ZIt’s worked twice, will it work a third time? The Japanese manufacturers have long since established themselves in Europe, and the Korean manufacturers who followed later succeeded in doing so even more quickly. And now the Chinese are coming. Some exhibit in Munich, but by no means all. And MG, the most successful brand in Germany with almost 10,000 new registrations in the first half of 2023, can only be seen at the trade fair grounds in Riem, i.e. not for average consumers. The same applies to the newcomers Dongfeng and Leapmotor.
In contrast, BYD, often called Build Your Dreams, has an appearance at Odeonsplatz near VW and Opel. In addition, the Chinese, who have just overtaken VW in terms of sales in their home market, are presenting their luxury brand Denza in the form of a huge MPV. Xpeng – which works with VW – can also be seen by everyone, on Königsplatz together with their compatriots from AVATR.
In Munich, there are some missing that are already active in Germany and sell cars, apart from BYD. But neither Aiways, GWM with the Ora brand nor Nio are still struggling. Their sales figures are negligible. Lynk & Co is also missing; after all, they sold almost 1,700 cars in the first six months of the year. Polestar has a good 3158, but with its headquarters in Gothenburg it is more of a European brand, although the cars are built in China.
The same applies to the newly positioned Smart brand. Here, as with Volvo, Lynk and Polestar, the Chinese Geely group has the say, with a small majority of 51 percent in the new joint venture with Mercedes-Benz. Smart has a stand on Ludwigstrasse and just over 2,000 new #1s have been sold so far. This is a respectable success. It remains to be seen whether the realigned brand has enough flexibility to sell larger vehicles. The #3 feels in Munich. In the big driving report, #1 has already shown what it can do.
As with all Chinese electric cars that the editorial team has driven so far, there was little negative to report. The quality seems solid, the range is acceptable, but the cars are by no means special offers. A Nio costs 90,000 euros. A cheap electric small car is still missing.
There is no question that China is important as the largest automobile market in the world. But why did BMW boss Oliver Zipse have to tell an audience at the Shanghai motor show in April that BMW’s heart beats in China? A little more self-confidence can hardly hurt. Customers want to be convinced by good products. China is of course a difficult topic. Multi-brand boss Carlos Tavares from Stellantis repeatedly expresses his discomfort with the unequal distribution of market power, as local corporations could act differently than Western ones if guided by politics. One can see it as an achievement that the West openly allows competition. Or as naive. There will still be some debate about this. The political conditions are different, but it also sounds a bit like it did when the Japanese and Koreans came with their offers.
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