China has confirmed itself in this beginning of 2023 as the world’s largest exporter of vehicles with over 4.4 million cars sold abroad.
These data were published by the Canalys Research Institute.
Sales are driven by electric vehicles which already account for more than 30% of the total exported. The Canalys Institute predicts that by 2025 the penetration of Chinese cars (mostly electric) in the European market will reach 12.8%.
At the same time, rumors are being raised from all over the world that Western industry is lagging behind in the EV sector.
Bill Ford, president of Ford Motor recently told CNN that the Chinese are now the main competitors, not GM or Toyota, and that a policy of lower prices is needed to deal with the competition.
All the rulers and directors of the large multinational car companies are now chasing each other with these declarations, trying to stem the Chinese advance in the automotive world.
Yet 23 years ago, when I landed in China with my low-cost electric car project, which no one in Europe had wanted to support, almost ridiculing the efforts that had been made with our Torpedo Marbella to build an electric car for everyone, in China no one had ever considered this sector.
At that time the cars produced in Presezzo (BG) and Spino d’ Adda (CR) were still leaders in the European market in the electric car sector, a fact that was not interesting for our political, financial and industrial world, but which appeared to be very interesting to the Chinese companies to which I proposed the project.
The story of then I think is known to the readers of this article.
While in Europe and in Italy the cars produced in China were ridiculed and denigrated (remember the Chery QQ hammered by Beppe Grillo in his shows around Italy) those same companies with rigour and professionalism and also with important investments started the first generation of electric cars, which were already very competitive both in terms of prices and quality.
Certainly one could not expect a comedian to understand cars from an engineering point of view, but it appears much more serious that a manager of the caliber of Marchionne did even worse, demobilizing all the presences of the FIAT group in China to go and invest in an obsolete group like Chrysler.
Yet China was already growing enormously and Warren Buffet had shown great foresight at the time by purchasing 20% of BYD auto, a company that was investing heavily in the electrification sector in all its sectors from engines, controls, batteries up to to electronic chips.
While the FCA group withdrew from the main world market and abandoned the possibility of engaging with innovative trends, Elon Musk opened the Tesla plant in Shanghai, the largest in the world for the production of electric cars, sourcing all the components developed in China and especially batteries when buying from both CATL and BYD.
Now we are trying to take measures, but in fact, apart from Tesla, all car manufacturers are about ten years behind Chinese electric cars, and this GAP is further widening with the advent of autonomous driving, another great technological factor that Western automakers had largely underestimated.
If China will conquer markets in the automotive sector all over the world, this is only due to the fact that it believed in innovative technologies and developed them with vigor and intelligence, and giving those who brought innovative technologies the opportunity to develop them.
This intelligent policy has made China today, the most advanced country in the world in terms of advanced technologies. A country in which whoever has ideas and professionalism can develop them with the support of an imposing financial apparatus which is in turn supported by political foresight.
#MarcoLoglio #theEMNteam
Shenzhen, China
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