For the same price or lower, check out Li Auto L9, L8, Huawei Aito M9, NIO ES8, ES6, Avatr 12, 11. Heck, even the 1/2 price lync & co 09 is better designed and built. The Swedish even haven’t sorted out build issues in a car they’ve produced for almost 10 year?! Oh, mind you, the average selling price of all the brands above (Li Auto, Nio & Huawei Aito, Avatr) in China are all higher than Volvo & Audi, Slightly lower than BMW & Merc.
And don’t tell me the Chinese car makers survive only because of government aid, That’s what your politicians and incompetent carmakers who lobbied them tried to tell you. These are probably ALL a Xiaomi get from the Beijing local government (their headquarter is in Beijing):
1. The most important license to make cars: The Chinese central gov’s Industrial and Information department limits the number of car makers (note, The makers or OEMs, not the brands These OEMs can introduce), and Xiaomi got the supposedly the last one to the table. No more new entry to the car making business unless the new comer takes over existing OEM’s license. Guess this isn’t a thing in most western countries so can’t see how it’s a favour to the Chinese car makers.
2. Cheap loan & tax relief from the local Beijing govt – tell me if this isn’t a thing in western countries. Didn’t Tennessee provide huge tax break & cheap loan to get Volkswagen to invest? Didn’t Germany also provide big allowance to entice Tesla?
3. Green plate which is easier & cheaper to get for the big city residents, but it’s only useful to the tier 1 cities (only 4 of them) – this is universal to all BEV & PHEV with 50km or more range, not just Chinese brands.
4. No sales tax for Green-plate vehicle if the majority of battery component is made in China. Again, something the US is doing through the ‘inflation reduction act’. Heck, even the XC90 recharge which is made in Sweden is eligible for this in China despite its high price (MSRP more than USD $120k in China) and the car is not built in China.
5. The indirect push for charging network – didn’t The Biden govt push for the same?
6. Strong supplier chain of all components, not just the batteries: AI, self-driving, IOT, industrial robot, megacasing etc – when the industrial output of China is bigger than G7 combined, I hardly see China won’t be leading in any of these, if not top 1, top 3 At least.
So, with all these efforts, the vision, dedication, action and hardwork of both at the government level & industry level pays off. It’s just repeaing the same story that had happened in almost all industry segments in the history: appliances, led panels, electronics, high-speed railways, ship building etc. Now China is #1 in auto export starting 2023, I bet you’ll see the same in the chip-making business in 10 years, and the commercial aircraft business in 20 years.