Posted on 07/03/2025 8:56:27 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
BYD, Chery and other Chinese car makers have reshaped global competition through their unprecedented agility. They have found ways to develop new models in less than half the time it takes their foreign rivals, helping to drive explosive growth.
SHENZHEN - In October 2023, Chinese automaker Chery ordered engineers and suppliers to travel on short notice to proving grounds in Zhaoyuan, Shandong Province.
Over a weekend, they planned an overhaul of the suspension and steering on the Chinese version of Chery’s Omoda 5 SUV for Europe, a key market in its global expansion. The problem: The car had been designed for China’s smooth streets and slower speeds. Now, it had to withstand Europe’s winding, bumpy roads.
Just six weeks later, Chery started shipping the European-spec Omoda 5 to dealers, complete with new steering, traction control, brakes, vibration dampers and tires.
“You can forget doing something that fast with a European automaker,” said Riccardo Tonelli, Chery’s senior vehicle-dynamics expert, who led the overhaul. “It’s impossible.”
Tonelli, who previously worked at an Italian carmaker and a Korean tire maker, estimated Western manufacturers would take well over a year to push similar improvements through their comparatively bureaucratic organizations.
Chery’s Omoda makeover exemplifies the disruptive speed and flexibility of Chinese automakers, which have seized control of their home market, the world’s largest, from once-dominant foreign competitors. Now, China’s rising auto giants are racing to expand globally, with Chery as the leading exporter. EV giant BYD, China’s largest automaker, poses a bigger long-term competitive threat, industry executives say.
China’s emerging automotive dominance owes largely to a singular manufacturing achievement – slashing vehicle-development time by more than half, to as little as 18 months for an all-new or redesigned model. The average age of a Chinese-brand electric or plug-in hybrid model on sale domestically is 1.6...
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Leave it to hemi-Reuters to cheerlead for a communist state.
I’m reading that price wars and bad financial management have left BYD all but bankrupt.
The other auto makers are not in much better shape.
Stealing intellectual property cuts down on development time.
Isn’t Chery the company that make a part for part compatible car to the Chevy Cobalt a few years ago?
I read this article and the first thing that comes to mind is....
Yugo.
Way less than half the time because all they have to do is copy existing models. The difference won’t be seen until you have had the car for a while. Yugo comes to mind.
It's the same story as Japan in the 70s and 80s, then Taiwan, SK, etc. In 2000 the US has 80% of the memory chip market. Now Samsung moved up to 80%. Why? Billions in SK subsidies to outcompete American manufacturers.
How does this happen? Because the US trades unfair access to its market for political reasons, like LBJ's deal with Japan to open US markets to Japanese consumer electronics while allowing Japan to close its markets to US goods in exchange for the US to use Japanese bases to support the Vietnam War. Within a decade, most US TV manufacturers were dead or dying.
Now US business execs do not know how to manufacture anything but only know sales and working with spreadsheets. Outsourcing first gives the biggest boost in profits, even if they transfer tech to a vicious foreign competitor in the vain hope of tapping the mythical "Chinese market" that no foreign firm will ever be allowed to dominate for long. Look at Tesla or Siemens in China. Plus just plain corruption of our politicians.
Does that mean the ones in China don't?
I think it was the Chevy Spark - but yes, the automotive press said the Chery vehicles “shared remarkable similarities in body structure, exterior and interior design, and components” with the GM car.
Revving the design frequently.
Good luck getting repair parts.
(Or they’re simply disposable.)
All the things that everyone forgot on our way to where we are now.
Anyone banking on EV’s becoming the next thing are going to be in a world of hurt.
At some point in the future maybe. But not until someone licks the random bursting into flame issue.
Actually, I mean now. And yes, that’s part of it. EV’s are on the backside of the popularity spike. As more and more people and their friends have actual long term experience with EV’s, popularity is waning. Their day came, and went.
They ignore the fact that the Chinese Government owns most of their auto industry. So if you buy a China made car you are buying it from the CCP.
Imagine my surprise when I checked the production sheet on a 2025 Nautilus rental, that the dealer let me us while my 2024 Corsair is being serviced, it said assembled in Hanseou, (not sure correct city) China. Sorry off topic, is there anything they haven’t touched.
I watched a video on YouTube that discussed what happened to GM. They basically did this to themselves by a series of bad decisions. They’re going out of business or will be stuck with selling rebranded Chinese cars. The problem is that, once again, the American taxpayers got screwed with a lot of help from Obama.
Disposable junk.
They don’t even try to achieve a quality product, and they don’t have post production QC.
Three years and throw it away.
I’m sure there is almost always a hidden flaw connected with a Chinese vehicle. They are clever folks & seem to be able to do certain things better than anyone else, but there always seems to be a “catch”. I guess that’s according to an old saying...”Nature always sides with the hidden flaw”. I have a few Chinese made tools (that I seldom use now as I’m retired)& they seem quite good for the money, but none are nearly as complicated as one of their automobiles..something I don’t intend to own for various reasons.
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