There’s no denying that Chinese language vehicles might be polarising.
The common particular person doesn’t actually care the place their automotive is coming from, although, and with non-Chinese language manufacturers like Tesla, Mini, BMW, Volvo and others already making and delivering vehicles to our market from China, the thought of a Chinese language automotive is definitely reasonably blurry.
Nonetheless, there are many precise Chinese language manufacturers like MG, GWM and Chery which are already working in Australia and there are various extra (Zeekr, Aion and so on) which are set to launch within the close to future.
The onslaught of Chinese language manufacturers in our market has solely simply began, and spending final week on the Beijing motor present made us realise simply how way more there’s to return and, extra importantly, why it would come.
It was the very first motorshow now we have attended the place referring to ourselves as Automotive Specialists most likely didn’t apply. So many manufacturers, so many vehicles… like a child in a sweet retailer not figuring out what most of it was.
From four-door sedans with scissor doorways, an virtually limitless variety of SUVs in differing sizes wanting like G-Wagens and Defenders to countless hypercar-looking EVs that blended the easiest of their donor’s designs, the Chinese language carmakers had been out in power to showcase what that they had constructed and what that they had coming.
To say that right here in Australia, now we have a superb grasp of what’s out there in China when it comes to automotive choices can be laughable.
There’s genuinely a automotive for everybody, and with the fast takeover of electrical vehicles, the capability to take the identical battery and motor setup and put it in as many physique varieties and types has created a fast-paced tradition that ought to scare the hell out of the remainder of the automotive manufacturing world.
Whereas the Europeans and particularly the Japanese have struggled to adapt to the altering world of electrification on the identical charge because the Chinese language, this motion is a lot extra than simply EVs.
Virtually each Chinese language automotive we jumped in had extra screens than any Japanese automotive on sale in the present day, typically utilizing tremendous responsive Android software program that felt like the most recent smartphone reasonably than the antiquated methods you’d discover in most Japanese vehicles. The match and end of the interiors was additionally an enormous step up from what we’re used to right here in the present day.
The final time we attended the Beijing motor present was earlier than COVID, and the speed of change has been marked because the Chinese language have employed international engineers, manufacturing managers and designers – MG, for instance, not too long ago appointed the man who penned the Bugatti Veyron as a designer.
Now I do know you’re pondering, “However the high quality is crap!” It’s actually not. This may occasionally have had some reality a decade and even 5 years in the past, nevertheless it’s categorically not the case now.
We sat in over 50 completely different vehicles and pushed and prodded as many issues as we may and tried to scratch beneath the floor.
We additionally did the identical to the non-Chinese language manufacturers on the present and naturally, you may’t choose high quality, reliability and sturdiness primarily based on sitting in a automotive, however in an apples-to-apples comparability, the Chinese language vehicles critically stacked up. Generally, they had been really nicer to be in.
It’s a genuinely scary thought what has occurred in that market and the way shortly it has all come about.
Given the lengthy guarantee durations manufacturers like GWM, MG and Chery have in Australia (seven-year, unlimited-kilometre warranties for all), there isn’t any query the carmakers again their merchandise as properly.
However why Australia? Why has our market develop into the Chinese language battleground for thus many rising carmakers? The explanations are fairly easy when put into context. Australia is the closest and best Western marketplace for Chinese language manufacturers to check their merchandise.
Going to Europe requires billions of funding, and North America is even worse. As for Australia, a model can arrange an inexpensive chain of dealerships in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, and Adelaide and canopy nearly all of the inhabitants comparatively shortly.
This enables Chinese language manufacturers to check market acceptance earlier than they make investments considerably extra and enter a lot bigger Western markets.
This definitely was the case with MG, with the model having come right here, confirmed itself to be very profitable, then ventured into markets in Europe and past.
Rewind 10 years to 2014 and solely 4154 Chinese language-made vehicles had been offered in Australia. Final 12 months, 193,433 reached Australian patrons, and they’re solely getting began.