In an article in The Conversation, Tom Sta Sta Stacey, Senior Lecturer in operations and supply chain management at Anglia ruskin University, emphasized that China's production of the world's best cars is just a matter of time.
China's advantage
China reached the milestone of being the world's largest automaker in 2008, but its products are mainly replicating Western models. But now, they can go a step further, developing both in quantity and quality. The goal of any automobile producer country is to create a car with outstanding quality at the lowest possible price, while satisfying the owner with creative features and beautiful designs.
Japanese and Korean cars dominate in terms of reliability, while construction quality is a brand associated with the Germans. Meanwhile, models like Rolls-Royce and Bentley (UK) are known for their luxurious and elegant designs. China has all the advantages to produce the world's best cars. Why?
First of all, China also has a favorable position to produce cars at suitable prices. They still pay relatively low salaries and have millions of skilled workers participating in production. Highly skilled workers are important to reduce car costs because they create vehicles that need less adjustment or recycling.
China also has great transportation links, with many car factories near Shanghai, the world's largest transportation port. This includes Tesla's "super factory" Gigafactory, one of the world's largest automaker, which can produce about 2,000 cars per day. Taking the product out early and transporting it quickly to reach customers soon will reduce production costs. China's other advantage is its huge supply chain of components, which is already a major example of exporting auto parts to other countries.
Changes to adapt
The start-up company Polestar (owned by Volvo) is manufacturing cars that combine completed quality with the safety, design and performance features that customers in the West require.
Sales of the Polestar 2 electric SUV have far surpassed the Tesla Model 3 in Sweden and Norway, although the Model 3 is generally still the best-selling model. Tesla's Model 3 and Model Y are both manufactured in the US and China, and European owners have reported that the Chinese versions are better.
Polestar and Tesla both have very modern factories, both of which produce Western-style cars, as well as BMW's iX3, another all-electric SUV built in China for export back to Europe. Like Polestar and Tesla, the iX3 is taking advantage of China's supply chain in the field of electric vehicle batteries, as well as other components.
Recently, cars designed and manufactured in China have not been inferior to models in the West (if not as good) and have begun to dominate the market here. Xpeng is a Chinese startup that only produces electric vehicles. Their G3 model is quite popular in China and is well received in Norway. Meanwhile, Nio is another Chinese manufacturer that is making great strides in becoming a global name in the field of pure electric vehicles.
China is making strong changes in car manufacturing and the fact that they are creating the best cars in the world is probably just a matter of time.
