I think you're right. The main reason this will happen is China government invested 60 billion dollars into EV battery tech, the funds were managed by smart engineers with industry experience and now Chinese companies have the best and cheapest EV batteries. On the other hand US, EU, UK had far more money in their innovation funds, but they were and are being mis-managed.
Chinese cars
- Thread starter SkyTerran
- Start date
Just because Amazon is full of cheap tat made in China doesn't mean they aren't capable of making high quality goods. As pointed out, just as many premium high quality goods are made there. Their manufacturing capabilities are way ahead of most countries.....and we're continuing to ensure our universities primarily educate Chinese students who take the knowledge back with them.
Most of the very high quality gear I use to keep myself alive in extreme conditions in the mountains is Chinese made.
Exactly. I don't think it's as black and white as to talk simply about 'Chinese cars'. As far as I can see it there are 4 distinct camps, well 3 but I split the last one into two. I've listed them in my own preference of whether I'd have one (high to low).
Western car brands who do a proportion of their manufacturing in China. Eg. Tesla
Chinese owned brands targeted at the western market. Eg. Polestar
Chinese domestic brands. Eg. BYD
Chinese state owned companies or subsidiaries of. Eg. MG.
With the level of state subsidies you could say that there is very little splitting the last two.
I've got lots of Chinese branded stuff, I'm typing this on a Redmi phone for example, but I accept a certain amount of what I refer to as Chineseness with these products. I'm not sure I'm ready to introduce that into my daily commute.
Then again after hearing a colleague, totally straight faced, tell me about how the UI on his Tesla was lagging so much that he inadvertently activated the more cowbells Easter egg and turned his dashboard into a rainbow for the rest of his journey... I'm not sure I'm ready for many modern cars!
I think the activation for that is selecting drive 5 times in quick succession, it’s pretty hard to accidentally activate.
You can turn it off, I just can’t remember how, probably in the toy box menu. Doing the same thing again starts it over and the song gets pretty annoying after a few minutes
Next time tell him to use the voice command and say ‘ho ho ho’ to turn it off. It activates the slightly less annoying Santa mode, your car becomes santas slay on the UI, your indicator clicks are changed into jingle bells and a Christmas song plays
You can turn it off, I just can’t remember how, probably in the toy box menu. Doing the same thing again starts it over and the song gets pretty annoying after a few minutes
Next time tell him to use the voice command and say ‘ho ho ho’ to turn it off. It activates the slightly less annoying Santa mode, your car becomes santas slay on the UI, your indicator clicks are changed into jingle bells and a Christmas song plays
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Or apparently (as many articles shown earlier in this thread have shown), rather poor build quality and QC.
And you’ve never seen QC issues on a car built in the U.K. or EU or America right?
It’s really easy to find outliers when you go looking for them.
Soldato
- Joined
- 23 May 2006
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as opposed to European and American build quality?. plenty of crap from there too.
Chinese cars are just like everything else. there is a whole range of quality you can get good or bad.
just like a lot of quality stuff comes from there but so does all that plastic Poundland crap. but who is at fault there.... them for making it or us for buying it?
edit .. ninja'd
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Indeed much like the phones mentioned earlier the software is sub par, I have the high end Honor Magic V2 along with numerous Xiaomi phones, they do the job but they're no Samsung or Apple, which is a shame as the HMV2 is an amazing bit of hardware but if some improvements don't come soon in the software, it'll be back to a Samsung Fold.
Of course not many EV makers are knocking the software out of the park when it comes to what they claim to do and what they actually achieve, Software it seems, is hard.
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I know I'm old beyond my years when it comes to stuff like this but.... Come on. This is a £75k (IIRC) car we are talking about here. Not a video game.Next time tell him to use the voice command and say ‘ho ho ho’ to turn it off. It activates the slightly less annoying Santa mode, your car becomes santas slay on the UI, your indicator clicks are changed into jingle bells and a Christmas song plays
I remember him saying that everything froze up and there may have been a bit of a frustrated button mash going on. Neither the cause or effect really scream £75k motor vehicle though.
The argument that China can make some high quality kit if they choose to isn't in question to me. The question I have is are we going to buy, for example, a VW rivalling car from a Chinese company for VW money? Or are we going to buy whatever they can knock out cheap?
BYDs success (or not) will probably tell us the answer to an extent as they don't seem particularly cheap.
Just wait until he finds the fart mode and the external loud speaker.
P.S. How did he manage to spend £75k on a Tesla? A Model Y with every option ticked including £6,800 ‘FSD’ which nobody should in their right mind spend money on is not £75k.
Edit: I guess a used Model S/X would have been £75k at some point.
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Bad software isn't great when the whole car is being controlled by it.
Also the low quality Chinese steel probably isn't going to help longevity either...
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It was a brand new Model S back in 2018. £75k might be my memory playing tricks, could have been more or less than that.
Some tool that lives opposite the in laws managed to scare the **** out of me when, in the pitch black dark in a deathly silent village from right behind me shouts "I'll BE BACK".
Obviously my brain only took a second or so to process that it wasn't a robot from the future come to save us from ourselves but in fact it was some joker locking his Model 3
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Those are all known brands though with a presence over here. The country of manufacture has always been kind of irrelevant compared to the origin of the brand. Just ask all those people who 'buy Japanese because they are reliable' rolling around in their UK built Corrolas.
I'll await people spending money on an Xpeng when a comparable car is available from an existing brand for a price tag in the same ball park. I won't hold my breath for now though.
It was a brand new Model S back in 2018. £75k might be my memory playing tricks, could have been more or less than that.
Some tool that lives opposite the in laws managed to scare the **** out of me when, in the pitch black dark in a deathly silent village from right behind me shouts "I'll BE BACK".
Obviously my brain only took a second or so to process that it wasn't a robot from the future come to save us from ourselves but in fact it was some joker locking his Model 3
That makes more sense, the older Model S/X don’t have the same level of polish as the Model 3/Y and they were very expensive for what they were. Not bad for a first attempt at a ‘proper’ car mind.
It’s normal for yank cars to have a honk on lock setting but Tesla being Tesla, they added custom locks sounds recently using the pedestrian warning speaker.
If you look at iphone manufacture apple is exiting china and is trying to move manufacture elsewhere,
combination of avoiding sending chips there, and using more friendly countries
as soon as the west has resolved the battery material supply, cars will follow; I can well see a stigma becoming associated with chinese manufactured goods.
(even if India where apple is moving some supply is takng russian oil, too)
patriotism for home brands (maybe it's completely massive in the flesh)
combination of avoiding sending chips there, and using more friendly countries
as soon as the west has resolved the battery material supply, cars will follow; I can well see a stigma becoming associated with chinese manufactured goods.
(even if India where apple is moving some supply is takng russian oil, too)
patriotism for home brands (maybe it's completely massive in the flesh)
There is definitely growing chatter about China from the government and media.
I wouldn't bet my house on there being a stigma attached to Chinese products but likewise I wouldn't be surprised if we have a period where that becomes a thing. Whether that would ever build enough momentum to go beyond Chinese brands to cover products made in China under the banner of another manufacturer I'm not so sure.
Personally, as it stands today, I wouldn't buy an MG because of it's ownership but they are selling like hot cakes so I'm obviously in a minority.