>“Production volume is decreasing, so dispatch contracts are terminated in line with that,” the spokesperson said of the employees, hired through dispatch agencies, at Honda’s venture with China’s state-owned Guangzhou Automobile Group.

Least convoluted employment relationship, maybe ever

For Toyota at least it sounds like they’re cutting older models. Really hope the Yaris keeps on trucking!

Anyway, I’ve always been a bit surprised at how well Japanese products sell in China; the Japanese did not treat them particularly well for nearly half a century of colonialism to put it mildly

Then again, French, British, and American products are all popular there too, so maybe they hold grudges less than I would

Toyota, pointing at North America, in the borat voice: You will never get thisssss

It looks very nice though. Like a better Corolla Cross

Although funny enough Geely also owns a stake in Volvo group; a bit under 10% or so

Lot of fingers in a lot of pots

Personally, I think that Volvo should have tried to be Porsche; the ones I see most around here at the XC60s and 90s, which seem more naturally higher market than creating a completely new brand

Let Polestar be a BMW fighter and let Volvo move upmarket. Makes more sense than creating a brand new one

idk

Maybe, but realistically, how many M cars actually get tracked? There isn’t much info out there but I’d highly doubt it’s more than 25%; and even that’s generous

Imagine how much better everything would be if governments weren’t cowards and mandated hybrid systems in everything back in the early 2000s after they were proven to be viable.

More peppy economy cars, maybe 1/3rd less fuel consumption globally, less smog and shit in our cities. And unlike with EVs, where I can see how there’s large groups of people with concerns or issues, realistically how many people would stake out there and say “yes, I would like a less fuel efficient car”

Sure, cars would be a bit larger and more expensive; but realistically they’ve gotten larger and more expensive anyway

Thanks dude!

Paywalled, can someone post the article?

If I didn’t love BMW as much/was poor I’d absolutely get an alfa as a second car. They routinely get discounted $10k even new because of their reputation, but hey that just means more for me

>while BYD doesn’t have a comparable Model 3, Y, S, X competitor.

?

Seal, Yuan Plus, Han, and Tang are all direct competitors to those models, respectively

They really shine with budget models, but they’re not not competing in the same segments

Honestly; not a huge fan of audi in general, but I don’t really see any issue with this model. Maybe I’m just used to seeing audis as boring?

Buy what IP? Isn’t Fisker’s car built off of another company’s platform, by another company, using a 3rd companies’ batteries? What exactly is there to buy?

I believe these are built in China, but BYD does have partnerships with local japanese bus makers so maybe some will be built in Japan?

I’m sorry dude but that’s incredibly fucking funny

Ignoring everything else; I’d expect at least two Chinese brands in the top 2 eventually as China develops based purely on population size. The last 200 years were basically an anomaly and China will probably reclaim it’s usual place as a major economic centre of gravity. Imo it already has to an extent

Besides that, I’m not surprised because the entire western automaker strategy for a long time in China was rather lazy. Because domestic brands were so weak, VW et al could upcharge incredible basic features that they had already developed

Naturally, that strategy couldn’t last forever. Heated seats aren’t exactly cutting edge tech. It was inevitable that Chinese OEMs would eventually develop things like that and rather than proactively fight that many foreign OEMs only reacted once it was too late

It’s more that there was no real competition in the EV space so plenty of OEMs sort of phoned it in, and while that was fine for city cars having an actually competitive EV in the “core” market of sedans and crossovers made everyone else get serious

Which is hilarious because Chinese provincial bureaucracy is legendary for its pettiness and slow movement

Honestly, what’s funny is that American and Chinese online bitching about their governments’ bureaucracies are practically identical. People call them lazy, low paid and relient on good benefits, too obsessed with affirmative action, etc

If a nearly 6% growth rate is a shambles then I’d love to see my country in shambles

A very compelling package if it released 3-5 years ago, but now I see two major issues:

1: The Luxury SUV market will be saturated by then, with the drop of from my count the Model X, BMW iX, Porsche Macan, and a plethora of Chinese OEMs that I can’t name

2: It’s an $80,000 SUV that looks like a Buick. It just looks incredibly tame and reserved which I really don’t think is a huge segment of the target audience