Electric shock: Is China overtaking car country Germany? | To The Point
Is Germany losing its mojo? Europe’s biggest economy is steadily sliding downward in international rankings, and now, its leading industry looks to be losing speed.
Germany’s formerly venerable auto industry –once responsible for more exports, turnover and jobs than any other branch of the economy– risks being surpassed by electric vehicles…made in China.
Were carmakers asleep at the wheel? And are punitive tariffs like those imposed by Washington the answer, or could they put globalization into reverse?
Today we’re asking: Electric shock: Is China overtaking car country Germany?
Felix Lee, writes for the online website China.Table Professional Briefing. He has reported from Beijing as China correspondent for numerous German language media.
Clifford Coonan is an editor and China analyst at DW, he previously served for over 15 years as the Irish Times China correspondent.
Beatrix Keim is Director of Business Development & China at the CAR Center for Automotive Research, she joins us virtually
Chapters:
00:00 Is Germany stalling as a motor of the EU economy?
03:30 Car industry still frontrunner of German industry
05:00 Germany’s auto industry is lagging behind
07:15 German auto industry is in crisis
08:00 Germany’s auto industry is “big money maker”
09:00 Germany’s car industry can manage the turnaround
10:00 Germany has to adopt “China-speed”
11:00 Only 10 out of 100 Chinese automakers will survive
12:30 Why did the German automakers cling to combustion engines?
14:00 German carmakers can’t compete with China carmakers
15:00 Why is China in the lead?
16:15 Both decarbonization and digitalization have disrupted the industry
18:00 EU wants to adopt higher tariffs on cars from China
19:00 Will there be a full trade war between China and the EU?
20:00 Chinese car industry has huge overcapacity
21:00 BYD is essentially a battery maker
23:00 Tariffs hurt consumers
24:30 Will full decoupling from China end globalization?
25:00 Decoupling from China no – but yes to de-risking
Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/user/deutschewelleenglish?sub_confirmation=1
For more news go to: http://www.dw.com/en/
Follow DW on social media:
►Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/deutschewellenews/
►Twitter: https://twitter.com/dwnews
►Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dwnews
►Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/dwnews_hangout
Für Videos in deutscher Sprache besuchen Sie: https://www.youtube.com/dwdeutsch
#China #Germany #Electricvehicle
26 Comments
Invest in infrastructure and support manufacturers than investing tax payers money in war and weapons.
这个中国人一本正经的胡说八道
looking at how much VW lowering their quality in parts in the chassis of their new combustion car built in China which compromised their established trust from the customers in China to take VW as standard of good quality products. so that is the core competence but they lost it, not mentioning the already out of dated car OS. Germany is too slow in innovation and lack of motive to do it.
欧洲对信息化要求太苛刻，而中国不关注app使用者的隐私，野蛮生长，但是，这也客观造就了中国的数字化发展比欧洲更快更好，欧洲太保守，太拘谨，过于道德化，中国没有道德约束，中国成长的更快，德国绝不仅仅在电动化方面落后中国，而是在数字化方面全面落后中国，因为中国人几乎每一天睁开眼就要与手机打交道，坐公交，地铁，吃早饭，购物，几乎所有的生活都通过手机来完成，中国的app生态更强大，汽车的数字化也更彻底，而德国则无法做到这一点。现在德国把设计生产的企业放到了中国安徽合肥市，我认为这是对的，但是，我有一个建议，全部使用中国人，用中国人的思维，想法，做事风格和供应链在中国造德国大众的车是对的，不要有哪怕任何德国人参与，因为思维决定后果，德国人在思维观念上全面落后，不要用内燃机车的领导来指导纯电动车，这是截然不同的2个生态，2026年我听说中国安徽省合肥市的大众汽车会有十几款电动车出来，同时也在跟中国的小鹏汽车在发展，我同时建议除了小鹏外，还可以跟中国安徽芜湖市的奇瑞汽车合作，他们的奇瑞星纪元底盘也相当优秀，跟小鹏合作用小鹏的底盘技术，跟奇瑞合作用奇瑞星纪元的底盘技术，然后用宁德时间的电池，用中国人来打造汽车的中控平面和生态，不要有哪怕一个德国人参与其中。。。你会看到相当大的惊喜。能在中国立足的技术，在全世界其他国家都会活的相当好。
Remember those sanctions? They have consequences whether you like it not.
The De-industrialization of Germany by refusing cheap and nearby Russian oil was obvious to everyone except the Germans.
CHinese looking guy is not good for his uncontrovertial view on tariffs. it would be much interesting and attractive to have a voice explaining chinese counter measures and their reasoning. for interviews like this, to be right or wrong no longer catch eyeballs, it is the heated debates among different view points that count. previously DW had been good otherwise.
I think Merc and BMW need to team up with chinese companies.
Marry the Merc and BMW brand with Chinese EV tech.
Apple and Tesla made tons of monies by selling branding and tech.
Chinese companies can only sell tech right now…..branding takes years.
I drive a Merc E and I am quite disappointed with the expensive maintenance and not long lasting of the car parts.
They break down often ( when old ) and is expensive to maintain.
Other brands are cheap to maintain when they are old.
The Merc E drives beautifully but it is expensive to maintain.
If I want a car to get me from point A to B…..I will buy a cheaper Asian car.
China is not going anywhere…its a sinking boat..its electric automobile industry is collapsing..with no buyers and piles and piles of stocks lying in godowns…
Why the German OEMs lose? Because they outsourced every work intensive activity to Low Cost Countries. They have only "managers" and "directors" without any real experience in the production, the market and the supply chain.
Chinese strategy: Change Lanes, Shift Gear. 🛣️🚗💨🚀💪
Germany do not need ev cars, it is a sinking boat, china products has everybody know are bad and overpriced!
EV's are very much a done deal ib terms of the environmental factors. Look at every serious study. Please have more knowledgeable people on these panels.
China believes the EU has overcapacity in pig production, so many pigs in Europe! Can the EU produce more smart animals but less pigs?
Germany jumped into green energy wagon without being fully prepared for it whilst China had been working on it for decades..Germany made it worst by destroying its Industrial base by the Russian sanctions on oil and gas which ran a lot of industries..
China still can't beat Germany's SAP AG and Zeiss.
Germany cant do something that hurt the chinese as germany brand such Volkswagen has flourished and made a lot of profit in China those days. It is time for germany share same aspiration when they firstly entered china market
China new wave overwhelmed the west. In 1990s Japan auto controlled 30% of world car markets, today China is like Japan in 1990. However electric cars needs software, mainly controlled by US companies, made by Indian programmers. If India and China can jointly develop ev, no one can stop.
In 10 years German car industry will look like British Car industry i.e. nonexistent
Greed kills it every time! Same goes for China, obviously.
not only germany but other car makers need to innovate their EV and offer competitive pricing to avoid getting swalloed.
The West is declining, and bit by bit, the picture is coming into clear focus.
Pansy Liberal thought is lay-down let-in government that does so as it is paid off. VOTE CONSERVATIVE, WORLD, OR YOU WILL BE TAKEN OVER BY FOREIGN INTERESTS SMALL OR LARGE. GET SMART, OR GIVE AWAY YOUR HOMELAND AND HOMES.
21:33 thats the type short term that got Germany, Japan and much of the western world in so much trouble. China's capacity is in not just now and for western nations, its across the globe for the next 5 or 10 years, that is still importing ICE cars from Japan, Germany and etc…
It's not about strategy and capability. Germany cannot compete with the costs of cars, the Irish guy is right
US, EU bad losers to China?
If you sit on your hands ignoring the future you will be left like Germany and UK! The futures clean and china are taking it seriously, if you cant be bothered to admit you backed the wrong horse stop appointing fossil fuel puppets to run your economies!