Chinese cars

subjecttocontract

One of the biggest problems is that they don't have a Mercedes, BMW or Audi badge on Chinese cars which would rule them out for me.

molerat

henry24 said:

One of those started selling cars in the UK 2 years ago and the other 2 only started this year so I'd still give them a miss 

The world market is bigger than just the UK.  People said the same about Datsun in the late 60s/70s, look where they are now.  The European car manufacturers have been caught napping and are now paying the price of their failure to offer a competitive alternative to the Chinese.

henry24

If you're saying that people buy Datsun after 65 years then maybe that's when I'll buy a Chinese EV

Ectophile

subjecttocontract said:

One of the biggest problems is that they don't have a Mercedes, BMW or Audi badge on Chinese cars which would rule them out for me.

To me, that's a good reason to buy them.

Iceweasel

BMW build cars in Shengyang, China for export to UK and the EU.

born_again

molerat said:

henry24 said:

One of those started selling cars in the UK 2 years ago and the other 2 only started this year so I'd still give them a miss 

The world market is bigger than just the UK.  People said the same about Datsun in the late 60s/70s, look where they are now.  The European car manufacturers have been caught napping and are now paying the price of their failure to offer a competitive alternative to the Chinese.

European manufactures have been working in partnership with Chinese companies for a long time. European manufactures have been selling in China for decades. Chinese have stopped buying Euro cars & switched to cheaper & better cars made by home companies.
They have now taken the next stap & used that knowledge to Euro companies at their own game.

Goudy

molerat said:

henry24 said:

One of those started selling cars in the UK 2 years ago and the other 2 only started this year so I'd still give them a miss 

The world market is bigger than just the UK.  People said the same about Datsun in the late 60s/70s, look where they are now.  The European car manufacturers have been caught napping and are now paying the price of their failure to offer a competitive alternative to the Chinese.

The west in general have been caught without vital materials.

China has the 4th largest deposits of lithium but have also been buying mines in places like Australia. It has a 51% stake in Greenbushes, the worlds largest lithium mine which is situated in south west Australia.

BYD was actually started as a battery manufacturer and are now the worlds second largest electric vehicle battery producer.

CATL, the biggest also have control over rare earth materials for battery production, including stakes in Greenbushes.
CATL have tie ups with BMW, Toyota, VW, Ford, Honda, Tesla, Stellantis, the US military and so on.

BYD on the other hand tend to supply it's self, some other Chinese manufacturers and recently started to sell batteries to the likes of Tesla, Toyota, Kia and Ford.

So chances are, your European manufacturer is fitting Chinese batteries and as they buy them in, they just aren't as cost effective as a Chinese company fitting their own batteries to their own cars.

Arunmor

This might be an apocryphal warning.  It's dog eat dog in Chinese auto manufacturers at the moment.

MouldyOldDough

subjecttocontract said:

One of the biggest problems is that they don't have a Mercedes, BMW or Audi badge on Chinese cars which would rule them out for me.

How about a Rolls Royce ?

Batsandstats

One company selling EVs here went bust almost as soon as stock arrived but the cars are selling very well at half price....