OPINION: If European car manufacturers don’t want to lose out to China, they have to stop being so bloody stingy

Why would you opt for a Chinese car in 2025? Well, the rest of the car industry is wondering the same – but deputy reviews editor Tom Wiltshire reckons he knows exactly why Western brands are losing ground

For once, your adenoids-ridden uncle was right – the future is here, and we’re all driving Chinese cars. Well, some of us are. MG, the most established Chinese car manufacturer in the UK, sells more cars than Citroen, Skoda or Land Rover, and its HS SUV is regularly one of the best-selling cars in the country.

You have to believe that the rest aren’t too far behind. The Jaecoo 7 – another Chinese SUV – was the most configured car on Carwow earlier this year. The BYD Seal U, a slightly different Chinese SUV, was third.

These brands are successfully doing what Hyundai and Kia managed in the 90s and 2000s, but instead of it happening agonisingly slowly it’s going at a million miles per hour. Within the last five years, Chinese cars have gone from a punchline to genuinely desirable – and Western manufacturers should be worried.

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The key is understanding what people are getting from their Chinese cars that they’re not being offered from Volkswagen, Mercedes or Land Rover. The answer, I think, is generosity, or at least the appearance of it.

Take a look at the trim levels of, say, a family SUV. For a start, there are loads, and the brand tries to punish you for picking the lower-spec models. Cheap headlights, tiny alloy wheels, a limited paint palette, all tricks intended to make you step up to the next rung of the trim ladder. Often, trim levels are more or less cosmetic, and if you want extra equipment then you have to add it via options.

A top-spec VW Tiguan Black Edition sets you back nearly £50,000, but you still need to pay an extra £2,000 for leather upholstery, an extra £1,400 for a sunroof, £625 for a head-up display, the list goes on. You’ll add close to £7,000 in options before you have the ‘fully-loaded’ car you might have wanted from the beginning.

Now contrast that with the Jaecoo 7. It’s vastly more affordable for not much less space or capability, but ordering one is as simple as you like. There are two trim levels, and both are loaded with kit, but the only optional extra on either of them is paint. Top-spec cars get the posh sound system, the ventilated front seats, and the head-up display you’d pay extra for on a Tiguan, leaving a £20,000 price gap between the two cars.

And Jaecoo doesn’t punish you for saving some cash, because the standard model looks identical to the ‘Luxury’ trim – same wheels, same headlights, same paint options.

It reflects that we’re moving past just keeping up with the Joneses. A great many people no longer care what brand of car they drive, they don’t care that Roger next door has the SE L and they only have the SE. They care that their car looks cool, that it’s big and practical, and that it has loads of luxury features for a little price.

If you don’t believe me, search for the hashtag ‘TemuRangeRover’ on your social media platform of choice. Initially an insult, it’s now being used as a badge of honour by people who’ve bought a Jaecoo and love it – who find its derivative styling a selling point, and its price tag a total life hack.

The fact is that many new car buyers – especially younger people, or those buying electric cars – don’t care about legacy reputations built decades ago. Volkswagen and Mercedes assume customers will pay more for less simply because of the badge on the bonnet. But Chinese manufacturers have recognised the shift and are exploiting it aggressively.

And legacy brands aren’t doing much to help themselves. I recently tested a Mercedes-AMG CLE 53 – with options, a £90,000 car. Turning onto the motorway, I switched on the cruise control and then went to set my following distance to the car in front – only for a message on the dashboard to inform me that I hadn’t paid for the adaptive cruise control feature.

How’s that for punishing your customers? They’ve just spent close to a hundred bags on one of your flagship models, and now they’re being locked out of features – that their vehicle has the hardware for – unless they pay extra. You’ve brought them in the door at Wimbledon and now you’ve got a bouncer demanding 20 quid before they can go and watch a game. Worse yet, the CLE has the button for adaptive cruise control just winking at you on the steering wheel the entire time. You know what has adaptive cruise control as standard? The £19,000 BYD Dolphin Surf.

Locking vehicle features behind a paywall is an infuriating tactic that smacks of complacency. And these companies need to remember that they might not just be losing a customer now – but losing them for good. A positive reputation can be lost in a heartbeat but it’s much more difficult to shake off negative connotations – Skoda’s been making fantastic cars for decades now and it’s still seen as a bit of a ‘joke’ brand by some people.

A customer who buys an MG, a Jaecoo, a BYD or a GWM today might never return to a Ford or an Audi – and that prospect should really frighten legacy manufacturers.

It’s not too late. Western manufacturers can still turn things around – here’s a few things that I’d do if I was the CEO of An Major European Car Firm:

• Simplify and add sanity – trim levels are a baffling wasteland, with some manufacturers seriously guilty of obfuscation. Which one of these Mercedes models is posher – an Exclusive Premium or a Premium Plus? Cut down to two or three transparent trim levels with a clear walk-up
• Be a bit more bloody generous – low-spec cars are fine, great even for people who don’t want all those sophisticated gubbins. But if you’re spending the extra on a top-spec car, include the best features as standard so people feel like they’re getting what they pay for. Upselling on a top-spec car is a surefire way to put your buyer on the back foot
• No more paywalls – stop punishing people who buy your cars. If the feature is there in hardware, don’t ask for an extra fee to unlock it, or those buyers will spend the entirety of their finance package being bitter
• Shout more about what you do best – Chinese cars are great, but I’ve yet to drive one with a decent petrol engine. I’ve also yet to drive one with properly comfortable seats, or that was any real fun to drive. European brands have collective centuries of knowledge in building great cars – use it, then yell about it

Above all, European manufacturers have to get back to basics and remember who they’re actually making cars for – customers, not shareholders. Right now, Chinese manufacturers are capitalising on the simplest of sales pitches: offering buyers more for less, without tricks and without traps. Sure, profit margins, the aid of the Chinese government and cheap labour costs mean it’s easier for these brands – but that just means Western companies are going to have to take a hit to their profits for a bit. There’s no other way.

If traditional brands don’t change tack quickly, then your uncle might have the last laugh after all. Because generosity, it turns out, is a hell of a competitive advantage – and stinginess is no longer a strategy.

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