China Is Winning Because It Stopped Copying.

Ajouté : 2026-06-02

[00:00:00]The Chinese aren't winning because they're copying Land Rover. They're winning because they stopped copying the West. So, hi everyone and welcome to the Peak Talk Show on the Peak Talk Garage channel. Chinese versus Western direction in terms of EVs or hybrids and what's going on here? Are the Chinese dominating? We've seen that, you know, first half of 2026, the JU in our country in the UK is the top selling car. not just the EV or hybrid, the top selling car. And Harry's Garage recently did a video on this and I read through some of the comments and I found them quite alarming. Uh that people will just say that the Chinese, oh, it's just cop it's just a copy of a Land Rover. I'm not a Chinese advocate. I'm not a Chinese car basher. I'm not an EV basher, although I've had my moments.

[00:00:48]The Chinese aren't winning because they're copying Land Rover. They're winning because they stopped copying the West.

[00:00:57]So, Chinese manufacturers are operating in a very very demanding and competitive market domestically as well as overseas where customers demand an EV like driving experience, lower running costs, no range anxiety, no charging network complexity and yeah, no dependence on infrastructure.

[00:01:21]And the engineers brief in China becomes make the customer happy which is what we used to do in the west.

[00:01:30]Whereas European manufacturers for the last 10, 15 years are being driven and being constrained by CO2 fleet targets, EV sales mandates, corporate ESG targets which are just the darth of any industry and regulatory incentives to back full EVs. So that doesn't want that doesn't mean that the European manufacturers wanted EVs or the European engineers wanted EVs. their hands were tied. If the Chinese were copying the West for the last 10, 15 years, they'd be dead.

[00:02:07]They'd be nowhere. You wouldn't see the Jacob at top of the tree, right? So, they are not copying the West. They do not copy stupidity. And they are flourishing because their engineers have more free reign to do what the customer wants. And over here or in the States or in Europe, we simply don't because of government targets. And that is what's killing our industry.

[00:02:29]So yes, the JQU set may look in some angles a little bit Range Rover like, but there isn't a car that you can buy from a Western manufacturer that does the same thing. And that's why it's so successful. Now, if you read the comments on Harry's Garage video being a bit cheeky, saying, "Well, you know, this is when you say sold, you mean sold as in financed by the government on PIP.

[00:02:52]That's why they're selling so many." And there are a lot of comments like that.

[00:02:57]But at the end of the day, it's selling because it it it gives you a customer experience which essentially was the most successful part of the automotive industry that we had in the start of the 2000s.

[00:03:10]You make what the customer needs and it's a simple recipe and in a good old way of capitalism that will always sell.

[00:03:16]So you can make all snigory comments you like about benefits and it being cheap enough to get on PIP and whatever. It's selling because it's good. And we don't sell a car over here that does the same thing. So that car's got, as mere as no difference to most people, unlimited range cuz it's essentially got a range extender. It's got a small petrol engine that's used as a generator. Now, there is some debate whether it actually drives the front wheels or not. It actually has a mechanical connection through a CVT or not. I don't really know. I've not been underneath it. But Harry, you've had the car. You should have done that. I like Harry's garage, but he is not technical. Okay. He's a journalist. I think he could have done more to sort of because there's lots of written written online about this car whether it actually connects to the front wheels or not but essentially that small petrol engine in the front will charge the battery to drive the motor.

[00:04:03]Now that is the direction I believe we should all be going down because you essentially get unlimited range if you can fill up once every 800 miles or 700 miles. That's more than anyone needs.

[00:04:15]um you get a lighter car because you don't have to have fill the whole floor pan with batteries. And the whole thing about you know like Ferrar Ferrari Luche and every full EV cars coming out what people saying why are they so big? Well it's a selffulfilling problem it needs the range so you put more batteries in the more batteries in the less the range cuz it's more heavy and it's like this this horrible snowballing effect which is just not the way we should be going down. But I come back to my point. There is not a single car being sold in Europe by a western manufacturer that is like the range and the lower weight and the simplicity of a JU and that's why it's selling. So we actually had a car like this about 15 20 years ago when there were no EV mandates or CO2. Well, there were CO2 mandates but they weren't so strict. And it's called the BMW i3. Now, it got a bit of a weird reception when it came out because it was kind of kooky. It was light. It had very skinny tires. People didn't like kind of how cheap it felt because it was light. But that was essentially well, there was a range extender version of that. So, you had your battery in your motor, but you had this small I think it was made by Yamaha at the time. It's basically a small onboard generator which essentially gave you huge range with very low emissions and very low fuel consumption. And that still with all the technology we've come through, all the lithium ion technology we've come through, all the hybrid technology we've come through, that's still the best recipe in terms of efficiency. And yes, you can have a full EV, but don't forget you're offshoring the CO2 emissions some some other place either in a power station or in production essentially or mining for the lithium.

[00:06:00]The range extender hybrid is the way forward. We don't do it. Why don't we do it? because of government mandate. The Chinese are running with it and they're running with it strong. And if you look at the JQ range, and you know, I'm picking on the JQ because it was in a Harry's Gar video. That's why it has such a good range because it's taken the best technology that we left. We don't make cars like that anymore. We don't make the i3. We don't make the I think there was a Chevrolet Volt uh or the Opal Ampera. They were similar. They were sort of like onboard generators and like like a diesel electric train. It's the same thing. You've got a a very kind of low revving, highest efficiency possible, highest thermal efficiency ice engine possible as a generator because when you use it as a generator, you can narrow the rev band and you can design the engine for a much higher thermal efficiency if your total rev band is a lot smaller. You don't need like a big power sweep and a big power band like you do in a a direct drive petrol or diesel car. you can keep it at pretty much fixed red just to charge and you can get a higher efficiency out the engine. Sadly saying that, I'm an engine person. Unfortunately, apart from the JQ and other Chinese cars that are using this range extender, hybrid, plug-in hybrid, whatever you want to call it, we don't do anything similar to that anymore.

[00:07:19]We can get plug-in hybrids, but they're nowhere near as efficient as as these Chinese ones because we go more to the sort of EV and battery weight side of it, and we don't rely on the petrol side of it so much. or if we do rely on the petrol side of it, the petrol side is too much of a mechanical petrol engine to drive the thing and have good drivability. If you really want to get range out of car and efficiency, take away the direct drive to the wheels, use it as a generator only and then you can maximize the efficiency of the whole package. So, there was another car like uh that did this. I think we could get a new it was a Mazda MX30, I think it was called, and it basically had a rotary like a Wanko engine used as a generator and he can't buy anymore. uh can't buy the Chevrolet Vault I think it was or the Oakwampera and it was only really the BMW i3 REX the range extender one that actually I think hit the nail on the head with this got no stakes in the Chinese car industry but they are not constrained by the stupid stupid full EV government mandate which is why they're selling the most cars and until our governments in Europe and the West realize that and ditch the full EV pipe dream we're going to fall behind and the European car industry will be over. Now, it's a bit of a rant this video. Yes, they do copy styling. Of course, they do. They do copy the engineering. Of course, they do. Don't forget, a lot of tier one and tier 2 suppliers were already in China anyway. So, is it really copying or is it just use utilizing the same supply chain? I don't particularly like the JU. I don't think it looks very nice, but I'm saying the technology that drives that thing gets the range is what we should be adopting.

[00:08:56]Otherwise, we're going to get left behind. Cheers. I'll see you next one.