At the Everything Electric B2B Show in Farnborough on Friday this week I saw a major threat to European and US OEMs and I’m not convinced that those in Europe have fully woken up to it. In the Chinese OEMs like Chery, Changan and BYD I saw vehicles that were built on different design principles that were also far, far cheaper to buy than their European and US counterparts.
Chinese cars at the Everything Electric B2B Show
I’m no motoring journalist – my interest is in decarbonising transport and policy level issues involved in ultimately ending the reign of the internal combustion engine in light, medium and heavy transport applications. I met two highly experienced EV specialist motoring journalists and saw others who will no doubt be relaying their opinions on the various cars there that day – I can’t pretend to compete with them, and won’t.
Listening to these guys they were very impressed by the machines on show. One pointed out that the Chery brand Jaecoo SUV was as good as a Land Rover Discovery but even while an EV, sells for £27,000. You wouldn’t get an ICE Discovery for £27,000 let alone an EV.
Speaking to one of the Chinese OEMs’ exhibition representatives, he explained that the Chinese automotive design philosophy is not just about the driver as is the case with their European rivals. China’s OEM vehicle designers think of all car occupants as well as the driver. Examples include:
- Microphones in the rear of the cabin so all passengers can remain seated while talking on the phone handsfree system
- Heated rear seats
- Sunroofs that reach the back seats
These enrich everyone’s experience of the car, not just the driver, and this is what differentiates the Chinese OEMs’ cars from European and US vehicles.
An e-bike segue
Jumping gracefully to e-bikes, you won’t find a Bafang motor on a European or UK e-bike but it seems that until 2025 at least, every other US e-bike has one. Bafang are a high quality e-bike component manufacturer that dates back to the ‘Big Bang’ that led to the explosion of e-bike sales worldwide. The reason you don’t see Bafang motors on European e-bikes is that in 2019 the European cycling OEM lobby successfully had the European Commission impose anti-dumping legislation on Chinese e-bike components, something extended in 2025 for another five years. Trump in his first term, imposed 25% tariffs on the same equipment and this still meant Bafang could sell their motors at competitive prices in the USA.
In his second term in office, Trump has been a lot more aggressive to China. Will we continue to see budget end US e-bikes with Bafang motors? Until negotiations between China and the US settle, we just don’t know.
Musk goes MAGA
The only Tesla at the show cut a lonely figure. While crowds of fleet managers were on the MG, Changan and Chery stands, and their test drive vehicles were warm with repeated use, the Tesla sat unloved and almost ignored. MAGA politics is toxic in Europe (though less so in the UK) but while preparing this article I hit on something – e-bikes. Elon Musk may well have seen the Chinese Dragon stirring when he decided to support Trump. If he could keep the US EV industry from the worst of MAGA politics and sit behind the wall of protectionism of the new Trump administration, his company would remain safe.
Protectionism isn’t always to the benefit of the consumer. Seeing these amazing cars at a price point that obliterates domestic competition, I pity the US consumer that can’t buy these vehicles. Taking a swipe at Tesla, the Chinese OEM representative said that the driving experience is far simpler than the US OEMs’ cars. Yes, you can get ‘fun’ things like the ‘emissions testing’ quadrophonic fart noises and Tesla cars can play a Christmas song in unison but that wears a little thin – and isn’t about the driver or adult passenger experience.
Where Europe hit China hard on e-bikes, it has taken a softer approach on EVs. The bloc imposed tariffs ranging from 17.5% to 30% according to the level of state aid it claimed was received by the different Chinese OEMs. I challenged the the OEM representative comment on the price point. I relayed a rumour to him that Chinese OEMs love Europe and the UK as they can sell at higher margins even with the tariffs imposed upon their vehicles. While agreeing in part, he also said that thanks to EU/UK regulations on safety and other issues, these are fundamentally different cars to those being sold in China.
It seems that the European automotive lobby has achieved some of its goals – to raise the price point – but unlike the US hasn’t successfully closed the door to China. This is due to the geopolitical situation that Trump is even now facing as China retaliates over his previous trade war tactics by restricting access to rare earth metals. Europe didn’t fancy a fight with China while Trump got stuck in. Consequently we’re seeing cars being sold here that to many consumers are better than Land Rover Discovery cars for almost half the price but the US consumer won’t.
Without government, European OEMs are left to fight the dragon
It seems that without government support, European OEMs are going to have to fight the Chinese Dragon themselves or face bankruptcy. In the UK we have certain folk who are aligned with MAGA waving the Flag of St George, a Palestinian Saint who famously slew a dragon. Given what I saw at the Everything Electric B2B Day, European OEMs could do with a Palestinian Saint right now – they need to up their game or face destruction. Given the importance of car manufacturing to a large number of developed economies including the UK and Germany, that’s quite a sobering thought.
