europe, it is clear that, if the fear of traditional manufacturers is justified, they should not be burying too quickly.
Chinese manufacturers may be adept at videos of spectacular technical demonstrations, the models they sell in Europe are not always so impressive. Often again, they are marketed with us for several months, even years, after their launch in China, which can be worth a technological and stylistic delay.
The embedded technology of the Chinese models that we had the opportunity to try did not really impress us. THE Xpeng G6for example, which is one of the most modern Chinese cars for sale in Europe, is content to copy Tesla on many aspects, without offering such a successful experience. The central screen of the latest byd and Leapmotor looks like a large Android tablet, with a heavy overlay, and does not offer modernity and simplicity of use of the screen under Android Automotive OS simple Renault 5 e-techFor example.
Finally, if Chinese manufacturers are playing overbidding in charge of load power, they are not the kings of efficiency. Consumption is considered to be very important in Europe, since it influences gross autonomy, the autonomy returned to a minute of load and electricity costs. In China, it is probably a less important criterion, if we believe the very relative efficiency of the models that we have been able to try, far from Tesla, which remains the reference in the matter. European brands are therefore not completely overwhelmed by the Chinese.
A good car in China is not necessarily a good car in Europe
During our various tests, we appreciated the level of equipment and the interiors neat from most Chinese cars, which are important expectations on their national market. But precisely, the Chinese market has little to do with the European market, and the models having been developed with China in mind are therefore not always adapted to European expectations.
For example, road behavior adapted to the Chinese market induces very flexible suspensions, favoring comfort, including on degraded roads, but penalizing dynamic behavior, dear to European customers. THE Byd Sealion 7 This is therefore very disappointing on this point, with an easily default handling, to the point where it is difficult to believe that it is produced by the largest manufacturer of electric cars and hybrid rechargeable in the world. Reviewing the chassis settings of Chinese cars on the European market then seems essential, as very well stellantis with the Leapmotor brand, but Chinese manufacturers still have a low knowledge of the European market and it is therefore not so simple for them to aim fair.
Another example, the energy recovery at the foot rise of the Xpeng G6 is cut at 1 km/h, not allowing to go as far as stopping without touching the brake pedal, when it is precisely a expectation of European customers. Let us also mention very interventionist driving aids, which appeal to China but much less in Europe. Elements that would only require simple software updates to be corrected, but which are generally not. The same goes for the translation enormities of which none of the Chinese cars that we tried spared us.
In addition, in China, the perception of value of a car is for many of its dimensions. The wealthiest customers favor larger models and the most compact Chinese cars are therefore often entry -level models. In Europe, these compact and city dwellers are the heart of the market and Chinese brands are therefore not always very well armed to tackle it.
To best meet the expectations of the European market, Chinese manufacturers will therefore have to develop models dedicated to it, but this has a cost.
Not so interesting prices and blurred strategies
Finally, the main argument of Chinese cars is their price. However, once imported in Europe, they sometimes return to prices close to those of competition, or even more expensive. Indeed, electric cars produced in China are now subject to compensatory customs duties established by the EU, aimed at countering subsidies from the Chinese government. Due to the environmental impact of their production, these models are not eligible for ecological bonus in France either. Chinese manufacturers are therefore investing in producing some of their models in Europe, in order to avoid EU sanctions, but again, this has an impact on production costs.
And that's not all, arriving in Europe, Chinese manufacturers have other costs that increase the note. For example, the commissions they grant to their distribution network are more important than traditional manufacturers, because many of them want to find a partner, while there are less and less and fewer distribution players in France.
Behind a blurred cost structure, Chinese manufacturers sometimes manage to offer models well below the rates of the competition, but this is not a generality. Contrary to what one might think, breaking the market does not seem to be the strategy of all Chinese brands. Byd thus seems to want to highlight the technology of its cars more than their prices, to the point of selling its sealion 7 more expensive in France than a Tesla Model Y, against 30 % cheaper in China. However, the services of Sealion 7 are well below those of Model Y.
In general, the many Chinese brands that arrive in Europe do not yet seem to have found which niche occupy. For most, they have improntable names and illegible ranges, which do not allow them to differentiate themselves from each other in the eyes of the uninitiated. It is not for nothing that MG is doing better than its fellows in France, with a name already known and easy to memorize, although customers are aware that there is almost no link between the MG of the old world and the current brand under Chinese fold.
Will your next car be Chinese?
China has certainly become the nerve center of the automotive industry and the first car exporter since 2023. The importance of the country in the value chain of electric cars is considerable and Western manufacturers will have to agree to play with these rebatted cards. Precisely, this is already their case. Renault is currently developing its next electric Twingo in the Middle Empire, Stellantis exports Leapmotor cars outside of China, and you have to expect many other bridges between Western and Chinese manufacturers in the years to come.
Your next car will therefore certainly be more Chinese than the previous one was, without necessarily being signed by a brand of the Empire in the middle. Some Chinese brands will undoubtedly be made a place on the European market, but that is not to say that there will be a place for each of them.
