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Everyone must know that in the past two years, China's automobile exports have been booming. Many car companies have been talking about bringing China's new energy to Europe and even holding product launch conferences there.

The momentum looks good, but if we look at the data more closely, we will find that it is not as good as we imagined.

In the European market, according to data from automotive research organization JATO, among the 25 best-selling brands in Europe in the first half of this year, only SAIC MG was among the Chinese automakers (Volvo was not counted), ranking 20th.

Even if we narrow it down to the electric car market, which is where we excel, among the top ten best-selling pure electric cars in Europe in the first half of the year, only MG4 is a domestic brand.

And it is not only reflected in numbers, but also in offline "evidence" captured by people. Recently, some media reported that Chinese trams were piled up in European ports.

At Europe's largest automobile port, the Port of Antwerp-Bruges in Belgium, a port spokesman said that many car companies do not leave their cars with dealers, but instead rent large areas at the port and use the docks as parking lots. The number of vehicles at the port is currently significantly higher than in 2020 and 2021.

According to the Financial Times, citing industry insiders, some Chinese-branded trams have been stuck at European ports for 18 months, and the lower-than-expected sales of these vehicles in Europe are a major cause of port congestion.

It can be seen thatThe export of automobiles is not always smooth sailing, and there are actually quite a few obstacles.So what is so difficult about this?

First of all, we want to sell our cars abroad, so the first step is to get certification.WVTA (Whole Vehicle Type Approval), a car can only be put on the market for sale after obtaining this certification, which involves dozens of tests on vehicle safety, performance, environmental protection, etc.

Everyone should have heard that the European standard is notoriously strict, and WVTA can be said to be one of the most stringent automobile certification systems in the world. Brother Neck consulted Xiao Yang (pseudonym), a car company person who has done this certification. He told me that the overall European regulations will be more than 5 years ahead and the requirements will be higher. Domestic car companies need to make targeted changes.

The first one isMandatory standards, a new car must have it when it is on the road.

For example, the AEB function, although it is very popular in China and every press conference has to boast about it, in fact, AEB is not mandatory in the national standard, and cars without AEB can still be sold. But the European version is much ahead. As early as 2012, the EU issued regulations requiring new cars produced in 2014 to be equipped with AEB systems.

Some of our cars have AEB, but we can't copy it because the road environment in different countries is quite different. Car companies generally need to do adaptability tests in local areas and adjust the trigger strategy and threshold based on the test results. This will require tens of thousands of kilometers of road tests.

For example ISA Intelligent Speed ​​Assist SystemThere are no such mandatory regulations in China, but the EU requires that all new cars must have ISA from July 7, 2024.

Xiao Yang has done this certification, and there is a function in it.Traffic sign recognitionWhen a car sees a speed limit sign, it must actively slow down. The recognition accuracy must be very high, probably reaching more than 95%.

There are many different road signs on both sides. Others' stop signs are "STOP", while ours are "Stop". There are also more troublesome implicit speed limit rules. When you recognize the school sign, you need to limit your speed to a certain speed. When you recognize the highway exit, you need to limit your speed to a certain speed.

For this, our car companies almost have to start from scratch.

As for the solution, the more troublesome one is to collect data by yourself and train hard; there is also a less troublesome way, which is to cooperate with local European suppliers, but the price is not cheap, and it even feels like paying a protection fee.

In addition to these mandatory functions, there are some ADAS functions such as lane change assistance, lane deviation correction, emergency steering, etc., which are not required by the regulations, but car companies will still invest energy in these projects and match and verify them one by one.Because they are all involved in the European safety test E-NCAP.

E-NCAP is of high value. We are unfamiliar with this area and therefore really need such an endorsement. Therefore, many car companies will integrate all these functions in order to get five stars in E-NCAP.

But the cost is that a bunch of miscellaneous tests add up to a lot of money.

Xiao Yang previously did a certification for a regulation in ADAS. The scope of the certification was relatively small and the cost was one million. According to him, if he were to do E-NCAP again, "A round of testing will cost about 5-8 million, not including the preliminary testing."。

A person in charge of SAIC Maxus’ European market said, “The European market has high technical barriers, and the cost of technology upgrades and product modifications alone will cost at least tens of millions.”

After all the certification work was completed and the car was finally shipped to Europe, the problem of transportation capacity arose.

There is another reason why a bunch of cars are parked at the dock.Europe’s trucking capacity is insufficientThere are not enough trucks and there is also a shortage of truck drivers.

When transportation capacity is in short supply, transportation companies will give priority to cooperating with companies with large scale and relatively stable orders, such as Tesla, which will have more say. However, Chinese car companies have just started to form teams and cannot compete with them, so transportation priority will be placed at the back.

When the cars were delivered to the store, we found that they were not so easy to sell. The first problem was,The demands for vehicle models in different markets are completely different.

For example, the Zeekr X, with a price tag of RMB 200,000, takes the unique route of a refined small car, which is a good idea, but it does not sell well in the Chinese market, with sales of only a few hundred units in the first few months.

Its brother car, the Volvo EX30, has a starting price of about RMB 307,000 in Sweden, but it is a hot seller in Europe.

In the sales rankings for May, EX30 was the second best-selling electric car in Europe, second only to Tesla Model Y.

Maybe we will never understand why Europeans like small cars so much...

For example, the acceptance of assisted driving varies at home and abroad.

Previously, when foreign media InsideEVs evaluated Xiaopeng models in Europe, it mentioned the different needs of Chinese and Western users. They felt that the lane departure warning function in XPILOT was too aggressive.

Just like the Germans know that Chinese people like big cars and all their car models are lengthened, when our Chinese car companies go abroad, shouldn’t we also come up with some designs that cater to the Chinese people’s tastes?

In addition, electrification in Europe has been cooling down during this period.

Mercedes-Benz announced at its earnings conference this year that it would no longer stick to its plan to fully electrify its vehicles by 2030, while promising to continue improving its fuel-powered vehicles. Porsche also said that the transition to electric vehicles would take longer than expected.

Of course, they are not giving up on electrification, but the market enthusiasm has cooled, so they have to postpone it.

According to data from market research firm EU-EVS, sales of pure electric vehicles in 15 European countries fell 13.5% year-on-year in the first half of 2024. In Germany, a major automobile country, 111,000 electric vehicles were registered from January to April this year, and the annual estimate is more than 300,000, which is significantly lower than last year's 520,000.

In addition to these, Chinese cars also go to the local areaInsufficient brand power, few outlets, and inadequate after-sales systemThere are so many local car companies in Europe, and people recognize their own brands, which is their advantage.

In addition, the EU has also introduced a tariff policy this year that is a stumbling block, which also makes it difficult for us to force our way through.

In 2022, Great Wall Motors planned to expand its European market and established its European headquarters in Germany. However, after the EU imposed tariffs this year, Great Wall abolished its European headquarters and switched to remote management by its Chinese headquarters.

A few days ago, the EU's final anti-subsidy tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles came out. Compared with the previous domestic brands, there was not much change, but Tesla's tariff dropped to 9%. This is clearly aimed at us.

In short, there is no small resistance for Chinese electric vehicles to go overseas, but no matter how difficult it is, it has to be done. And the way to deal with it here is nothing more than to do more localization, take steady steps, and adopt a long-term strategy.

BYD and Chery have already started building factories in Europe, and other car companies such as SAIC and Leapmotor are also planning to do the same.

When I think back to when Japanese and Korean car companies first went to Europe, they were also criticized by European consumers for all kinds of problems, and then they continued to polish their products and follow the market.

You Europeans like manual transmissions so much, so I provide manual transmission versions for all of them. You also like diesel engines, right? I can arrange that right away. In the early 20th century, Honda, which had only made gasoline engines, spent 50 million US dollars to develop the first diesel engine for the European market.

It took Japanese and Korean automakers decades of hard work in Europe to finally open up this market.

For Chinese car companies, it has just begun. If they want to break this situation, it is most important to keep a stable mentality, take a long-term approach and take it slow, only then will they have a chance to advance into the hinterland.

Written by: Daydream

edit: Neck twist right & face thread

Art: Xuanxuan

Image, source：

JATO

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Financial Times，European ports turned into ‘car parks’ as vehicle imports pile up

Xinhua News Agency, Reporter's observation: Germany's road to electric vehicle transformation encounters "headwinds"

Everybody drives an Auto, the unsalable domestic electric cars fill up the European ports