It’s the middle of the week and we’ve got Chinese cars going west, Tesla stores in China moving out, a big move by Canoo, and a good report from Bentley.
Welcome to The Morning Dump, bite-sized stories corralled into a single article for your morning perusal. If your morning coffee’s working a little too well, pull up a throne and have a gander at the best of the rest of yesterday.
Zeekr CEO Says Cars Are Coming To Europe Next Year
The headline above has some huge caveats, but the caveats themselves are super revealing:
- If you live or have traveled to China then you have probably driven a Chinese car.
- Both the Volvo S60 Inscription and Buick Envision were built in China and sold in the United States.
- Volvo and Polestar are owned by Chinese companies, but they aren’t marketed as explicitly Chinese brands.
- You could be Jason and own a Changli.
- You could travel to Europe and rent a Chinese car, likely a Lynk & Co. [Editor’s Note: I drove an Aiways U5 in Germany. -DT]
Otherwise, there are better than reasonable odds that you do not and have not owned or driven a Chinese car. Which Chinese car will be the first to mass market is an open question but Geely-owned Zeekr thinks it might be them.
Here are the two paragraphs on the company that stood out to me — from this Reuters report:
An Conghui, CEO of Zeekr and Geely president, told reporters at a roundtable on Tuesday in Wuzhen in Zhejiang province that Geely had created Zeekr with the aim of meeting standards in Europe and the United States from the outset.
An said Geely would market its 001 electric crossover in Europe next year. He did not give a sales target or discuss whether Zeekr would consider overseas production.
Note the “and the United States” there. It seems pretty obvious that Zeekr has its eyes on this market and all I can say is that I hope they bring the Zeekr 009 here as well.
Tesla Closes Its First Chinese Showroom
Tesla is still a popular brand in China that sells a lot of cars, but it’s also under direct competition from many other brands that are homegrown and cheaper. It’s therefore no surprise that Tesla is having to adjust to this new reality.
When the company launched in China it had flashy stores in big malls, but try dealing with service requests next to a Dan Ryan’s Chicago Grill.
Thus, Tesla is going to close the first showroom it had in a Beijing Shopping Mall.
Per an Automotive News story on the move:
Apple stores are great, but it’s much easier to service an iPhone than it is an entire car.
Canoo Is Going To Ooooooooooooklahoma
Sooner football is having a rough year, but there’s some good news for our Oklahoman friends, electric startup Canoo is coming to town. Specifically, Canoo will create a battery assembly plant in Pryor, Oklahoma as part of their big plans for their small EV van.
From a company press release:
The Battery Facility will be in proximity to Canoo’s MegaMicro Factory, a 400-acre campus at MidAmerica Industrial Park, a 9,000-acre industrial complex strategically located near some of the nation’s most highly traveled thoroughfares. When built, the MegaMicro Factory will include a full commercialization facility with a paint, body shop and general assembly plant. It will be a significant investment in the state and will employ more than 2,000 when fully operational.
MegaMicro Factory is a ridiculous name, but I like it.
Bentley Is UP UP UP In Q3
Bentleys are nice cars and if I were super wealthy I’d be inclined towards their more restrained approach to luxury, though if I had $300k to spend on a car I’d just buy 10 cars.
Actual super wealthy people do not think like me, and profits for Volkswagen-owned Bentley were at an all-time record in the third quarter of 2022. Specifically, the company had a 23% profit margin. By comparison, Ford hovers around 6%.
This is how luxury cars work. While there are some pieces of the car that are expensive to make, a lot of the parts that make it work are shared with parts of other cars (you don’t get a bespoke, Swarovski-studded windshield wiper fluid reservoir). The premium you pay is, to some extent, for having a Bentley.
In addition, the customization options on a Bentley are way higher than on a Volkswagen Golf and that adds up fast, which Bentley basically comes out and says in their press release:
Year-to-date sales were up 3 per cent to 11,316 luxury cars, while revenue increased from €1.949 billion in 2021, to €2.490 billion this year, a 28 per cent growth rate.
This was largely due to the popularity of new model derivatives and the personalisation options available through Bentley Mulliner, the oldest coachbuilder in the world.
They’re not alone, of course. The most premium luxury car in the world, in my opinion, is a Ford F-250 Platinum Tremor.
The Flush
Would you buy a Zeekr?
Zeekr. Put that in a maybe. I would want to see how the first year goes, drive it myself, see the cost.
Cannot say I would own a car that doesn’t exist yet in the US.
They could rip this off for the TV commercials:
https://youtu.be/UAbzlj3nf4E
They could rip tis off for the TV commercials:
https://youtu.be/UAbzlj3nf4E
Will I buy a Zeekr in the near future? No. Do I trust the Chinese car industry right now? No.
BUT, I think some people who say that we need to avoid Chinese products for whatever reason, don’t realize how much they already buy Chinese products. We hear this in the news all the time. Eg. China is our largest (1/2 trillion dollar) trading partner, blah, blah.
But, think about this: Nearly all of shoes, toys, clothing, electronic parts, microchips, plastic do-dads, and so forth are imported from China that is sold in ALL (including high priced stores). Not just Walmart or Dollar General.
Some say that “this is just small deal stuff not big ticket items. If it’s cheap, I can just buy another to replace. An expensive car is way different.”
Well, over 1/2 of all kitchen appliances are made in China. Refrigerators, stoves, microwaves, washing machines, etc. are big ticket items for most people. Most people aren’t either concerned about them having Chinese-quality-issues or have just accepted that that is the way it is now.
My point is that I don’t think that we can avoid or hide from the Chinese economic reality (cars included). I also don’t think we can reliably expect the US government (Democrat or Republican) to protect us (consumers and industry) from Chinese products. It is just too HUGE and growing. I am also dubious that US industry can protect us from Chinese products because they want to build/produce as profitably as possible too. Who really knows what “Made in America” really means anymore? Is it 5%, 25%, 75%, 100% made here? Nobody can be sure.
I believe that the answer is with the consumers. We buy stuff. We don’t really care who makes it but we want quality stuff that is affordable. If the stuff imported from China doesn’t meet our standards (via Trade industry groups, Consumer Reports, or other reliable consumer reviews), then don’t buy it. If the company we work for is buying crappy stuff from China and foisting it on unsuspecting Americans, then call them out too. Make the companies make better cars, phones, etc. because otherwise we won’t buy their stuff.
I will never drive a Chinese car.
How many components in your current car were manufactured in China before assembly wherever?
“Would you buy a Zeekr?”
Too early to say. I’d want to see a review on it by Consumer Reports and other publications… as well as some longer term ownership experiences.
My parents have a Chinese built car you didn’t mention, and I’ve driven it several times. It’s pretty rare in the US (only a few hundred over 2 model years), but I think there’s more of them in the US than the Changli. It’s the 2017 Cadillac CT6 PHEV. Only the PHEV was built in China. It’s oddly spec’d with only one configuration with the only options being paint color or interior color. Lots of premium features, like night vision and 2 Blu-ray players/screens in the back seat, but it didn’t get the upgraded stereo or a heated steering wheel. It’s a Volt battery pack between the rear seat and trunk, 31 miles of electric range. 2.0L turbo inline 4. 335hp and 432 lb/ft of torque. It functions a bit different than a Volt, in that, if you put the pedal past about 50%, the gas engine kicks on to help get you from 0-60 in 5.2 seconds. It’s a pretty great car, and they bought it in 2019 with under 10,000 miles on it for a bit over $40k.
The people want to know more about this car!
That Zekkr shouldn’t be allowed to sell here due to Porsche lawsuits due to copying styling.
Would I buy a Zeekr?
Not just no, but hell no.
China has shown time and time again that it is all too willing to harvest whatever data they can, whenever they can, however they can. I try to avoid any situation where I’m put into an ecosystem where they have a direct or indirect-but-one-step-removed connection to me. No Tiktok, no Fortnite (or other Tencent products), etc.
Getting in a Chinese built car feels iffy, given the level of espionage they’ve performed over the years
I’d bite if the price was right, insurance wasn’t an arm and a leg, and parts could be obtained without too much difficulty. Having to wait for 3 weeks on AliExpress shipping sucks, but at least that can be shortened to a week if you pay enough to grease some palms. Or ship it from a European warehouse.
Even if it would be cheap and decent looking and could be trusted for reliability, proper chassis tuning and solid safety are things that take time to get right, so I’d wait on any newcomer. None of that matters in this case, though, as I wouldn’t buy something made in China anymore than I have to already (and spend time and money trying to avoid).
I drove around southern France in a Lynk & Co. It was fine. Reasonably comfortable, reasonably quick, and a little large for the tiny, twisty roads in the coastal hills.
I never really paid close attention to where my cars were built or designed. I’ve owned a Japanese-designed car that was built in America and a German car built in Europe; my parents have owned American cars built in America and Japanese cars built in Asia — all were fine vehicles.
Instead, I focus on quality, and reliability. Safety is a given. In order to be sold in the US, any car needs to pass increasingly rigorous safety standards. While crash tests of current Chinese cars look pretty gnarly, they are designed to different standards and aren’t representative of what we’d see if they hit our shores. I assume that any Chinese designed and/or manufactured car will pass US safety standards as a condition of going on the market. Quality and reliability remain to be seen, however. This isn’t meant as a slight or a stereotype. While China cranks out a lot of junk, they are capable of high quality as well. It’s just that designing and building cars is a difficult and complicated process regardless of where they’re designed or built. Look at how Tesla struggled with quality as they started out. And look at the frequent reports of issues with brand new models from even established car companies. That’s an inconvenience when the manufacturer has a location in every town, but for a new company just getting its footing in a new country, it could be a tremendous hindrance.
So would I buy a Chinese car? I wouldn’t be first in line, that’s for sure. There’s just too many unknowns with any new model and certainly any relatively new company. Once a company or product line has established a good reputation, I’d probably consider it. Or at least I wouldn’t immediately rule it out. A good car is a good car no matter its origins.
Seems like if you had aspirations to sell in the US at some point, you should have checked what your brand name was in English.
“Zeekr” sounds like the weird brand names of those cheap, shoddy iPhone lighting cords I refuse to buy on Amazon. Hard no for now.
Yeah, and Volvo sounds so straightforward and non-genital related.
A name is what it is. Quality is earned over time.
Rumor has it that Tesla sounds like the Mandarin word for “pervert” and the Chinese still buy them.
…(not really)
I hear Zeekr for tweekers.
I have no particular issue with buying cars from any country. By the time I’m buying an EV (as I count on not needing to replace a vehicle for 10 more years based on my keeping cars until they’re 20 years old and trucks 30 goal) most of the current EV issues will either be worked out or so obviously unresolvable that it’ll be straightforward.
I’ve driven the Envision (multiple times). Not impressed.
I’ve also driven an MT-82-equipped Mustang (several of them, in fact), also not impressed.
The Chinese auto industry has a lot of catching up to do do even dream of catching the Japanese and Koreans, the Americans are almost as far ahead, and the Europeans are ahead enough to not be scared yet.
The Volvo S90 and Polestar 2 are both exclusively built in China, as well
I want an electric car, just not a Chinese electric car. I almost pulled the trigger on a Polestar 2 but was thrown off by its silly tall car crossover vibe. I’m 5’4″. I have no problem being close to the ground. I prefer it down here.
Who do you think owns Polestar?
Well, you dodged a bullet there. The Polestar 2 is Chinese-made, too.
the Zeekr looks very nice, but I have no desire to own an electric car
I want an electric car. I don’t want a cloud&subscription-based smartphone with a secondary function to transport me places.
I would not. When the Ioniq 6 exists and is a known quotient as far as quality and low price, it would take some serious reason to even consider the Zeekr anything. And by the time they might actually sell in the US, the next gen of the Ioniq series along with multiple other EV’s will be available to purchase instead. Had they started selling them a year ago we might start to see adoption and acceptance by now.
No interest in supporting China any more than I need to, so when a reasonable alternative exists, I will always go for the non-Chinese choice. Hopefully we will never reach a point with cars that we unfortunately have with too much else, where there is no reasonable alternative.
Right! Let us all immediately stop buying anything made in or by China so we don’t support China.
Now we just have to convince EVERY SINGLE company in America not to purchase anything!
Well not quite everything…just anything NOT made with steel, aluminum, plastic, fabric, leather, rubber, bamboo, rare earth metals, microchips…
Get out of here with your sound logic Bert.
Go to any Harbor Freight and every dude in the is the same person who says “duuurrrr China durrr” on the internet. Irony is lost on the idiotic.
This begs the question, what is happening with the Changli!?!?!?!?!?
The last update was something like Optima was throwing batteries at it trying to get it to move. We are due for another. I lose sleep every night worrying about it
Yes-yes. Do tell…Did the Hurricane Ian in North Carolina cause it to burst into flames or something?
For a year or two (towards the end of the second generation), Canada got Chinese-built Honda Fits. That’s a big part of the reason I don’t have a Honda Fit.
What were the issues you observed?
Part of it was ideological (I ruled it out without a test drive), but I also just wasn’t keen on taking an $18k gamble that Honda got it right out of the gate (although I think consensus at the time was that if anyone was going to overcome the tendency towards “good enough,” it was Honda).
I’ll admit, I am suspicious of Chinese cars in terms of lasting quality when compared to the manufacturers we have here that have decades of experience creating cars to meet our standards. In Canada, early Japanese cars have all rusted away because they weren’t made to withstand the winter road salt we lay down (unfortunately), I expect something similar with new Chinese cars.
I’m more against giving money to a country that is back on track to being an even more terrible place.
Oh boy, just wait till you hear what’s happening in [basically any country that produces cars]
What’s going on in a Canada?
Well, if I can be confused for driving a Porsche Cayenne for cheaper, that’s fine by me. It will be cheaper, right? Right?
At first…