Established Japanese car manufacturers Honda, Nissan and Mitsubishi have announced a merger which will see them share not only manufacturing, but more importantly research and development. The problem all 3 have in common is dwindling car sales and being behind the Chinese when it comes to the electric vehicle market. This merger however will see them become the 3rd biggest car manufacturer in the world for now that is and for how much longer we do not know. The real scary part is without the merger they would not be around within 10 years and I think other car manufacturers need to think along similar lines or they will also be gone within the next decade.
I suppose with us living in the West we have not really seen what is taking place in China and they are literally leaving the rest of the world behind. It is hard to believe, but during the last quarter of 2024 over 90 new EV models were lunched which is more than 1 per day. We have most likely never even heard of the manufacturers yet they are the ones threatening legacy motor companies like VW.
China has the advantage of cheap prices in comparison to the West and they have an EV for $4.5K. The West biggest problem is making excess profit and if they are going o be around in 10 years that mindset needs to change. One just has to look at the price of a motor vehicle today and the prices are not realistic. Some second hand cars are worth more now than their original selling price many years ago. Mercedes has a vehicle that has risen 4 x the price of what it was 8 years ago.
The problem is most manufacturers are having to play catch up whilst the Chinese are already so advanced with autonomous driving. The manufacturers are not small companies like Huawei launching 3 cars in one new product exhibition they had last month.
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This is one of the EV cars know as the 2025 Changan Huawei AVATR 12 EV which has a range of 700km and takes just 25 minutes to be fully charged. The price will be around $36K and no wonder car manufacturers are concerned because they cannot compete.
Here are some interesting stats for this year with the Chinese having exported 1 million cars up till the month of November. 76% of the worlds new hybrid electric cars are Chinese and within the next 5 years all cars sold in China will be electric. There will be many new brands that will become household names and may household names we know know will disappear.
What is kind of crazy is why have the big car companies left this for so long and the likes of Honda, Nissan and Mitsubishi may or may not make it. The problem is the autonomous technology they do not have and each of these companies has something to offer the others. Nissan was one of the first with their Hybrid Leaf EV that kind of stopped and never progressed. Honda have advanced battery technology and I am not 100% sure what Mitsubishi offer besides adding to the overall manufacturing capacity numbers.
Competition is good for the consumer as the prices of the cars in the West need to tumble or the likes of VW, Toyota, Mercedes will be just a memory with technology having left them behind.
Posted Using InLeo Alpha