Recently, the Beijing Auto Show attracted visitors from all over the world to experience exchanges, some American reporters in the test ride of Chinese trams, from the bottom of their hearts lamented that Western car companies are facing strong competitors, because Chinese trams in terms of driving experience, intelligent control or hardware facilities, give drivers and passengers a very comfortable and relaxed environment, which is far more "science fiction" and "futuristic" than traditional fuel vehicles. After the development of Chinese car companies "change lanes", it is inevitable that there will be a "overtaking" of the Western automobile industry, this transcendence is almost subversive, and now the United States and Europe have threatened to restrict the export of Chinese trams, this is because China's new energy vehicles are too competitive, once the American and European consumers experience, it will definitely form a good reputation and then spread by word of mouth, which will seriously squeeze the living space of traditional cars of Western car companies.
On May 9, the website of "InsideEVs", a media outlet in the U.S. new energy vehicle industry, published a weekly experience of Kevin Williams, a veteran automotive media person, at the Beijing International Auto Show. Kevin said that after test-driving more than a dozen Chinese brand electric vehicles, he was shocked to realize that "Western car companies are finished." Because in addition to advanced technology, China's trams also focus on catering to the actual needs of consumers, there are many ideas and new products, and the extremely critical battery life charging problem of new energy vehicles has basically been solved under the construction of charging piles, Chinese consumers are fond of new energy vehicles, igniting China's "tram boom".
But in the West, in the era of traditional fuel vehicles, Western car companies did not consider the needs of consumers in the Chinese market at all, let alone cater to them, and they only relied on the credit book of the past, hoping to sell cars to Chinese consumers with the brand and reputation of their products. Kevin said frankly that he simply believed that Western brands were squeezed out of the Chinese market due to the so-called "political factors", but in fact, Western car companies were conservative and arrogant and took the blame, and the criticism of the United States and the West in China's new energy vehicle field is wrong, and it is a "sour grapes mentality" to buckle the pot on China's head, and the suppression of Chinese imported products is completely naked protectionism.
As the saying goes, if you can't eat grapes, grapes are sour, after the situation in the field of electric cars in the West has completely changed, it finally can't hold back the impulse in its heart, not only to make excuses for the poor performance of its traditional cars, but also to frequently slander and even curb the development of China's new energy vehicle industry, which is really something that can only be done by the arrogance and hegemony of the West. Why can Chinese NEV companies have such a big influence on Western car companies? Why do American reporters lament that "Western car companies are finished"?
One of the fundamental reasons is that China's development strategy in passenger cars has been wisely chosen, allowing Chinese car companies to successfully "change lanes and overtake". Previously, in the era of traditional fuel vehicles, China's automobile industry was once popular with the concept of the so-called "corner overtaking", but Western car companies in the core technology of key components of fuel vehicles in China and other developing countries are blockaded and suppressed, and it is still difficult to break through from these technical levels, and people have been developing for more than 100 years, and you are also developing, the core technology of fuel vehicles has basically developed almost, how can there be a "curve" for you to "super"? Previously, due to the desire to surpass Western car companies in the field of traditional fuel vehicles, Chinese passenger cars also left people with a bad impression of so-called "plagiarism" and "shoddy manufacturing". In fact, overtaking in corners can definitely be overtaken, but this not only requires a car with excellent performance, but also requires the mature and stable technology of the old driver, and the skill of "bending".
Therefore, the concept of "lane change overtaking" came into being, directly abandoning the strategy of "deadlocking" with Western car companies in the field of traditional fuel vehicles, and concentrating resources and forces on the research and development and improvement of new energy vehicles, which is directly "changing the track", completely getting rid of a series of burdens and constraints on the production and sales of fuel vehicles, China's new energy vehicle companies only need to develop and improve the man-machine efficacy, intelligent interaction, and control experience driven by new energy, without having to be entangled in the key technologies of fuel vehicles such as engines and gearboxes. It can be said that pure electric vehicles and intelligent interconnection technologies have reshaped the industrial chain and supply chain of the automotive industry.
Second, thanks to the development strategy of "lane change and overtaking", Chinese car companies have finally realized the "cage for birds" of new energy vehicles after more than ten years of deep cultivation, one is to solve the problem of battery mileage, and the other is to solve the problem of charging and swapping new energy vehicles. China's new energy vehicle production and sales have jumped from about 10,000 in 2012 to about 7 million in 2022, completing a 700-fold sales leap in only ten years. According to relevant statistics, in 2023, the production and sales of new energy vehicles in China will be 9.587 million and 9.495 million respectively, an increase of 35.8% and 37.9% year-on-year, respectively, and 1.203 million units will be exported in the same year, a year-on-year increase of 77.6%. Western car companies have to step by step to give up the initiative in the production and sales of fuel vehicles, and in the competition of new energy peers, in the fourth quarter of 2023, BYD beat Tesla's 484,500 with 526,000 units.
Western countries still appear conservative and rigid in the automotive industry, but also arrogant and paranoid, with inexplicable self-confidence, after BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi said that they would suspend the electric vehicle project and restart the development of gasoline vehicles; U.S. Secretary of Commerce Raimondo has previously slandered and smeared Chinese trams as posing a "national security risk" to the United States, and also claimed that China's trams will "collectively shut down"; European Commission President von der Leyen also strongly advocated the "imposition of tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles", and the "sour grape mentality" of the West is fully revealed at this moment.
As far as China is concerned, what needs to be done now is to grasp the advantages of the industrial chain and supply chain, and after overcoming technical obstacles, continue to promote the "tram going to sea", go out in an organized way, and invest and set up factories in the target areas, so as to effectively circumvent the restrictions and sanctions of the host country. As for the West, if it is blindly unwilling to face the reality of China's "lane change and overtaking", it will still be conformist and arrogant, which will not only damage the immediate interests of its own car companies, but also lose the opportunity for technological exchange and progress.