cross-posted from : https://lemmy.zip/post/60717426
China’s EV manufacturers have a new target market in mind: commercial trucks.
Europe’s legacy heavy-duty trucking segment could soon face some serious competition.
Trucks built by Chinese automakers could beat out current battery-electric truck prices by 30%.
Rather ignorant take to be honest.
This is not about innovation. Its about price. European trucks are so much better with driver comfort and driver aids than anything I’ve seen. I go to 2-3 truck shows per year and all the non-EU stuff is still a bit “nasty” at best and horrible at worst in quality and comfort.
The problem is, China doesn’t have the same workers protection and benefits to deal with as EU companies. EU makes better products but at a higher price. I hope we don’t go to the American way of big trucking companies not giving a shit about the comfort and welfare of their drivers. Maybe the EU needs to take some action and subsidize EU made truck purchases or something, I don’t know. The attraction of saving tens of thousands of €'s on a single truck purchase is probably very tempting to the trucking companies, even if the real cost is drivers being miserable.
Rather onesided take to be honest.
If European automotive companies would’ve led on EV development, there wouldn’t have been space for China to compete on price.
Yeah, I’ll admit it was a one sided take, I’m a truck driver so I look at it from a drivers point of view. If I have to sit in a cab for 9-11 hours per day and then sleep in it, I’ll always choose a Euro model.
And the fact is, Chinese products will always be cheaper than European ones, manufacturing costs are wildly different between the places. Euro EV trucks have excellent tech in them, maybe the actual manufacturing pace is lagging behind thats true. But even if we had switched to making only EV trucks, the price difference would still be there.
That is exactly not the problem. For decades the European automotive industry hasn’t competed on price. It hasn’t ever since the Koreans and Japanese showed up, a long time ago.
European OEMs competed on quality and technology. It made them rich and powerful. That’s why you prefer European cars. They’re just superior.
They gave that edge away by not leading on EVs and remaining stuck with ICE.
That enabled China to compete first on technology, because demand for EVs soared and European OEMs couldn’t deliver. That cashflow then enabled China to also -almost- compete on quality. And yes, then the price aspect sets in: superior tech, competitive quality at lower prices. Hard to compete with that.
But it’s of European OEMs own making. Price is a part, but not the most important. European OEMs didn’t pay attention and let the door open. Then they had their lunch stolen. Tough luck.
In what way, specifically, are Chinese EV trucks better than European ones?