Huawei, of 5G fame, is moving into EVs. They are selling what they call a Tesla Model S competitor. The article below says it might be the same size but isn’t really in the MS’s class. Still, with a price equivalent of a bit over $35,000 it’s a lot of car for the money. Charges faster than the MS too. It’s not due here anytime soon, but look for it in a few years maybe. I’m sure it will be for sale in Europe mulch sooner.
Can Huawei pull it off? Absolutely, IMO. After losing all US suppliers for advanced chips they found a way to build all the ones they need to produce a new smartphone using chips with 9 nanometer traces. That’s astounding, as is almost everything they do. NOVA had a show devoted to Huawei last night and their capabilities are startling. Don’t sell them short on anything.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/10/cars/china-huawei-new-ev-launch-intl-hnk/index.html
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I saw that show. China is a tech powerhouse. They have government backing to make it happen.
Toward the end of the show they were showing how Intel was building a new FAB plant, and they talked about the US initiative to move this technology back to the US. What they didn’t cover was why it left in the first place. The big tech giants GAVE AWAY manufacturing to Asia to increase profits. Now they US is funding (through our tax dollars) to bring back tech they gave away. One thing they also pointed out on the program was how shipping manufacturing out of the US is a tech brain drain. After years we lose the ability to manufacture and innovate manufacturing. Foreign companies take what we gave them and then build on that to create the next generations. After 2-3 generations, we’re playing catchup. No long term thought. Many engineers warned management this would happen. But all they wanted to hear was how much money they can make next quarter.
We designed many of these tech products here in the US. We designed the manufacturing process and the extremely high tech machines to make it happen. We then GAVE that tech to foreign companies (China, Japan, Korea…etc) so they could build it cheaper. They improved on it. We lost our competitive edge in many tech products.
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A few years ago I presented an invited paper at a technical conference in Seoul. As part of the trip we took a couple of plant tours. One was a semiconductor plant and the other was a pharmaceutical plant. Lots of automation, especially in the pharmaceutical facility. Bags of raw materials were hand loaded from trucks onto conveyors and them moved around the plan by robot lift trucks and conveyors. Granular product went to automated pill pressers and then automated bottle loaders and finally robot packaging. The people we met really knew what they were doing. They’d love to eat our lunch and were well on their way to doing so with hard work and smart work. Very impressive. And many of our employees want four day weeks. Yikes.
I’d likely laugh at Huawei’s attempt at developing an EV for the American or European market since they have no experience here… Vinfast is the latest example… But I would not sell Huawei short.
They just have to look to Kia and Hyundai as an example. They set up engineering centers in the USand hired experienced engineers from GM, Ford, TRW, Delphi ect., to make their cars acceptable to the US market. They did the same in Europe. Huge success for them.
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Japan did it. They were designing and building cars in Japan for decades and shipping and selling to the US market. Very successful at it too. Huawei already has US engineers working for them. The global engineering market is far more open then it was when Toyota first introduced the Toyota Crown to the US market, or when VW introduced the Bug.
Huawei already has foreign employees and they seem smart enough to do thorough market research. The S7 target seems to be the Tesla Model S now sold in China. I don’t know if the Model S differs from the US model but I’m sure that the Model S sells for about 3 times the cost of the S7. Remember too that Huawei gets funding from the state and that translates into lower sales prices.
Am I the only one who recalls the allegations about Huawei equipment spying on Americans who use their phones, and the subsequent banning of their phones in The US?
And, it appears there is possibility that this Communist Chinese corporation might try to spy in other ways:
https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/23/politics/fbi-investigation-huawei-china-defense-department-communications-nuclear/index.html
Given the amount of electronic info systems on modern cars, I think that a lot of Americans would hesitate to buy their cars.
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But it took them 25 years…
The first cars sold in the US were really bad. It took the US quite a while to convince them what to change to make the cars acceptable to the US market. Nissan couldn’t understand why the Americans would not cover up their cars when it was cold. They had to be convinced to install larger batteries.
The Koreans learned from the Japanese mistakes so their progress was much faster.
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Yup!
My brother’s first wife bought a 1967 Datsun SPL-310, which was a total dog, from day one*. It was so bad that, by the time that it was ~4 years old, he and I actually contemplated pushing it off a cliff and submitting an insurance claim.
But, better judgement on our part prevailed (neither of us looks good in stripes or in an orange jumpsuit), and lo-and-behold, the father of our next-door neighbor bought it… even after we detailed all of its seemingly endless problems. He never complained to us after he bought that POS, but I have to wonder why he wanted it and I also have to wonder if he was able to deal with its myriad problems.
*In addition to the car’s numerous water leaks and problems with starting the engine if the temp dropped below 40 degrees, there was a major design flaw. The twin carbs were side-draft, and they were installed so close to the inner fender that you had to disconnect/remove the carbs in order to replace the air filter. There was no clearance to remove the air cleaner cover, even though it had a thumb screw.
Then, there was also the fact that Datsun was issuing dealerships to–literally–anyone in those days. The local dealer had been a sleazy buy here/pay here used car lot one day, and they were an authorized Datsun dealership the next day.
Their “service department” consisted of one elderly man who washed the cars and removed the plastic from the seats prior to delivery. If you brought a car back for a warranty claim, or even for basic servicing, they took it to the Gulf station a couple of blocks away, and the Gulf guy had neither the training, nor the tools, nor the inclination to work on Datsuns.
When we brought that POS back for the third time for the same unresolved warranty issue, one of the Mafioso brothers who owned the dealership convinced us that it would not be good for our health if we came back again. Yet, they kept their franchise for another 18 years.
Thanks, Datsun/Nissan!
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And China has that to learn from. I’m sure they studied this and expect them to take a lot less then 25 years to make a vehicle for the US market.
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Our 1970 Datsun 510 wagon was fitted with a block heater, helped it start in the winter if left outside. Parking it in the garage also worked. There’s an outlet right in front of where it was parked so you just plugged it in when you got home and left it overnight. The Mazda RX3 that dad bought new was gone after 2-3 years but I don’t remember the exact reason for it’s sudden demise. The Datsun was in the fleet for a total of 21yrs, we all remember the black vinyl seats and don’t miss them in the summer.
We owned a pair of 510s. A 72 2 door automatic and a 71 4 door manual. They rusted like mad, but most cars did in the early 70s.
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The Chinese have a problem the Koreans and Japanese never had. The Chinese businessmen can’t leave China without approval from the government. And that takes time. Months sometimes, so they can’t react quickly. That hampers thier ability to manage the North American and European markets.
They can hire local nationals for those jobs, but now the locals have to convince arrogant Chinese managers what to do for those markets. A good friend was in that position for over 10 years.
In the electronics world, that is less of a problem. For autos, this will slow them down.
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Actually those decisions move very very quickly. They’ll have made that decision months before. And China businessmen may not even have to ever leave China. They hire outside the country all the time. We deal with China businessmen all the time. Most are Chinese American living here in the state and work for a Chinese company. As Buick and Lincoln on their relationship with China.
It’s a joint project with Chery which makes a range of models for China and has some sort of partnership with Tata, owners of Jaguar-Land Rover. More likely to be offered in Europe at some point.
Rewatched the Top Gear episode where they feature several Chinese offerings including the future MG sedan for the UK and one based on an Alfa. For the pricing compared to UK cars they were decent with the exception of the automatic transmissions. We’ll have to wait for when the press gets a chance to drive one to find out how well they’ve done compared to Tesla and other EV’s on the market.
EVs with transmissions? Most are direct drive and don’t have more than one gear, especially the inexpensive ones. The Porsche Taycan has a two speed auto for the rear wheels and direct drive single speed for the front wheels, but that’s a pricey EV.
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4cyl engines , one had 3 spd auto. Other 4spd.
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That episode is from early 2012 so was filmed sometime in 2011, the transmission’s on both cars were the only thing they could find to improve for the price converted to their currency, newer versions of both have at least a 5spd auto. Looking at the cars produced before that they pondered what progress they’d see in 5-10yrs.
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