^THIS^ This is what Elon Musk has been trying to point out for the last two or three years.
And it is true, not just for electric vehicles but for all forms of personal transportation that Chinese industry has decided to own.
From Fortune magazine, October 3:
The boss of German carmaker Mercedes-Benz is bracing his company for a “Darwinian battle” as Europe’s auto giants reel from falling demand and the onslaught of Chinese competitors.
Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Källenius said the biggest challenge facing automakers was halting a crisis of confidence among Chinese consumers.
European automakers have made a significant push into the EV-hungry Chinese market while responding to an unexpected slowdown in the technology’s uptake in Europe.
However, a similar demand glut in China and the emergence of cheap competitors from the region has left Europe’s carmakers fighting fires at home and overseas. For Mercedes-Benz’s Källenius, it has left them in a pivotal moment of sink or swim.
“You must control your nerves, keep investing, keep innovating, and ensure that at the end of that Darwinian battle, you are one of the combatants that are left,” Källenius said, as Reuters reported, at the Global Dialogue conference in Berlin.
Like other European automakers, Mercedes has faced struggles in the past year. The car market has been rocked by flat growth in the EV sector, rising competition from Chinese firms, and falling consumer sentiment in China. Mercedes shares have fallen more than 10% through 2024.
However, the group has outperformed German competitors Volkswagen and BMW this year, helping it become the largest German automaker by market value.
Volkswagen is fighting a mammoth battle with its works council to reduce headcount as it targets €10 billion in cost savings. In September, the carmaker issued its second profit warning in three months.
Meanwhile, BMW cut its 2024 outlook in August owing to a braking system issue and its own struggles with “muted demand” in China.
Mercedes-Benz rolled back its ambitious pledge to go fully electric by 2030 earlier this year and filed its own profit warning in July.
Some European carmakers have reacted with despair to tariffs imposed on Chinese-made EVs, after hedging their bets in partnerships with Chinese companies. However, Mercedes-Benz’s Källenius is now looking to the next stage of the automaking revolution....
....MUCH MORE
Related:
February 23Rystad: "China’s EV Growth Set To Explode in 2024"
Watch out Elon. Hybrids and plug-in electric hybrids seem to be where the consumer is at vs. battery electric vehicles. At least for the moment.
March 18
This Will Be A Bloodbath: "Biden Set to Crack Down on Auto Emissions to Accelerate EV Sales"
The net effect of this order will be to give the Chinese the auto industry.*
It's only partial because those BYD and other Chinese EV-maker plants to be built in Mexico that Trump was talking about with the "bloodbath" line are still going to destroy Detroit. It will just take a little longer.
It's not just China. Elon Musk, who seems to have some insight into the industry, says there will be 10 surviving EV manufacturers, 9 of them Chinese.* And if that's the case, and if Western governments continue on their path of outlawing internal combustion engines, just what the heck are the legacy marques going to be powered by?****Here's December 8's "Western Legacy Automakers Probably Won't Be Long-Term Survivors":Because their current business is being mandated and legislated out of existence the Western marques, barring some serious breakthroughs in small-scale hydrogen or methanol, will have to pivot to EV's.
And they won't be able to compete.
It almost appears that the gifting of the electric vehicle and solar industries to the Chinese was deliberate.....MUCH MORE
"China could be on track to dominate the world’s EV market, even if not in the U.S."
Elon Musk suggests Tesla and 9 Chinese companies will be the top 10 carmakers
