Revered European car brands are designing cars for Chinese tastes. I’ll explain that, but before I do, let me set the stage with a little background info. China is the largest car market in the world. That may be surprising to someone living in the US, but it’s true. They’re the largest car market by a wide margin actually – almost double. In 2022 about 24,000,000 new cars were sold in China. The US came in 2nd at about 14,000,000. What’s more – US new car sales are on the decline, and Chinese new car sales are on the rise.
The Chinese government, which is often inseparable with Chinese business (because that’s how communism works) is aggressively pushing EV adoption in their county. And it ain’t because of ‘sustainability’ lol. It’s because China controls the processing & refinement of lithium into EV battery components. So if the world goes EV in rapid fashion, China likely gets the chance they never had to infiltrate the global automotive industry. On the whole, Chinese car buyers are on board with the idea of electric vehicles. There’s not as much resistance (to being told what to do) as there is here in America. But getting back on point…
Electric GTI Concept
Chinese car buyers historically tend to admire European car brands…
At least that was true in the past. But in 2023, Chinese-made electric cars are coming on strong (CDM yo?). In fact, this year, Chinese carmaker BYD took the #1 spot from Volkswagen in China. So all things considered… you can start to see WHY European carmakers are rolling out the red carpet for the Chinese market. They’re trying NOT to lose their edge in the largest market. Ok, so there’s the backstory. But then recently…
A friend named Nick Caloroso made a post about the new BMW M3… asking if we had gotten used to its controversial frontend yet. And as you might expect, that fostered some back-&-forth discussion in the comments. I commented that to me, pretty much all new BMWs look like a Chinese knock-off of a BMW… mixed with bad AI. A mutual buddy came in and said I’m just getting old. Lol alright.
“Old enough to remember when BMWs looked good.”
Nick Caloroso chimed-in & mentioned that the ‘Chinese knock-off thing’ actually tracks, because European brands have started designing for China first. And they have been prioritizing the Chinese car market over the Euro/American markets, since it’s the largest. That wasn’t particularly news to me. And the fact is: You can’t unsee it when you start looking at current BMW designs… they scream China. But something about the way Nick said it kept lingering in my head…
“Designing for the Chinese market FIRST.”
And then I came across this article on Bloomberg where Porsche Design Head, Michael Mauer, said that these emerging Chinese EVs are spurring edgier “risky” car concepts from European designers. And that just struck the chord harder…
Is the Porsche Design Head low-key saying…
That European carmakers are potentially compromising the purity of their design aesthetic… in order to compete with emerging Chinese electric carmakers who tend to build tacky, disproportionate vehicles? At least that’s one way I read it lol. And to be clear, this article is not necessarily targeting Porsche specifically, or even the Volkswagen Group. The top-image of the Porsche 357 Speedster Concept is admittedly just badass clickbait lol. And in fact, honestly, I almost felt as if Michael Mauer from Porsche… was describing BMW’s current design language. Look…
AIDS
China isn’t known for alluring automotive design.
Germany is. But China can throw curveball “risky EV concepts” because they have no history, no heritage, and no pedigree in the automotive realm. There’s no expectation. And that has its advantages & disadvantages. But I’d caution legacy carmakers to be real careful with who they’re letting disrupt the market. Because we’re talking about a country who unscrupulously copies everyone’s homework… and then undercuts them. So let’s not get to a point where a country known for copying designs, is dictating automotive design.
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