Are you ready to buy a Chinese car?

Several brands are arriving in Europe and in particular in France, with 100% electric SUVs as a lead product.

It will thus be necessary to get used to the brands MG, Aiways or Seres.

The other manufacturers fear a tidal wave in the years to come.

DECRYPTION

Around 100 manufacturers are vying for a share of a growing automobile market in China.

The country remains number 1 in the world with 3.7 million cars sold in 2020, according to data from IHS Markit, the vast majority of which were sold in their local market.

But the ambitions to export their cars are there and there.

In France, for example, there are already 4 Chinese brands: MG, Aiways, Link & Co (mainly for rental) and Dongfeng-Seres.

In Europe, there will be 13 at the end of the year, again according to data from IHS Markit.

Even if, for the moment, in terms of sales, this does not represent much on the European market, with a little more than 10,000 Chinese cars sold in 2020, it will be 10 times more in 2025 according to Lorraine forecasts. Morard, auto sales forecast analyst for the American firm: "We can expect an acceleration in the presence of Chinese brands, in particular because they will have a low-cost electrification strategy ... and offer electric vehicles with good battery life at prices that will perhaps defy all competition but what is going to be behind it is to communicate, to reassure, it is brands that we do not know ".

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The eternal price battle

In terms of electric cars, we should not yet expect low cost or models at 10,000 euros.

The positioning would be rather similar to that of Huawei in the field of smartphones with "premium" and cars which are also concentrates of technologies.

The front door chosen by the manufacturers is the 100% electric SUV.

This type of vehicle is expected to be the best-selling vehicle in the world by the end of the decade.

The price already fluctuates between 38 and 40,000 euros but could quickly decrease with the various bonuses to drop below the 30,000 euros mark.

Electric models would then be much cheaper than competitors, such as Tesla.

The main reason is that Chinese manufacturers have mastered the value chain from A to Z, from mining materials for batteries to large-scale production.

The concern of European manufacturers

The presence of Chinese manufacturers is clearly not a test balloon.

For example, Aiways has chosen to set up a subsidiary in Germany to pilot the launches of its models.

This year, on the European market, brands like XPeng, Lucid or Nio will arrive.

They are not all present in France, often choosing countries where the infrastructure and charging station networks are already well advanced, such as Norway.

But French manufacturers are watching these arrivals very closely.

A senior manager of a French brand tells Europe 1 that he expects a flood of Chinese cars, like what happened in the field of tires a few years ago.

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Online sales and home services

There are several strategies regarding sales and distribution service.

For example, the historic British brand MG, known for its sports cars, and now 100% Chinese, is in the process of making a success of its renaissance by offering 100% electric SUVs thanks to a distribution network of around sixty points of sale in France.

The goal is to have 80 by the end of the year.

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But the Chinese start-up Aiways, born 4 years ago, has opted for a different strategy: it offers a model close to Tesla where all services are provided online ... except for car tests, the latter being delivered home.

"This is the marketing method and the business model that we have chosen to implement in France", explains Serge Cometti, Managing Director of Car East France, a company created especially to support the arrival of these brands. Chinese.

"What the electric vehicle can do is to overcome the traditional constraints of the automobile and avoid forcing the customer to go to fixed points but rather to go to him."

To support the customer after the purchase, partnerships have been forged with brands such as Feu Vert, the Albax / Lecoq body shops for their expertise in electric cars or even a young company from Nice, GoMecano, which provides home repairs.