China Will Affect the Kind of Car You Drive

In the July 2010 issue of Motor Trend Angus Mackenzie reports that China has taken America over as the Number 1 country in the world for automotive sales. Every car company is now looking at China and making the kind of cars that China wants. For the most part, this is a good thing for the American consumer. Consider:

1. Chinese consumers are more demanding than Americans for immaculate car interiors. Thus the new Buicks, GM says, have better interiors because they were made with the Chinese market in mind.

2. China taxes engines based on capacity so engines will be smaller and turbo charged and presumably more efficient.

3. Chinese fuel economy standards, stricter than in the US, should increase fuel economy by 20 percent.

4. V-8 engines could become a tiny niche product and go the way of the dinosaurs. 

5. There will be a significant increase in hybrid, electric, and fuel-cell vehicles, which can be supported by China's massive infrastructure. 

6. We'll be driving Chinese trucks and cars since their companies will go global like Nissan and Toyota, to give two examples. 

Comments

[Tom Welch]

Europe also taxes cars based on an engine's capacity.

[keith beesley]

I have always preferred American cars (at least American-branded), guess I'm part of a tiny minority now. But, I'd have no problem buying an American car influenced by Chinese design/technology, especially if it meant better fuel efficiency.

GM bans "Chevy" nickname:

http://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2010/06/general-motors-bans-chevy-and-elton-john/57958/

[Don]

I think #5 is wishful thinking on the part of the author. #6 must not be allowed to happen. The USA has already allowed too many well paying manufacturing jobs to leave. Free trade is not free, we can see it all around us what price is actually being paid for this 'free' trade.

[Mike W]

I've been dreading China's full-scale entry into auto manufacturing for a number of years now. Given how rapidly they have been scaling up the value-added ladder, was a no-brainer to anticipate that they'd get around to cars sooner or later.

Still, when first I read the statistic about their total car sales exceeding ours some months back, I was surprised by how soon that milestone arrived. I did buy a few energy stocks in 2007 & 2008 though, partly out of the expectation that Chinese and other emerging-market oil demand would keep growing. Like a lot of small investors before me, I have discovered that timing the energy markets is not as simple as it sometimes appears. Still, I can't help but feel that the demand for oil is slowly, steadily building out there, globally, and will one day show up here in the form of higher prices. And guess who'll dominate the production of smaller cars and engines when that happens?

There are two other milestones that I have been ruefully anticipating which, for me at least, will further mark America's relative decline in the world.

One is when the number of Americans incarcerated exceeds the number employed in manufacturing.

The other is the old Chevy bowtie on a Chinese car.

[Bester]

There's been lots of crash tests made in Europe and Russia for Chinese cars and the results are unbelievable:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D827IxEJVS4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kQGAK550LE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZWy_fASSiQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmpDM8wVrUQ