The Austrian government is ready to purchase Chinese cars, and the European media will break the defense?
"Thirty years in Hedong, thirty years in Hexi". The ancients did not deceive me.
Recently, the Austrian government is preparing to purchase a batch of new energy vehicles from Chinese brands for official use. As soon as the news came out, the entire European media was in an uproar. The media in Austria and the mainstream media outlet in Europe, Deutsche Welle, have published reports, and various debates have been heard. For no other reason, it is an unprecedented move for European governments to purchase brand cars for official vehicles. Most of the European media that Xi is accustomed to leading are obviously "breaking the defense": "Why adopt Chinese cars? Isn't there a better choice in Europe?"
In fact, the Chinese media has been arguing for countless years about this controversy. I remember that when I first started in the industry, I was also strong-blooded, and I wrote a lot of articles about it. However, at that time, the main sales models of BYD of the four major private car companies were still BYD F3, Chery was selling QQ, Geely was selling King Kong, and Great Wall was cultivating the pickup market at that time, which obviously had nothing to do with official procurement. As for the four large and two small state-owned enterprises, they are immersed in the honey of joint ventures and cannot extricate themselves, and they have no intention of being independent. As a result, the media criticized government procurement for not supporting Chinese brands on the one hand, and found that it did not have the strength to compete with European and American brands head-on.
As a result, in the ongoing debate, China's government procurement cars are almost all joint venture cars. All Volkswagen models from Germany and various models from Audi have become frequent customers of government procurement. As an automotive media practitioner, I am helpless and sad to see this situation, but my skills are not as good as others.
But fast-forward to 2023, and all bus purchases in China have changed. First of all, the policy has fully supported domestic production, and the official cars in various places are dominated by local Chinese brands, and overseas brands basically have no chance. Why did the problem that had not been solved after arguing for so long be solved at once? Because the local automobile products have strength, how can the government not support the procurement of public vehicles? Now it seems that the previous controversy seems meaningless, of course, government procurement will support domestic brands, but its own strength is not too strong, and the product strength is not up to standard, so how can the government support the procurement of public vehicles?
The situation in European countries is very similar to that in China before. Electrification is the common direction of the world, and the government procurement of buses should naturally set an example, otherwise how can the country's new energy development keep up with the trend? But Austria obviously does not, even if you look at the major European automobile powers, neither Volkswagen nor BBA has the strength to compete with Chinese auto brands head-on in terms of the strength and product coverage of new energy products. It is not surprising that Austria wants to purchase Chinese new energy vehicles that are more in line with its own needs. Of course, the controversy in the media is also expected, but such controversy is completely useless even in the previous Chinese auto market! There are no mature and easy-to-use products, and no matter how many slogans and arguments there are, it will be in vain.
If you can't beat it, join in. This is the road that Chinese cars have taken before, since overseas cars are stronger, then the form of joint ventures will be used to give up the market, "market for technology", and decide the winner in the future. In fact, China's "market for technology" caused quite a lot of controversy at that time, because the market went out, technology may not be able to be exchanged back, but if nothing is done, then there will be no Chinese cars today.
The current entry of China's new energy vehicles into the European market is actually well thought out, and the vast European market is obviously an important market for China's new energy vehicle companies. In fact, there are some reasons, because BYD not only sells cars in Europe, but also announced the construction of a new energy passenger car production base in Hungary in December this year, announcing that it will build a new energy passenger car production base in Hungary and make cars in Europe.
And China's new energy vehicles have been singing all the way overseas, and they are also completely based on excellent product strength. In China's automobile market, China's new energy vehicles are crazy involuted, once they go to sea, they have found a broader space, and the product power is "far ahead", and 60% of the world's new energy vehicles come from China! Just like the impact of overseas cars on the Chinese market, as soon as Chinese cars enter other countries, they can harvest the true love of users with their strong product power, and in the face of real product power, all the controversy can only be a footnote to the vigorous development of Chinese automobiles.
As a practitioner in the automotive industry, it is really an honor to see that Chinese automobiles can achieve such good results in overseas markets, especially in Europe, the main position of major automobile manufacturers. In the short term, it may be quite difficult for overseas brands to catch up, and China's new energy has become a global leader. Of course, Chinese car companies should also keep in mind the lessons of European automobiles, and should not slack off in the research and development of new technologies and new energy, and continuous technology and product leadership is the king to win. Some of the European media are busy, and the Austrian government's preparation for the purchase of Chinese cars is just the beginning, and I am afraid that soon they will have to argue about how Germany, France and other major automobile countries are also purchasing Chinese cars.