Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

In 2005, China overtook Japan to become the second largest automobile consumer in the world after the United States. Taking advantage of the outbreak of China's auto market, Chinese automakers began to try to open the European market with the most competitive and perfect market in the world automobile industry.

In that year, Lufeng Motor took the lead in entering the European market, selling nearly 1,000 units in the first month of its release, winning the title of the best imported car of the month, and becoming "an important milestone in the development of domestic independent car brands."

The momentum of Lufeng Motor is so strong that European industry insiders see the shadow of Japanese carmakers in the 1970s and South Korean carmakers in the 1980s.

In any case, it is unacceptable that the "pupils" in their eyes should want to kill their hinterland. Soon, a sudden disaster fell on Lufeng Motor, and even the entire local Chinese automakers.

At that time, the German international auto show IAA was held in Frankfurt, but it has not yet moved to today's Munich. Geely, Lufeng and brilliance made their debut as Chinese brands.

Originally thought to welcome the flowers and applause of international counterparts, who knew to wait for Land Wind Automobile is the all-German Automobile Club (ADAC) report on the crash test, after the collision, "the driver's chance of survival is almost zero."

The all-German Automobile Club commented, "with the worst performance in the history of crash testing in the past 20 years, such cars should not be given a pass to enter the European market."

At the same time, the National Association of Automobile drivers of the Netherlands also did a test on Lufeng. According to the report, Land Wind cars are not only extremely poor safety, but also seriously pollute the environment and poor driving stability.

Overnight, Lu Feng, which has always been unknown overseas, has become a household name in the European and American automobile industry, and "shoddy manufacturing" has also become a stereotype of Chinese cars in the European media at that time.

The storm not only hindered the pace of Chinese cars entering the European market, but also seriously affected the confidence of Chinese manufacturers.

In the following years, domestic independent brands also tried to open the door of the European car market many times, but with little effect and did not stir up much spray.

The most difficult thing to enter the European car market is not to meet the stringent European standards, but their inherent sense of superiority, which is a gap that Chinese car companies are difficult to cross.

Europe is the birthplace of modern automobiles. Since the German Karl Bentz invented the first car, the European automobile industry has gone through more than 130 years of development, giving birth to a large number of world-famous car brands, such as Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Peugeot, Renault, Citroen, Bentley, Jaguar and Land Rover.

In the past 70 years, China's automobile industry has spent most of its time disassembling and imitating, reverse research, or win-win joint ventures. The "three big" engines, gearboxes and chassis of fuel cars have always been a headache for Chinese car companies.

The domestic traditional automobile market is basically dominated by joint venture cars, mainly German and Japanese cars, and domestic independent brands have been rubbed on the ground.

I don't understand it at home, but I still want to lift the table in Europe, the stronghold of the automobile industry.

European car giants are bold in the age of fuel cars and panic in the era of new energy. their engines and other technologies are still very powerful, but new energy vehicles are powered by batteries.

On the contrary, how passive domestic independent brands are in the era of fuel vehicles, and how active they are in the era of new energy. Domestic independent brands lost face in fuel vehicles in Frankfurt, and Chinese new energy vehicles were found in Munich.

China Electric Storm: the second sweep of Munich has just come to an end as the "Olympic Games" of the world automobile industry-the 2023 Munich Motor Show (German International Auto Show, IAA).

As one of the top five auto shows in the world, it used to be the main battleground for German auto companies such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Volkswagen to show their muscles, and most of the booths were taken by them, and of all the exhibitors this year, 41% came from China.

Chinese teams composed of BYD, Avita, Zero Race, Cyrus and Xiaopeng gathered here, and the booth was so crowded with visitors that even Wang Chuanfu could not squeeze into his own booth.

Although the Chinese team fought away from home, it properly won the C position and firmly occupied the spotlight of the main stage.

Germany's Economic Weekly commented that for the first time since 2023, Chinese automakers have surpassed German automakers in innovation, and the Munich auto show will be "the IAA of the Chinese". "the Munich auto show is no longer the home of Germany's CEO, but has become a 'personal show' for Chinese automakers."

Chinese auto brands have made a bad start in the German auto show for the first time in 2005, but now they suddenly occupy the main stage and have been examined by the world media. China's automobile industry has been working hard for 18 years.

This time the Chinese team can be simply divided into three categories:

Subversive faction: I want to replace you, with you, BYD auto exhibition area occupies the largest booth at the scene, to beat Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Volkswagen and other established European car companies, make no secret of their ambition to replace their position.

As early as 16 years ago, Wang Chuanfu set an ambition that BYD would be the world's largest seller in 2025. Now that BYD has become the TOP10 of global car sales, it is getting closer and closer to the promise that Wang Chuanfu is determined to win this time at the Munich auto show.

In addition to showing six new energy vehicles in one breath-Seal (Europe: BYD SEAL), Song PLUS EV Champion Edition (Europe: BYD SEAL U) and Trends D9 (DENZA D9), especially the D9, it is regarded by foreign media as a strong competitor to Mercedes V-Class and Lexus new LM luxury business vehicles.

BYD also showed off a wave of technologies, such as CTB battery body integration technology, iTAC intelligent torque control system, DiLink intelligent network connection system and so on.

Of course, the design concept of "Ocean Aesthetics" did not forget to popularize science to the Europeans.

At present, BYD is the only car company in the domestic automobile industry that can realize the self-development of "three Power" and the only car company that can produce main control chips on its own. it has vertically opened up almost all the core links of the new energy vehicle manufacturing industry chain, forming the ability of vertical integration of the supply chain that other automobile companies do not have.

This is the strength of BYD to become the king of global car sales.

However, for BYD's menacing, BMW Group Chairman Chipze dismisses, "No one can enter a new market overnight."

"ambition is not the same as success," he said. "it remains to be seen how new participants meet the needs and tastes of European customers."

It remains to be seen who is right and who is wrong.

Competitive faction: compared with BYD's "very threatening", Zero run, Chang'an and Xiaopeng are much more "kind", much less threatening, and more showing their attention and expectations to the European market. I hope to "dance with wolves" with established European car companies to carve up this big cake.

Take zero-running cars as an example, zero-running cars not only demonstrate the latest achievement of global self-research, LEAP3.0 technology framework, because it can support the cockpit domain, intelligent driving domain, power domain, car body domain "four-in-one", officially known as the "four-leaf clover."

At the same time, Zero released the first global strategic model Zero C10 based on this architecture, positioning medium and large SUV, which is expected to adopt extended range and pure electric power routes, support super fast charging of 800V high voltage platform, equipped with lidar, and have high-order intelligent driving assistance system.

Mutualism: let me help you build your car, mutual benefit and win-win. At this year's Munich auto show, in addition to many new energy companies such as BYD, there is also no lack of Chinese intelligence, electrification and parts suppliers, which are the shortcomings of Europe's established auto giants.

In the field of power batteries, including Ningde era, Yiwei Lithium Energy, Xin Wanda, China New Airlines, Funeng Technology and other 13 enterprises have participated in the exhibition.

Ningde Times has made it clear that it will set up factories in Germany and Hungary to meet the development needs of local new energy vehicles and help the overall electrification process in Europe and local new energy vehicle companies to go out to sea.

In terms of intelligent car software and hardware and intelligent driving, suppliers of self-driving solutions such as Horizon, Yigatong, Light Boat Zhihang, Yuanrong Qixing, Shangtang Technology and other intelligent driving hardware providers such as lidar have all appeared.

Take intelligent driving technology as an example, Chinese intelligent driving technology brands are speeding up to go to sea, while the progress of relevant technology in Europe is slow, and the two sides have broad space and potential for cooperation.

A few days ago, Yuanrong Qixing announced that at present, Yuanrong Qixing is in technical contact with a number of international car companies, and will set up an European operation center in Germany next year, simultaneously releasing overseas versions of DeepRoute-Driver 3.0, D-PRO and D-AIR smart driving products, as well as smart driving light trucks.

According to a column published by the Wall Street Journal during the Munich auto show, Western manufacturers should now learn from Chinese car companies such as BYD.

It is rumored that before the exhibition, Wan Gang (chairman of the China Association for Science and Technology) invited all the exhibitors to hold a meeting, and the leaders at the meeting exhorted and ordered:

Lay low! Lay low! Lay low!

It is not difficult to understand that from complete vehicles to power batteries to intelligent driving systems, China's new energy vehicle industry chain is directly blocked at home, which may be a "threat theory."

Now I'm afraid it's impossible to keep a low profile. At present, there are gloomy clouds over the European auto industry, and the faces of traditional auto giants are even more gloomy.

"We [Germany] are losing competitiveness." Hildegard Muller, president of the VDA (German Association of Automobile Manufacturers), issued a warning to the German auto industry.

In the face of low morale in the German auto industry, Chancellor Schultz could no longer sit still and went to the Munich auto show to cheer his country's automakers on.

"Competition should inspire us, not scare us." He points out that the German car industry has faced competition from Japan and South Korea over the past few decades; now, electric cars from China will also provide "innovation drivers" for German carmakers.

He stressed once again that there is "no doubt" about Germany's international competitiveness as an automobile power.

At the same time, he also announced an incentive plan worth 110 billion euros to promote German industrial modernization and climate protection, including accelerating investment in strategically important areas such as charging infrastructure, renewable energy and batteries.

Faced with the dilemma of new energy vehicles, although European car giants lack confidence, they do not throw in the towel and are ready to start a second business.

European cars: the second venture the global automobile industry is facing great changes not seen in a century, traditional fuel vehicles down, new energy vehicles up, this growth and decline has become the consensus of the industry.

New energy vehicles are expected to account for more than 50% of global car sales by 2025, with China becoming the dominant track, according to research by Morgan Stanley.

In the face of the storm of new energy vehicles in China, Europe is not waiting for death. With a multi-pronged approach, it is going all out to keep up with the rapid development of new energy vehicles in China.

Inside and outside the Munich auto show, the European industry has realized that China is becoming a superpower of new energy vehicles, not only in the Chinese market, but also in its own home market. Europe needs to prove that it still has the strength to compete with China.

Jean-DominiqueSenard, chairman of Renault, laments that "in this [new energy vehicle] field, China is already a generation ahead of us and European car companies" have to catch up quickly ".

Crisis-stricken German brands are already on the move, and Germany is redefining the next generation of new energy vehicles at the Munich auto show.

Mercedes-Benz brought the CLA-class concept car, the first model built by Mercedes-Benz's new modular architecture MMA platform and equipped with MB.OS operating system, equipped with 800V overcharge system, WLTP mileage of more than 750km, with about 12 kWh / 100km excellent energy consumption performance, known as the "1-liter car".

BMW Group brought the world's first BMW new generation concept car and demonstrated the next generation BMWiDrive human-computer interaction system. BMW said that it will be installed in the new generation model for the first time in 2025, the domestic version will be mass produced in China in 2026, and six new models will be launched one after another based on this platform.

Volkswagen ID.GTI concept car unveiled, bringing the iconic GTI series into the future electric travel world, but also presents a new brand concept in all directions for the first time.

The new car brings the GTI series to the era of electric travel for the first time and is based on the MEB platform Volkswagen ID.2all concept car. The mass production version is scheduled to go on sale in 2027.

The prelude to the new electrification of Europe has finally begun, and a new round of global competition has begun quietly.

In the face of the dilemma of new energy transformation, European traditional automobile giants choose to cooperate with Chinese enterprises in all aspects to make up for their shortcomings in intelligence, such as Volkswagen investing in Xiaopeng Automobile, Audi and SAIC Zhiji, focusing on the field of electrification and intelligence.

German Volkswagen spent 5 billion yuan in tuition fees and only got an observer seat on the board of directors and did not even have the right to vote. The German auto giant's learning attitude is quite sincere and is no longer the arrogant "mentor" of the past.

Now, the story repeats itself, but the roles of the two sides are quietly reversed, and the global auto industry is accelerating to reshape.

This article is from the official account of Wechat: automobile News Agency (ID:automobile-news), by Lao Wang.

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