European carmakers are losing their premium brand status in China, as younger consumers opt for cars from domestic brands, further eroding Western firms’ prospects in a cutthroat global market.
Chinese carmakers are increasingly dominant around the world, but European automakers had long controlled the premium sector of the world’s biggest car market.
Chinese champions have now surpassed them there, too, especially in terms of technology: CATL’s new car battery can go from 10% to 98% charge in just six minutes, and analysts say Chinese manufacturers are too far ahead for European brands to catch up.
Acknowledging how far back it has fallen, Audi’s CEO told Bloomberg the German brand has “underestimated the complexity of the shift to the software-defined vehicle.”
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