The Chinese Cars Are Coming! The Chinese Cars Are Coming

According to the Journal it looks like Europe will be seeing Chinese auto imports by the end of this year…

    While Chinese cars generally aren’t available for sale in large numbers in Europe, they are beginning to show up in Russia, one of Europe’s fastest-growing car markets in recent years. Earlier this year some Russian car dealerships began selling sport-utility vehicles made by Great Wall Automobile Co. at prices that are as much as 35% below those of other Asian imports, even after accounting for the high tariffs on imported vehicles in Russia.

Here’s one from Brilliance China:
brilliance_china_auto.jpg

US automakers will be watching closely — and nervously. It could be 2007 before the automakers come knocking on US doors, but they are coming. And they could be escorted by a partner such BMW, which has partnered with Brilliance China.

With model names like the Great Wall Sailor and the Chery, the automakers have a long way to go in establishing trustworthy brand names. But if prices are low, they’ll certainly get plenty of attention. And then they’ll try to follow the template set in stone by Honda and Toyota and “move on up that value chain.”

John Yunker
John Yunker

John is co-founder of Byte Level Research and author of Think Outside the Country as well as 19 editions of The Web Globalization Report Card.

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