Chinese cars scare the glorious European car manufacturers, a little less so the drivers of the Old Continent. The former are starting to mourn the defeat, they are appealing to the States and the European Union to give a minimum of coherence to the promises of aid, while calibrating in the meantime the new risky counteroffensive of the duties, which however will also serve to subsidize our producers. The latter, our motorists, are rapidly changing their attitude.
Cheap Chinese cars? Not at all. The the scenario has changed. Eastern production has changed. Low-quality Chinese cars are now a minority. Here is the new credo: globalization, technology, quality, even alliances. And, above all, a record-breaking quality-price ratio. Prestigious brands are in Chinese hands. This is the case of the British MG and the Swedish Volvo. The products, let's be honest, are excellent: in quality, in aesthetics, in genesis. More and more the result of close collaboration with the old owners and with the award-winning Western motoring skills, including design.
In the case of the neo-Chinese Volvo, in the hands of the giant Geely, European technicians and designers maintain a hegemonic role: what can we say about the Lynk & Co, an excellent medium-sized plug-in hybrid offered on our market with ainnovative formula of super-elastic subsidized rental that can be extended and interrupted whenever you want? This is the whole puzzle that seems to mark our car's destiny. Bitter destiny? How bitter? It depends.
A puzzle to be solved quickly
Facing the new challenging scenario forces us to answer a series of questions and not only the question that has been prevalent in the news for months about the indecisions and missteps in the European Union guidelines on the ban on thermal engines from 2035, or in the decisive industrial challenge which was sensationally aborted to set up in Sweden, with the brand Northvolt, the first European giga-factory for batteries, which went into operation bankruptcy even before producing.
How to stop the Chinese assault with tariffs? And how to do it without triggering a boomerang effect? Are Chinese cars really a bargain for our consumers? Can the European automotive industry survive with dignity the double grip of the Chinese assault and the growing alarms about the other gigantic challenge opened by the new American emperor Donald Trump precisely through tariffs on an infinite series of European goods starting with cars?
The sector that has gone ahead in reconnaissance, that of the motorcycles: the path of alliances and mutual exchange of merits and skills is perhaps the best one to ensure a leading place in the new automotive world for a country, ours, traditionally endowed with excellent qualities, great brands and an excellent reputation in the markets.
Tariffs: handling them is not easy
Finding a balance in tariff policy is not easy. The Chinese do not seem to fear them that much. In the European automotive sector they were already suffering from them for a share of around 10%. Now it is tightening even more. Last October the European Commission approved the additional fees ranging from 7,8 to 35,3%, depending on the level of "collaboration" that the individual brands would have shown in mediating on the distorting criteria of competition: 7,8% for Tesla produced in considerable quantities in China (anything but "all American", Musk's electric cars are a typical example of globalization), 17% for the BYD group, 18,8% for Geely, up to 35,3% for Saic and for the other companies that according to the EU judges would not have guaranteed collaboration.
Are these super-duties too heavy to not induce the Chinese to resort to international protest bodies? Sufficiently heavy, in the meantime, to rebalance competitiveness of their cars on the already-crisis-ridden European production structure? Brussels says it will continue to negotiate with Beijing for a balanced agreement that avoids trade wars. “The European Union remains the world champion of open, fair and rules-based trade,” proclaims Valdis Dombrovskis, vice-president of the European Commission responsible for trade.
But in the meantime the super-duties are preparing to bite. Not enough to really worry the creators of Chinese cars, convinced that they can maintain the margins to be competitive anyway, also thanks to a possible further strengthening of those same internal subsidies from Beijing (certainly not a world champion of competitive fair play) that motivated Western duties. In short, a snake biting its own tail. Even if now it is the Chinese themselves who are repeatedly sending signals of détente with the willingness to explore the path of collaboration if necessary. It is convenient for them and it is convenient for us, evidently.
A textbook advance from China
The Chinese are good, and above all visionary. The clear example is that of BYD, the increasingly robust colossus that is rapidly conquering the first place in the global markets for battery-powered cars, undermining what seemed to be the unassailable primacy of Elon Musk's Tesla, especially in high-end fully electric cars.
Costs and prices, volumes and production structure, quality and design, timeliness in accompanying the demand and therefore the receptivity of the market: BYD (which stands for Build Your Dreams) is building invincibility thanks to a new production cyclops. It is a factory-city powered by 80.000 workers per shift, active 24 hours a day, larger than the whole of Turin. Woe betide anyone who thinks of a para-Soviet model of intensive production that bends the social in the name of industrial “victory”. Those who are scrutinizing the construction of the factory city report a fascinating sequence, next to the production lines, of residential complexes full of sports facilities, training and refresher courses worthy of competing with the best American facilities, a solid widespread welfare system at the service of the guests of the factory city. In a few months, when all this will begin to take its final form, we will really be able to judge.
With such a structure BYD will be able to go really far away. The goal is to become the second player in the world in the auto sector (now the Japanese Toyota is first with over 9 million units sold last year, followed by VW and Ford) compared to the current ninth position with over 4 million units sold (electric, hybrid and thermal). But in the meantime, with 1,8 million electric units sold, BYD has practically grabbed the first position in the electric car.
The preview of what will be produced by the new Chinese giant in the name of globalization is not lacking, even here in our country. After the first medium-sized models that arrive with punctual timeliness also in our country: the medium-small electric B-Suv, the Atto2, has recently been launched to compete directly with the new GrandePanda and Citroen C3 of the Stellantis group. And here comes an even more significant novelty: the small electric Dolphin Surf, an evolution made for Europe of the Chinese Seagull model. It is an attack in the range of smaller models (less than 4 meters in length) almost abandoned by the European industry due to their low profitability margins. It was designed in collaboration with the German Wolfgang Egger, creator of many Audi and Lamborghini models. It will cost around 20 thousand euros and will have a superior direct current car charging device, capable of going from 30 to 80% charge in half an hour with a range of up to 400 kilometers. While waiting for the consortium set up between BYD and the other Chinese companies CATL and NIO to start churning out the new solid-state batteries that promise to double the performance while halving the price.
Collaboration is possible
The scenario shown by BYD teaches us, or should do so. Instead of facing or even fighting the Chinese, it is better make them friends, or at least allies, geopolitical considerations permitting. A first network of solid collaborative synergies already exists. The presence in China both in the supplies and in the production of Volkswagen, Piaggio, our brake champion and now also Brembo suspension saddles, just to name a few examples, is consolidated and works with mutual satisfaction.
Here we are at the very beginning, with approximate solutions. Like the idea of an assembly plant together with Stellantis of the Chinese LeapMotor, an electric one that mimics the old 4-seater Smart, modest compared to the new small BYD. Some doubts also for the scheme adopted by Molise DR of the entrepreneur Massimo Di Risio, who limits himself to highlighting with some finishing touches models already widespread in China, also procuring the reprimands of our Antitrust because the total Chinese origin would be hidden, so much so that now a leap in quality and strategy is promised with a real production hub that in Di Risio's ambitions could also be born thanks to the funds of the PNRR.
Solutions (with some problems) in sight
Collaboration and organic productive alliances in Europe with a real advantage for all: this could be the solution, but there is no lack of difficulties. Let's go back to BYD, which in parallel with its colossal internal Chinese commitment wants to open production facilities well outside its borders, even in Europe. The operation is at an advanced stage, with some problems. The nascent plant in Hungary (in Szeged) with 4 billion euros of investments and strong Chinese subsidies is under investigation by the European Commission for alleged state aid in violation of competition rules. Yet another reason for friction even among EU partners, given that Orban is instead a staunch supporter of a free hand for the Chinese, as long as it is to the advantage of his country, in open criticism of Brussels.
From Türkiye to Brazil, from Mexico to Indonesia: BYD is decisively spreading its strategic wings. Its interest in Italy it's no mystery, perhaps starting from the collaborations already in place with our excellent companies of Pirelli and Brembo components. Commitment and caution. But woe betide those who do not explore the alliance with what is deservedly becoming a champion.
