Are Chinese cars any good?

Tuesday, 15 October 2019

It's a Marvel: take a closer look at Chinese brand Roewe's super-luxury EV-SUV.

Judging by your hi-tech iPhone and sumptuously soft Prada bag, some really nice stuff is made in China.

Same goes for cars, although you might not necessarily know that from the brand on the front. Much like your iPhone and Prada bag.

It used to be the case that Chinese carmakers mostly made cars for the Chinese market, because they were protected: if a foreign maker wanted to produce cars in China, it had to be in partnership with a domestic company.

Chinese brand MG is bringing a hi-tech, affordable EV to New Zealand in 2020.

That's changing now and Chinese brands are turning their design efforts and considerable manufacturing expertise towards cars that will appeal to the rest of the world. You can buy some of those in New Zealand already.

**READ MORE

The Mansplainer, holding a Chinese-made iPhone.

* We drive China's Tesla-beater, the Roewe Marvel X

* Chinese cars: why you need to know about SAIC

Volvo is a Chinese-owned company and does actually make some cars in China, including the XC40. Just not for NZ.

* Five automotive brands owned by the Chinese**

The best example is MG. The British brand has been owned by state-owned Chinese company SAIC (the world's seventh-largest carmaker) since 2007. It's changed a lot from its sports car heritage: it now makes mostly SUVs, they start first time and they don't leak oil all over your driveway.

They're still at the value end of the equation, but MG models are not lacking in design or technology. In fact, MG is bringing NZ's first sub-$50k pure-electric new vehicle to market next year: the ZS EV.

SAIC also owns another British brand, LDV. You can buy LDV utes (the T60) and vans in NZ and they both have a loyal following.

Haval is one of the biggest-selling SUV brands in the world and that's Chinese as well. It's made by Great Wall Motors, which also sells utes here in NZ - although I'd have to admit the pickup trucks are not up to the quality or ability of the Ford Ranger or Toyota Hilux yet (but they are really cheap). See also Foton utes.

Give it a little time - there's a posh new Great Wall ute on the way and it might even include an EV option.

The other thing that might surprise are the cars that are not actually built in China, but still the product of big-name Chinese-owned companies. Volvo is owned by a private company called Geely for example, which also has 51 per cent of Lotus.

They are 'Chinese' cars not necessarily made in China. Then again, that applies to some Chinese-brand models as well, like that MG ZS I was just talking about - because it's made in Thailand for our market.

Maybe it doesn't really matter where cars come from. Your posh 'German' Volkswagen Tiguan Allspace is made in Mexico, by the way.