Why the big car companies are losing China | Business Beyond

Big carmakers like Volkswagen and Toyota were once top sellers in China. Now they’re rapidly losing ground to a new generation of Chinese companies luring local buyers with advanced – and affordable – electric vehicles. Business Beyond looks at what legacy carmakers got wrong, what Beijing got right and how the next few years could reshuffle the global car industry.

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction
01:20 ‘Nobody thought of China’
04:41 New tech, new chance for Beijing
07:17 The Tesla effect
09:37 Don’t forget karaoke!
12:55 Price war
13:43 Made in China, sold worldwide

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#VW #China #business

[MarkWhippy]

Oh no poor Volkswagen having to sell their cars at cheaper prices 😢

[andrewbrown]

The game changer here is having a government minister that actually knows something about what he’s the minister for. We haven’t had that in the west for a long time.

[Willfornax]

One of my friends who has worked for GM for ten years as an engineer moved back to China last year. He told me the tech there is developing ten times faster than here.

[kennsetsu]

this show interviewed a wrong guy, as a developer in one of top Chinese EV company, I would say the foundational reason why China can build better car software system is we hiring tons of top software engineer from Chinese IT companies(Tencent, Alibaba, bytedance), smart phone companies(xiaomi, Huawei), our develop priority is equal and even higher than mechanical development. in addition, we follow the same quality standard and logic of software development process in IT companies which is more efficient and user-friendly, but most of traditional vehicle development dominant by engineer guys, the product is quite engineer logic and functional priority, it is usable but not easy to use.

[DemPilafian]

It's extraordinarily difficult for big, established companies to ditch their old systems and technologies because nearly all of management in the company is tied to the success of those old systems and technologies. VW is clearly trapped in the *"innovator's dilemma".*

[frankcoffey]

Being "surprised" is a sign of poor leadership with poor vision. Company culture can be turned around quickly if you have a leader who is not stuck in paradigm paralysis. It also takes someone who is willing to stand up to pressure and attempted influence from other entities and industries.

[fabricio]

In Brazil, BYD and GWM are selling more and more with their more technological and cheaper models than conventional automakers.

[gulyasgergo]

Remember Nokia, Ericsson, Motorola, and Blackberry, the same will happen with a lot of car manufacturers.

[johnwhoo]

1970th and 80th, no Japanese or U.S. car maker wanted to enter Chinese market, VW agreed to come only with extremely old model and had almost monopoly of the market, made boat-load of money over the years with those old models.

[Ryan_Powers]

Great documentary. I'm an expat who's been living in China for over 8 years now. It's amazing how back in 2015, VW taxis ruled. And these days, every time I take a Didi (Chinese Uber), it's always an electric car. Yes, mostly BYDs. There are so many electric cars here. It's like the future has already arrived.

[waichoi]

In China, a BYD electric car, similar to Corolla, only cost $12k USD, with lifetime warranty. It cost 4 cents usd per kWh. Which mean only $4 usd to fully charge a Tesla model 3.

[chewy]

It's not just government support. China graduates more engineers every year than there are engineers in the US. Germany knows better than everyone what that means

[netizencapet]

I loved the backstory of Volkswagen's entry into China, how the minister of mechanics for this giant country just walks in without an appointment to the HQ. Now the CEO of Volkswagen would have to wait months to meet with a cadre of similar rank and would be flying to Beijing, not vice versa. Fantastic.

[jcziviani]

I live in Brazil. Just replaced a VW T-Cross for a BYD Dolphin. The same price, but Dolphin is a lot of better.

[michaelhuang]

Talked to taxi drivers in China a couple of days ago, and they said the cost of operation between gas and EV is day and night difference in costs. Charging is much cheaper by more than 90% compared to traditional fuel cars and you don't have to worry about maintenance. You'd have to be a fool to not switch.

[cawlsy]

My co-worker who is Indian Canadian was talking about a new technology China was applying for patent. He said people in Canada just close their eyes and hoping China will collapse. Haters can hate.

[Crystalheard]

I was in China during June and July last summer, mainly traveling between Beijing, Shanghai, and Wuhan. I have counted almost every parking lot I visited and eV is about 10% of total. Chinese government is encouraging consumers to buy eVs, especially in capital cities. Traditional cars are hard to get registration in the cities aforementioned but eVs are much much easier.

[davidlee]

I asked a friend who just came to canada recently why EV is so popular in China. He said there are 2 main reasons: First, the infrastructure. You will see a EV charging station every corner and every gas station. The other is warranty. Car has 1million km warranty. If that’s true, it solves the one big fear that most ppl have on EV…the battery!

[lwwells]

@1:05 “The batteries are not better than the competitor’s” is the nicest way to phrase “the batteries are far worse than the competitor’s while costs 3x as much and having endless supply issues”

[ameliah]

I live in a small county in China where taxis are all electric cars, costing around 20000 US dollars. I can charge at home for 7 hours and drive about 400 kilometers, with an energy cost of only 9 US dollars. It's much cheaper than gasoline cars. Sufficient for urban residential use. And equipped with mature car infotainment systems and navigation software, the interior decoration level is almost similar to that of a $30000 gasoline car. I can't think of a reason not to buy an electric car.