There has been a lot of talk about Chinese car brands conquering the world. This in finally happening, but still in a slow pace with relatively low numbers. In the meantime, a far more silent Chinese invasion is gaining force: with China-made cars of Western brands. They are suddenly everywhere, and much more is on the way.
An early exporter of China-made Western-branded cars was General Motors. In 2010, they began shipping the Chevrolet Envision to the United States, and subsequently to other North American markets. The Buick Envision is a locally designed SUV manufactured by the SAIC-GM joint venture. The Envision was soon followed by the Cadillac CTS Plug-in Hybrid.
More recently, General Motors is scoring big by rebranding Wuling and Baojun cars. These brands are both owned by the China-based SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile joint venture. In North African markets, the Baojun 630 sedan sells as the Chevrolet Optra and the Baojun 530 as the Chevrolet Captiva. This very same Chevrolet Captiva also ships to Mexico. Earlier, in 2017, Mexico also got the China-made Chevrolet Cavalier.
Probably the best-known exporter of China-made cars is Volvo. This makes a lot of sense, as Volvo was bought by Geely in 2010. Slowly but certain, Geely is moving more production from Volvo’s existing factories in Sweden and Belgium to China, and some new cars are only made there. Volvo started with the long-wheelbase S60L, originally developed for China only, which was sold as the Volvo S60 Inscription in North America, Russia, and India.
After the S60L came the Volvo S90L, another long-wheelbase sedan. The S90L sells in various markets in North America, Europe, and the Middle East. When that went well, Geely decided to move most of the production of the regular-wheelbase S90 to China as well. The new Polestar brand takes thing a big step further. The brand is officially Swedish but each and every Polestar car is made in Geely’s Volvo factories in China.
BMW is also exporting some of their China-made cars, which are manufactured by the Brilliance-BMW joint venture. BMW begun with the long-wheelbase 5Li mode, which is exported to India and to the Middle East. The long-wheelbase BMW 3Li is also heading to India. Most notable, however, is the new BMW iX3, the electric variant of the BMW X3 SUV. The iX3 is made solely in China for the entire world. BMW has also signed a new joint venture with China’s Great Wall Motors. This joint venture will make a new series of full-electric Mini’s that will be exported to markets around the world.
Mercedes-Benz, the traditional rival of BMW, isn’t yet a very active exporter. The only exception is the long-wheelbase Mercedes-Benz E-Class L, manufactured by the Beijing-Benz joint venture. The E-Class L is exported to India, where it is simply marketed as E-Class, and to South Africa.
The PSA Group has seen some difficulties in China in recent years. But that didn’t stop the French to design a new high-end sedan under the DS-brand. This DS9 is made in China and based on the platform of the long-wheelbase Peugeot 508. Due to various restructurings at PSA’s Chinese operations the DS9 is not made by any joint venture, but contract-manufactured by the Baoneng Group. The DS9 will be exported to Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa.
Finally, there is Tesla, the first company that opened a factory in China after new rules came info effect allowing full ownership by foreign car companies of China-based factories. The new ‘Gigafactory’ in Shanghai makes the Model 3 and will soon start making the Model Y. In October 2020 Tesla started exporting China-made Model 3 sedans to various European markets, including Belgium, France, and the Netherlands. The Model Y will likely follow suit.
Undoubtedly, there will be more Western-branded China-made cars entering world markets soon. We will update this article accordingly.