Chinese cars

Goudy

MouldyOldDough said:

BYD, Jaecoo, Omoda, Leapmotor, Chery etc ... appear to be suddenly everywhere in adverts - are they OK and what's the downside of buying one ?

These are all Chinese companies that are now known in Europe mainly for their EV's.
There will be more we'll hear of in the near future.

China is ahead of the game regarding EV production.
They have all the resources and are well on top with regards to battery production.
Lots of companies are government backed (if not the car company themselves, most of their parts suppliers are).

The Chinese are also ahead with their charging infrastructure, which has helped grow their domestic market to a point where pretty much 50% of car sales in China is EV and that figure is growing fast. (give it a minute and it'll be 52%)

These things means these companies scale of production, along with some other factors like wages tend to allow them to make these models far cheaper than the companies that we consider to be established car manufacturers.

The models for their and our market may appear similar but they have had to be adapted in various ways for our market which tend to push the prices up a little compared to the domestic market models.

So are far as if they are OK, well they tend to be leading in battery production and the electric motor has been around over 200 years and has been pretty much well developed with few moving parts.

As for the rest of the car, who knows.
Most do appear "cheap" when you look around them but seem to be packed with tech and any problems are likely be down to the dealer to sort.
As already mentioned, the dealer network is patchy at the moment for some brands and that could be problematic for some.

It's likely production of these vehicles will soon creep out of China as tariffs and trade negotiations spoil their efforts to import them direct from China. So I think most of these companies will be based in places like eastern European, north Africa and Turkey before too long. Or in other words where our cars are built now.

There is a possibility in the near future we'll think of Chinese EV's as we think of Japanese cars at the moment. 

paul_c123

Watch this video to give a great insight into BYD in the UK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBbiCrsk7RM

WellKnownSid

Goudy said:

As for the rest of the car, who knows.
Most do appear "cheap" when you look around them but seem to be packed with tech and any problems are likely be down to the dealer to sort.

I saw a review of the new 2026 BMW ix3 the other day.  The conclusion reached was that the interior - especially switchgear - was "now as good as the Chinese" which is telling.

A lot of the components use in all of our cars are now manufactured in China now - we just don't have the capability in the Western world.  I think it was Apple's CEO Tim Cook who said something like "We work with very advanced materials and need state of the art tooling for our products.  If I want to pull together the best machine tool specialists, in China I could fill several football stadiums, but in the US you'd be lucky if you could fill a room".

On EVs, e.g. on the longevity and safety of batteries, China is setting standards way above those in the EU and US.  https://leva-eu.com/china-introduces-worlds-first-ev-battery-safety-law-requiring-fire-prevention/

ButterCheese

My experience comes from Motorbikes but I would say it's a similar issue with cars.  The machines themselves are ok in terms of engine, gearbox and drivetrain.  Everything else is just your usual lower quality, less posh but perfectly useable kit.  Any metal components will probably be of a lower quality and/or thinner so will be more prone to rust if you don't take care of them.  But all of that can be managed by regular cleaning, servicing, lubrication etc.

The key downfall with chinese or lesser known motorbikes, even today, is that few garages will even work on them.  They are scared that if they perform a service or MOT or repair, a part will need replacing, they can't order or even find the correct part online, there is no local dealer to contact/order from.  So they either have to contact the customer and say "we can't fit a new oil filter because we can't find one that fits", or "we'll get back to you in 8-12 weeks when we've scoured the internet and shipped the part directly from China, checked it works, and then added the extra hours it's taken us to your invoice". 

Goudy

paul_c123 said:

Watch this video to give a great insight into BYD in the UK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBbiCrsk7RM

That's nothing new or in fact Chinese specific.

Tesla tried and failed to sue the BBC, then appealed and failed because of a Clarkson review of their Roadster on Topgear.

The thing went on for years.
The case lasted as long as BYD have been selling cars and long before the other Chinese companies dreamed of building cars.

I know a retired motoring journalist, motorcycles rather than car but it's been this way for years.
It was sort of implied at the beginning. You were kind to them, they were kind to you.

You had to put up with wet Wednesdays mornings in a Milton Keys car park to review a rehashed old hack with a new seat and a different colour option.
Then if you wrote good flannel about it, they flew you out to the South of France for an all expenses paid visit to review their new high end models.

These days if they write or say something bad about a product, the company sues.

born_again

Daughter has a BYD. Great car, good value for money. One of the worlds biggest manufactures of cars.

Someone mentioned Genesis. They are Korean & the upmarket part of the Hyundai/kia group. 

Many Chinese brands have tie-in with other manufactures (stellantis to name one) Volvo/Polestar is owned by Geely since 2010 who are Chinese.

henry24

I don't understand why anyone would buy a new car from a Chinese company that 12 months ago didn't exist wait 5 or more years and see if they are still in business 

prowla

MyRealNameToo said:

prowla said:

BYD and Genesis have outlets in the Westfield shopping centre (West London), if that's anywhere near you.

They may do elsewhere too.

Genesis is Hyundai so Korean not Chinese?

BYD have lots of show rooms https://www.byd.com/uk/find-store 
Most the others listed have decent coverage now too https://www.leapmotor.net/uk/dealer ; https://jaecoo.co.uk/find-a-dealer ; https://omodaauto.co.uk/findadealer/ etc

Thanks: yes, Hyundai.

I guess I just mentally conflate them into the group of new Far-Eastern manufacturer brands which have recently appeared on the UK market.
But I do distinguish Korean brands from FE in other contexts, so should do here too.

born_again

henry24 said:

I don't understand why anyone would buy a new car from a Chinese company that 12 months ago didn't exist wait 5 or more years and see if they are still in business 

Have you seen how long the companies mentioned have been trading?

Guess not.🤷‍♀️

BYD 2002
Chery 1997 Jaecoo & Omoda part of same group
Leapmotor 2015