In marketing, this is called putting your foot in the door.
Capture the attention of your interlocutor while convincing him.
After a first attempt in the 2000s, led by manufacturers like Jiangling Landwind, Brilliance, Qoros or Great Wall, to conquer the European market, China is back to assault the Old Continent, with much better arguments.
Especially in the electric.
Forget the badly finished models, with obsolete technology.
Manufacturers are now sure of their strengths.
And for good reason: their government imposed until 2018 on foreign manufacturers wishing to sell on the Chinese market (the world's largest), to ally themselves with local players.
Like for example Renault and PSA with DongFeng.
Enough to operate countless technology transfers, before developing your own know-how.
That the country now intends to export beyond its borders.
Hence the multiplication of offensives.
Geely, which took over the Swedish Volvo in 2010, is preparing to market its first Polestar 2, a 100% electric model intended to compete with Tesla's Model 3.
Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) and its 7 million vehicles per year, took over the small British brand MG in 2007. After the creation of a French subsidiary in February of this year, a dealership has just opened in the heart of Paris to market the MG ZS EV, a 100% electric SUV.
French manufacturers are preparing the response
About a hundred copies were also sent to Corsica to be rented by Hertz, alongside 500 U5s from another Chinese manufacturer: Aiways.
The automotive subsidiary of battery manufacturer BYD is no exception: “The launch of our Tang electric model in Norway will serve as a test for the European market,” explains Isbrand Ho, CEO of BYD Europe and President of BYD France.
This will allow us to understand the specificities of this market and how electricity is evolving there.
“Start-ups, like Byton or Nio, also promise launches as early as next year.
"China is still playing its round of observation," explain Jean-Michel Prillieux and Jamel Taganza, of the Inovev firm, specialist in the automotive market.
Before launching a larger-scale offensive which will inevitably involve a price war, like the one it had set up in telephony.
“French manufacturers are already preparing.
Citroën launched its AMI, the small electric, this year.
Renault will repatriate its K-ZE, currently produced and sold in China, France from 2021, under the name Spring.
It will be sold for around 10,000 euros via its low-cost subsidiary Dacia.
And Peugeot has announced the creation of a platform entirely dedicated to electricity by 2023.
MG opens a dealership in Paris
2,200 m2 spread over five levels, in the heart of the capital, a stone's throw from République.
The French subsidiary of MG did not do things by halves by taking over this old Honda dealership.
“Everything went very quickly,” says Serge Cometti, Managing Director of MG France.
The statutes of the European subsidiary of SAIC were filed in Amsterdam in mid-2019, the French subsidiary of MG a few months later in February 2020 and the concession opened on the first day of deconfinement, on May 11.
"
With, always, for the sake of ultra-efficiency, a commercial strategy reduced to the strict minimum: a single model, the MG ZS EV, 100% electric, available in two finishes (comfort or luxury) and five colors.
Goals?
“At the end of July, we had sold 324,” continues the boss.
We are aiming for a thousand before the end of the year, double that in 2021. ”Anecdotal?
Necessarily.
But the former manager at Renault for 13 years, also spent in distribution and car repair, wants to see it as a springboard.
Moreover, according to our information, a plug-in hybrid version is in preparation, for a launch in France scheduled for 2021. Time for the 100% electric version to be talked about.
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"She should be talked about," agrees Ruben, a 41-year-old computer engineer, who came from Ozoir-la-Ferrière (Seine-et-Marne) with his wife and three children to try it out.
The silence in the cabin is stunning and the finish has nothing to envy of any current electric model.
It's even the best value for money I've seen on the market.
”That is 263 kilometers of autonomy and 143 HP of power for 29,990 euros for the Comfort finish and 31,990 euros for the Luxury.
All excluding the ecological bonus (6,000 euros) and the conversion bonus (up to 5,000 euros, cumulative).
Almost the equivalent of a Renault Zoé.
