China produces three quarters of the world’s car batteries, a huge advantage for carmakers who can drastically reduce their production costs and expand internationally. The Asian giant is now the world’s top exporter of cars, dethroning Japan.
6 minute video at the above link. A Zeekr factory only has 2000 workers in a 300 acre factory. Automation is king there. They are using AI to watch the quality of their production. It takes 1 minute to make an EV. Only 10% of the factory’s production is exported out of China. Chinese EV manufacturers could be receiving China governments subsidy but their factories are very efficient.
A news article a year ago indicated that a Shangai Tesla model Y took 2.5 hours to make.
Tesla Reduces Model Y Assembly Time to 2.5 Hours | Torque News.
Autonomous EVs have already appear on Chinese roads.
40% of EVs in China have self driving features.
China is in the forefront of EV manufacture. Difficult to hear by USian ears.
Years of under-investment in electric vehicle technologies and supply chains have left European carmakers struggling to keep up with their Chinese competitors.
Chinese automakers are investing hundreds of millions in setting up their very own European factories in Viktor Orban’s Hungary.
In the city of Debrecen in the south of Hungary, a lithium-ion battery plant worth €7.3 billion is being built over a 221-hectare stretch of former farmland in the Southern Industrial Park special economic zone. The factory – Hungary’s largest greenfield investment project ever – is being built by Chinese manufacturer CATL, which controls nearly two-fifths of the world’s electric vehicle (EV) battery market. Once production starts in 2025, the 100-GWh plant will be the biggest EV battery producer in Europe.
China’s growing investment in Hungary’s automotive industry has opened the country up to rival players who may one day drive Europe’s own carmakers out of business. Chinese EV manufacturer BYD announced late last year that it was building its first European plant in the southern city of Szeged – a €500-million investment that will sprawl across some 300 hectares. BYD, whose European managing director announced Thursday is considering building a second European factory in 2025, is the first major Chinese carmaker to have set up a European production base. The company has said it wants to be the leading EV manufacturer in Europe by 2030.
I fully expect by 2025 or late 2024, we will be reading about quality Chinese EVs now available in the EU.
The West may ease their bruised egos with stories of China government subsides but Chinese EVs appear to be equal in quality to EU & US brands and their manufacturing appears to be superior in speed.
And if global warming is an existential crisis; perhaps US tax rebates should be permanent to bring down the cost of US made EVs rather than implementing higher tariffs to keep cheaper EVs out of the country?
Allow competition to drive the transformation of the US vehicle fleet faster to “save” the planet. hm?
