German auto market looks to embrace Chinese competition

CGTN Europe

There are mixed emotions in Germany with the news of a slight rise in business confidence despite gloomy growth predictions.  Our correspondent Trent Murray is in Berlin to discuss the effects of the row over Chinese Electric Vehicle imports to Europe on German business.  #evs #china #china #auto #business #economy

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00:00I think it's probably one of the most pressing issues right now, particularly for the automakers.

00:05And you can get a sense of that by just how strongly German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has

00:10come out against that EU plan to introduce tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles.

00:15Scholz himself talks to those business leaders and he knows what they're thinking.

00:20He has said that Germany is against these tariffs because they would hurt Germany.

00:25He said trade wars and protectionism are detrimental to the country, and as a country they value

00:33open trade with the entire world.

00:36And that he said Germany doesn't need the best tariffs, but what it needs is the best

00:40vehicles and the best technology.

00:42So in other words, his view and the Germans' view is that the way to compete with Chinese-made

00:48electric vehicles is not through tariffs, but in order to try and compete with the technology.

00:53We also got an interesting update I think today which I wanted to share because we heard

00:57from one of the biggest car dealership owners in Germany.

01:00He owns around 36 dealers across the country, one of the real leaders.

01:04And he has predicted that Chinese-made electric vehicles in the long term could make up around

01:0815% market share here in Germany.

01:11He said there's really a big effort underway for them to try and make their cars attractive

01:16to German consumers.

01:17Right now they have a market share of about 1.1%, but in his view he's saying that it's

01:23particularly Japanese brands and also Volkswagen as mass consumer products that really are

01:29facing some stiff competition from the likes of BYD, NIO and Xpeng.

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