Your Next Car Could Be Made In China!
Friday, 4. May 2018
If you think that your new Mercedes was built in a highly efficient factory in Germany you would be mistaken, most models are now made around the world. Some are built in South Africa and some are built and shipped from South America to name just two.
The VW Polo is also built in South Africa and because of high import duties many manufacturers have factories in India. Many cars are manufactured in the most unlikely of places. Take the Vauxhall Mokka X – it is built in Bupyeong in South Korea and as for the true Brit Mini, whilst several models are built in the UK some are built in Austria and some in the Netherlands?
Buy a BMW X3 and it will have to be shipped over from the country of origin – the USA. And that’s not to mention the parts with some Ford parts for their Fiesta such as engines and gearboxes being manufactured in Brazil and Mexico – did you know that Mr Trump? So does it really matter? I would suggest not.
I can’t remember the last time I was asked where a car was bolted together as a deciding factor – but could this change? Would you be happy if your brand new car turned up with a ‘Made In China’ sticker attached? But this could soon become a reality.
Not because the main manufacturers are considering building cars there but the Chinese manufacturers are considering selling their cars outside China and targetting Europe. And if they gain a foothold it may encourage European manufacturers to start building cars there.
After all Kia’s and Hyundai’s are manufactured in South Korea and their reputation is one of the highest in the marketplace, now ranked above Ford in terms of worldwide sales. In order to gain a foothold Beijing recently hosted their International Motor Show at which journalists were invited to Lynk & Co’s manufacturing plant, built at a cost of £1.4 billion.
They expect to produce 200,000 cars per annum at the highly automated plant. The consensus amongst the journalists was that the plant was incredibly impressive – as were the cars. As Auto Express said, the cars rolling out of the plant were finished to a higher level than many European cars. VW made noises that they would consider exporting cars made in China into Europe. Watch this space! By Graham Hill
