Shanghai motor show proves China is winning

Over 150 brands, greater than 30,000,000 recent cars sold annually, and a deal with fast development proves China means business.

The People’s Republic is an industrial behemoth – a rolling stone that has no intention of slowing down. They construct cities that house more people than the population of Australia in an area half the scale of Greater Sydney. They’ll slap up roads and towers and tunnels within the time it takes our government to approve pre-planning for a roundabout.

So it should come as no surprise that their automobile industry is well essentially the most powerful on the planet, with more annual sales than Europe and the USA combined.

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I used to be oblivious to any of this as I enjoyed some Easter chocolate. Little did I understand how wide my eyes were about to open.

Easter Monday, Paul and I boarded a flight to Shanghai as guests of GWM Australia. The plan was to spend two days on the motor show, film just a few videos and undertake the primary ever CarExpert live cross, beaming into Sunrise live from Shanghai.

The very first thing we noticed was the variation in cars.

GWM, BYD, Haval, Zeekr, Chery – they were just those we recognised. There have been dozens of cars we were googling on the drive from the airport to the hotel. Surprisingly, the German marques were few and much between. The truth is, I feel I saw more Cadillacs and Buicks than I did Mercedes.

But arriving on the motor show was what really blew us away. I’ve been to SEMA in Las Vegas, which might be the largest auto show I’ve seen.

This put SEMA to shame. Designed to appear like a four-leaf clover from above, the National Exhibition and Convention Centre Shanghai features 13 giant halls, each around 30,000 square meters – that’s about three rugby fields each. And the motor show filled nine of them.

There have been brands you’ve never heard of, brands you’ll hear about soon, and types which might be well established world wide.

GWM was an enormous player on the show, taking on half a hall just with their displays, covering the whole lot from the little Ora Good Cat right as much as the large Tank 700 – and a twin-turbo V8 drivetrain.

BYD also had an enormous stand, together with the likes of Nio (the electrical vehicle brand and battery-swapping company) and Chery. All of which dominated the halls they were in with their various sub-brands.

And the cars. All the pieces you possibly can consider was there. Tiny econo-boxes, EV off-roaders, even “flying cars” – I say it like that because they’re really just glorified drones with wheels on them.

Here in Australia, many wish to think that Chinese cars are crude and rushed, slapped together in a shack by individuals who don’t know what they’re doing. I’m here to inform you, you couldn’t be farther from the reality.

Yes, China’s development cycle is accelerated in comparison with legacy automakers and yes, they keep throwing recent models on the market.

But they aren’t messing about. They’ve filled their ranks with personnel from a few of the largest and most trusted brands world wide. They’ve sent their engineers to a few of the most effective schools on the planet they usually are putting huge amounts of energy into market research to make sure the vehicles they produce live as much as the expectations of shoppers.

Trust me, if you should do anything in China it takes 27 phone calls and a protracted list of individuals to log out on it. These cars aren’t just getting slapped together willy-nilly. They’re meticulously planned and built to a typical – even when that standard is different to what the great folks at Holden had.

China is in the midst of playing catch-up with legacy brands which have over 100 years of experience behind them. They’ve done all this previously 30 years, and now they make SUVs that produce 900Nm of torque and are as luxurious as a premium Euro-brand for a fraction of the worth.

China is coming, I’ll probably buy considered one of their cars within the very near future – the iCar pickup could be very tempting to park next to my future Ford Ranger Super Duty.

If you should hate on them, or throw shade or simply make loud exclamations with no real backup to your logic then please, go right ahead. That only emboldens them to push harder.

If you happen to don’t wish to buy a Chinese-built automobile, there’s nothing mistaken with that. But what they’re doing is providing vehicles that lower the barrier to entry for brand spanking new automobile buyers. That may only be a superb thing.

So, I assume in that sense, China has won.