As of: March 24, 2024, 3:11 p.m
By: Patrick Freiwah
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Jochen Tüting has been working for the Chinese car manufacturer Chery Automobile for almost ten years.
© Chery / Assembly: Merkur.de
Chery is China's largest car exporter.
Now the focus is on the EU markets.
The head of Europe dispels a prejudice and talks about strategy and possible punitive tariffs.
Raunheim/Munich - Chinese car manufacturers are targeting the European car markets.
A debate has broken out in the EU about the danger posed by competition from Asia, and politically trade relations have cooled in this regard.
Brussels is even planning higher punitive tariffs in view of the suspicion that companies from the People's Republic are benefiting from illegal subsidies.
With Chery Automobile, the largest car manufacturer from the Middle Kingdom is now planning to move into Europe.
We spoke to the managing director of the local division about the planned model offensive.
In an exclusive interview, Jochen Tüting tells us what the group's strategy for the EU markets looks like, what models we can expect and what he thinks about the EU Commission's investigations.
China manufacturer Chery: Not just electric cars - openness to technology is key
Mr. Tüting, Chery is planning to launch the market in Germany with the Jaecoo and Omoda brands.
Is everything going according to plan?
Jochen Tüting:
We chose Spain as a European pilot market early on and have now successfully launched the market.
We have now founded four national sales organizations, one in the UK, one in Spain of course, one in Italy and one in Poland and the Netherlands.
The remaining organizations in Germany, France and Belgium will be added in the next wave.
What does the model strategy look like?
Tüting:
We are now on the market in Spain with the first model, Omoda 5.
The electric version will be added to the combustion engine in about two months.
The first sister model will arrive in June at the latest: the Jaecoo 7 in two combustion engine variants, plus the PHEV variant probably in August.
We want to have four products available for the market launch in Germany, which we are targeting around August, the entire range from BEVs to PHEVs and combustion engine variants.
We plan to have a total of three models per brand on the market by the end of 2025, i.e. a portfolio of at least six vehicles.
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China's largest car exporter: “Combustion engines are part of our future strategy”
Keyword: technological openness.
Are you planning to use multiple propulsion systems in the long term?
Tüting:
We have been the largest exporter of vehicles from China for over 20 years.
The conditions in the global markets are very different and Europe is significantly more advanced when it comes to concrete plans for electrification.
In order to survive on global markets, combustion engines are clearly part of our future strategy.
E-cars or combustion engines: Which drive technology do you see as the most future-proof?
Tüting:
I believe that electric drives have now gained so much global momentum that they will be one of the leading drive technologies.
If we go a little beyond the passenger car sector, hydrogen technology has very good future prospects in truck and heavy-duty transport.
And I believe that the topic of e-fuels can definitely become more relevant.
How is your company progressing with expanding its sales network?
Tüting:
If you set up sales organizations in eight markets at the same time, it will work faster in one market than in the other.
But we are flexible and it was clear early on that Spain would be the pilot market.
The reason: There is a lot of interest from dealers.
In addition, the end customer is very open to the brand, so it was relatively easy for us to build a strong team on site.
In Germany we are in many discussions with various dealer groups.
Some of them very, very specific.
But it remains to be seen whether we will have the right number of dealers in July or August or September.
China manufacturer Chery works “with almost all global suppliers”
What is the situation like working with local suppliers?
Tüting:
Basically you can say that we work with almost all global suppliers.
Many of them, Continental being a good example, have large production sites - including ours in the immediate vicinity of our headquarters in Wuhu (China, editor's note).
We continue to work with Bosch and, whether it's Hella or whoever, we also do business with German suppliers.
How do you assess the investigations at EU level into illegal subsidies by China for domestic car manufacturers?
Tüting:
We are of course closely monitoring what is happening and what the political mood is.
If you specifically refer to the EU investigation, it is specifically about battery-electric vehicles.
I think we are showing relatively clearly that we are now starting in Spain with a combustion engine, which is a well-equipped crossover SUV that we offer from 25,900 euros.
The investigation into subsidies therefore plays no role for this vehicle.
This basically shows that our supply chain enables us to develop and produce very cost-effectively.
This is due, among other things, to Chery's over 80 minority investments in supplier companies.
(...) If you look at Chery worldwide, we have more than ten international plants where we either have pure final assembly or actual production plants.
This means that many of the potential points of attack regarding punitive tariffs or whatever are obsolete.
Tensions between Europe and China?
“It’s about fair, equitable competition”
Do you think the EU's investigations are justified?
Tüting:
Basically, Chery supports open markets.
We expect transparency and fair market conditions, just like our competitors do.
I believe that China has opened up a lot in recent years, for example in automobile production.
You can see this in the takeovers of BMW, for example, which take over parts of their joint venture partners.
You see it at VW, you see it at Tesla, who own 100 percent of their company in China and are supported accordingly.
In this respect, we are concerned with fair and just market competition.
Mercedes-Benz boss Ola Källenius recently made a statement on the subject of punitive tariffs by the EU.
Chery's European boss: "Brand loyalty is even greater in Germany"
A long time ago the Japanese and 20 years ago the Koreans made the leap into European markets.
Do you think Chinese car manufacturers can be similarly successful in the longer term?
Tüting:
I think at the time when the Japanese competitors came to Europe, the market was still very traditional and focused on local manufacturers.
This was largely still the case when the Koreans came.
Today I see a much greater openness to brands among end customers; we are even one of the most conservative in Germany.
This means that brand loyalty to established European manufacturers is significantly greater here than in markets without their own manufacturing industry.
German or Chinese electric cars: If the test carried out by a specialist magazine is anything to go by, there is no doubt about the winner.
The interview was conducted by Patrick Freiwah