“Using Norway as a model to showcase Europe’s growth strategy!”The German IT times recently reported that the electric SUV ES8, known as “China Tesla”, was launched in Norway on September 30, and on October 1 in Oslo officially opened Europe’s first Ulai Center.
In addition to Ulai, Jády, Xiaopeng and other Chinese car brands, the United States, Tesla, Toyota and other Japanese will also Norway as the first place to enter Europe. Zhong Shi, an auto industry analyst, told the global times that China’s new energy vehicles will have huge development potential when they enter Europe before they become dominant leading brands.
In Manufacturing, batteries, control systems and other aspects of the same European and American counterparts, China’s new energy vehicles have a “Chance to win”in Europe.
“Chinese Tiger”leaps into Old World auto market
Located at 33 Johns, Oslo’s Ulai Centre has a total area of 2,100 square metres and is the largest user centre in Norway’s core region. The center will provide services such as car display, door-to-door pick-up and delivery, lifestyle product display and user community.
“Electric vehicles are common in Norway and can be seen everywhere,”Cao Kan, head of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Norway, told the global times in an interview, although Norway’s charging infrastructure is good, it is far from perfect.
“Global Times”reporter observed that the European media is most concerned about the ulai car in Europe proposed BAAS battery rental service. Heyler, general manager of Ulai Norway, said BaaS battery rental service provides a full range of car electric separation, battery rental, rechargeable and upgradable services. The user does not need to buy battery pack when buying a car, can choose to rent different capacity battery pack according to actual use demand, pay corresponding service charge monthly. Weilai will also build 20 second generation replacement plants in Norway by the end of 2022, covering the country’s top five cities and major highways.
“Norway is the springboard for the ‘Chinese Tiger’to leap into the Old World car market,”said German weekly focus, chinese brands, including weilai, BYD Company and Xiaopeng, will start the “Car kingdom”of Germany, and finally throughout Europe.
“It takes courage to buy a Chinese car.”
“It makes sense for Chinese automakers to use Norway as an entry point into the European market because Norwegian consumers are used to electric cars,”said Infanta Cristina, Duchess of Palma de Mallorca, general secretary of the Norwegian Association of electric vehicles, norway has become the first country in the world to cross the 50% threshold for buying new energy vehicles, and Chinese brands need only focus on increasing sales.“But if you go to other European countries, Chinese car companies have to work on both electric cars and visibility.”
Cao Kan, who has lived in Norway for many years, told the global times that Weilai cars have just entered the Norwegian market. By contrast, local people are not familiar with the brand, but Norwegians generally have a good opinion of Chinese electric cars. From the point of view of the local people, if you have to rank the popularity of a car, it is generally believed that Tesla is the first, European cars are the second and Chinese cars are the third, but from the point of view of the core competition of electric cars -- batteries, chinese car batteries are considered to be among the best in the United States, Japan and South Korea.
Today, BMW, Tesla and other top western car companies are making cars in China, and the fact that China is becoming a technological power, Reuters said, is quietly changing the past people on the Chinese car “Quality but pass, the craft is rough”stereotype. Antje Lieffers, a 47 year old German schoolteacher who bought a Chinese electric car last year, likes the way it works and the low cost of driving. Lieffers said she had been told “Not to buy Chinese cars, it’s bad for German jobs, and Chinese cars are cheap and all plastic”.
But in her view, that is no longer the case in the current global auto industry. Chinese cars have a lot of German auto parts, and vice versa.
“Germans love to buy German cars, so it takes courage to buy a Chinese car. Sometimes people have to be open to new things,”Lieffers added.
German scholar: the quality of Chinese electric vehicle is not inferior to that of Europe and America
“Now is a good time for Chinese electric vehicles to enter the Norwegian and European markets,”mengles, an automotive economist in Munich, told the global times. Management Consulting Mccon, who has dismantled some of the Chinese made electric cars, believes that Chinese cars are superior to other international brands in terms of operations and customer experience, as well as battery technology.
In core technologies such as batteries, China has a strong supply system built up by companies such as Ningde times and strong software design capabilities in battery control systems that keep car companies ahead, Zhong said.
Pan Litian, a technology trade expert based in Düsseldorf, Germany, told the global times that it is a very complicated and long process for a car brand to enter a country and be accepted by consumers, in addition to the product is good, but also involves the market, the commercial, the cultural aspect and so on challenges.
Pan Litian believes that for Chinese car companies, good product is not enough, but also need a long time to accumulate and hone, to break through Germany, France and other countries with strong cultural barriers.
“Chinese cars are on our doorstep.”
“Chinese cars have come to our doorstep,”Friedrich, technical director of a German car company, told the global times during the Munich auto show in September, it is only a matter of time before it builds a sophisticated European distribution network.
Lu Feng, the first Chinese car brand to enter the European market, suffered a “Waterloo”16 years ago. In September 2005, the all-german Auto Club (ADAC) crash test of the Lu Feng car, which was compared to “A superficial tin can”, the car was then collectively ridiculed by the European media.
Later, an internal source in the European automobile industry said that the Lufeng car, which had been given a safety test by Germany’s authoritative testing agency TUV, was actually “Encircled”by European automakers, german carmakers, among others, are behind ADAC.
In the years that followed, there was little movement in the European market for Chinese cars. Until the launch of Beijing’s electric-car strategy, European carmakers continued to see the Chinese push into Europe as a “Scheherazade”.
Europe, too, is boycotting electric cars on the grounds that the internal-combustion engine is transforming and destroying jobs. In the last two or three years, with the rise of Tesla in the United States and the valuation of China’s top three new car brands, Weilai, Xiaopeng and ideal, surpassing the valuation of German car companies such as BMW, China’s entire automobile manufacturing chain has become prominent, europe’s car industry is waking up to the fact that China has become a serious competitor.
“China”has become the hottest word at the Munich auto show this year, as well as the new energy vehicle and charging equipment show in Munich. Speaking to the Global Times at the Auto Show, BMW Group Senior Vice President of Design Hoeydonck said that in some ways, Chinese cars are leading the world in design taste, and Chinese car companies are also leading the world in aspects such as digitalization.
Ten years ago, no one in Europe would have dared to say that Chinese cars could be compared with German cars, German “Godfather”Professor Dudenhoff told reporters. But now the German auto industry is watching with trepidation the rise of China’s auto industry. China’s auto industry not only makes great strides in electric vehicle manufacturing, but also leads the world in the fields of digitalization, batteries, and design of automobiles. But the German car industry has more than 100 years of manufacturing experience. In the face of Chinese and American competition, they are taking a calmer view of the future and are pressing ahead with research and development on future cars.
Dudenhof believes that now the car race is just beginning, in the future the competition between China and Germany will be more intense.