PERSPECTIVES ON THE EVOLUTION OF THE AUTOMOBILE ...

Automotive Industry in China
The cars produced in China by the joint ventures in general have similar quality than
the ones produced in Europe or U.S. Consequently could pass the homologation
process without problems. Some people interviewed argued thought that in the
EuroNCAP ranking test these made in China cars would have lower punctuation that
the same cars made in Europe or US. The reasons are mainly two: first not all the
components used in the made in China cars are the same than the ones made in the
West; the quality of some of the components can be lower, lowering though the
overall performance of the car. Second, as the made in China cars are for the domestic
market that is less demanding in quality, there is no reason to produce higher quality
and consequently more expensive cars. Consequently, if the joint ventures want to
export cars to West Europe or U.S., they cannot use the same cars produced for the
domestic market to be sold abroad; they have to produce separate series of cars that
would have higher performance. From a production point of view this would be very
inefficient. Consequently they would just improve all the production independently of
their destination.
We have been told that some JV’s have plants only for export. For example one JV of
Honda is exporting cars to Western Europe. These cars meet the European
requirements in emissions and security.
The other joint ventures that are exporting are doing it mainly to Eastern Europe,
Russia (despite of recently the Russian exports have decreased considerably because
the government has increased the taxes in imports) and North Africa. GM exports to
Ukraine. Nissan exports a small volume to Eastern Europe. Changfeng Motor (JV
with Mitsubishi Motors) plan to begin selling in Europe around 2011.
Some experts say that the cars made by Chinese local companies, Big 3 and New
Players, are still far away to reach the quality standards required by the European
consumers. The reason why Chinese companies might show their cars in the
International fairs like recently in Detroit, and keep announcing the sales in Europe
and U.S. is a marketing strategy. The Chinese consumers might think the quality of
these cars is better if they are sold in Europe or U.S.
The cars from the big Chinese companies and the New Players are exported to
developing countries because the requirements to sell these cars in those countries are
much lower. In general, Chinese cars do not accomplish the emissions standards
requirements. SAIC, (Shanghai Automobile Industry Corporation) export to Latin
America directly from China (without triangulation in Europe). The main market for
SAIC in the Mediterranean is North Africa. The volumes are increasing as we can see
in Annex V.
Port of Barcelona Chair of Logistics 32