Lee already understood everything!

The Chinese capture the Russian automobile market. Will European and Japanese cars be back?

Now Changan, Geely, Zeekr is what we can count on in the absence of Toyota and BMW. Against the background of the sanctions of a car with names that are more like a chaotic set of letters, we capture our market. Will they manage to oust from the hearts of ordinary Russians Toyota Prius or Renault Megan, and from the life of the rich - Mercedes and BMW? Why in China the SUV costs a million, and we have three? And what does Made in China really mean?

Dmitry Klataevsky, director of the company Japan Transit, answers questions from the “New”. Which used to carry only Japanese cars, and now carries Chinese.

"We did not know because they were not"

- The most popular and affordable Chinese cars are Geely. They are also represented by official dealers in Russia. If we talk about used cars, then the Changan brand is also in demand. In China, this is generally the most popular car. There is a premium segment-cars of brands LI, HIPHI, ZEEKR. Incomprehensible names, right? Six months ago and for me they sounded completely unfamiliar. And now I understand and understand how a promising market it is.

- Then let's start with the market of premium cars. How great and competitive is it? Is there a demand in Russia? Or do the rich still prefer BMW? Is it comparable, relatively speaking, the “red banner” on which the top of the Communist Party and the Communist Party of China drives, with Rolls-Royce?

- Hongqi, or translated into Russian “Red Banner”, is actually not an advanced brand in China. Their strength for the most part is that the FAW Group, the manufacturer of this brand of cars, is a state -owned company. They united interesting minds around them. But it was the premium brand that, of course, did not make, because for the most part they do not need to conquer the consumer, they will be sold in China so well-the entire power top of the PRC moves on these cars.

And to take private companies - the same Zeekr, the premium brand Geely (automobile industry giant, this concern includes Volvo, they bought Lotus).

These are very cool premium machines from high -quality materials. Of course, this is a direct competitor to the “Big German Three” - Audi, BMW, Mercedes Benz. But they cost two times cheaper.

They released the first sports electric car of ZEEKR 001 in 2021, this is a very young brand. We did not know about him, because he was not there! It took these manufacturers a little time to declare themselves, to conduct marketing campaigns.

Relatively recently, Li Xiang also appeared. I have wealthy customers who are accustomed to driving on very expensive premium cars. When I offered them to buy Li and just ride it, then every first left this car for himself. This is premium, of course. And it costs from seven million.

Roughly speaking, a direct Chinese competitor Mercedes GLS and BMW X7 will cost 5-7 million cheaper. And at the same time there will be 460 horsepower, all -wheel drive, three rows of seats, skin. In addition, the Snapdragon processor inside multimedia, a 4D cinema, huge 3K monitors. And cheaper because producers of premium cars do not make a policy of making money, but earning markets. Bye.

Now all car manufacturers in China are unprofitable. Each company. Even Geely. And all these losses are covered by the state. That is, all cars are sold either to zero or minus. Now they want to begin to massively sell their cars, then - spare parts. And when users understand that the “Chinese” are no worse than the “Germans”, they will be the same.

I would now allocate from the premium brands Li Xiang, the premium line of BYD and ZEEKR. As for the mass cars - Changan, the same Byd and Geely. Moreover, sales also show this. So far, Volkswagen holds the palm of the sales championship in China, but Changan is about to get around it. And before that, after all, they, the Chinese, did not even buy their cars!

The secondary market will show

- From Primorye to China, a stone's throw. But if Japanese cars could still be brought freely, would we buy Chinese?

- Well, “if” ... we are already buying them, it has already happened. In my opinion, they would buy in any case, but much later. It is difficult to convince people: we have a conservative society.

There is a formed market for Japanese cars - a low and medium price segment. There are German cars-a premium segment. Drivers understand how, where and for how much to serve them, what is the resource. And with the Chinese, everything is in a novelty.

But in the conditions of the resulting vacuum for the Chinese, perfect soil arose to go and create infrastructure.

The most interesting thing is whether then everyone else can displace the Chinese from here. Not only do we “try them out” - there is a background: the brands left and threw everyone on a guarantee, for service.

People spent 10-15 million on cars, and they were left without support, without software, even without consumables. Perhaps when the brands begin to return, German cars will cost cheaper than Chinese so that they begin to buy again.

If we are talking about those cars that are already driving in Russia in a noticeable quantity-Chery, Haval, Geely (their official dealers are already represented in Vladivostok), this is the Low segment in China. They stand there a penny! Less than 100,000 yuan. This is about a million rubles for the same Haval SUV. And here we lay out 2.5-3 million for it. We have no choice. The Chinese came to our market to earn money. We can assume that they are our brothers, but they are primarily businessmen.

-Literally this week, the new Liftback Moskvich-6 came off from the assembly line. Do you think the "six" can become a folk car? Or in the central part of Russia, will everyone ride on Grant or Renault, and in the east of the country - to reach the “Prios”?

- I can't answer unequivocally. In any case, in the Far East, a large supply of fresh Japanese cars, which we have recently drove in large quantities. We know what a resource these machines have - they will “get” for decades. New cars are bought by people of medium wealth and higher - they spend 3-4 million rubles each, and what difference does it make for them, Haval will give them a guarantee for three years or Volkswagen? But the secondary market will already show, people will agree to take a belly Chinese car without a guarantee or better buy a ten -year -old Toyota Prius with a complete understanding of what to do with it and what to expect.

- How are things with Chinese spare parts?

- Difficult for now. As such, there is no infrastructure today. There are some filters there, some services were retrained to Chinese cars. But we conducted analytics, called all dealers to Siberia with the question: here the engine broke, what should I do? There are no spare parts, you need to wait from China for at least a month. It doesn’t matter if you have a guarantee or not - you will put the car anyway. They don’t buy anything - everyone hid, everyone is waiting. You know the proverb: we harness for a long time, but we’re going quickly. So far, the market is still “harnessed”. When he goes, everything will be. This process is inevitable.

Firstly, China today is the largest car manufacturer in the world. Every third car on the planet is produced there. This is more than in America and Europe. It's not only about Chinese brands, of course. And the second point: China today is the largest manufacturer of electric vehicles.

They have top electric batteries, they have a BYD top brand. They have produced ZEEKR 001, which already overtakes Tesla Model S Plaid - the fastest electric car in the world. Another year or two-and we will see a lot of interesting things.

- And this is such a step in innovation, in a bright and clean future at an inexhaustible source of energy? Or an elementary policy of refusing hydrocarbons and an attempt, for example, not depend on Russia and its oil?

- I think there is more an ecology issue. There is no such pain in Russia - we have a aggravation below, since there are no densely populated cities. And take Shanghai, where 25 million lives, it is impossible to breathe there, as in Beijing. This is actually one of the ways to unload your cities for the Chinese government. As for the policy of refusing export oil - I believe that it is not only about Russian raw materials. China wants in its development as little as possible depends on anyone. So here is a set of factors.

One and a half billion founders

-And what nevertheless helped the Chinese in the development of the automotive industry: the rise of national identity, wild performance, death penalty for corruption?

- In my opinion, the Chinese have a very cool perception of themselves and the country. Our company has employees in China, I often go there, watch, talk with people. They relate to their state as if they are building a common business. An enterprise with 1.5 billion founders. If China earns, if China is interesting, if China directs influence somewhere (the construction of residential complexes or bridges, cultivating fields, selling cars, but anything!), Then this is always their personal success, and not just the work of the state.

The Chinese think for a long time, plan development. For example, we have due to the fact that the country is unstable, people never think far. In Russia, the planning horizon is very narrow: tomorrow something will turn over again-and everything that has been built for five years will disappear in a day. Some only seek to get more - maybe tomorrow everything will fall apart again.

And the Chinese see a living example in front of them. It happens that a man lived in the middle of a slum or in a rustic hut 30 years ago, and he did not even have a bicycle. And now - in a city where skyscrapers and technological machines.

His country has developed his whole life so beautifully. Why should it be otherwise?

Another feature is the ability to adapt. When we just entered China markets, we already had extensive experience with Japan. And this is a super -system, structural country. China is complete chaos. We say: with such chaos you cannot sell a lot in Russia, you need to build a process as in Japan. All! Two or three days-and they are already slowly rebuilding, they change the approach to work.

Now in China there are marketplaces - analogues "Drouma", "Auto.ru". There are sites that check used cars and confirm their quality. Another way is to buy in a private car dealership. You come, look. If you are satisfied, buy. Another purchase option in China is car dealerships, dealers, factories, factories. Everyone is ready to work directly! And everywhere you can bargain, knock out discounts, some conditions. What, in principle, cannot be done in Japan.

As for the terrible kar for corruption, they will not be executed for this and their hands have not been cut off for a long time. Everything is decided by money: China, like Russia, is a terribly corrupt country. Our countries are generally very similar - in how the asphalt is laid down to the arrival of a high official, how the lawns are painted along the road ... but there are 1.5 billion, and find 3% of suitable people and bright minds that will pull the country, which is easier.

- In any industry, the main thing is not to put a machine, every fool knows how. It is more important to find and train shots. There were always enough workers in China. But the engineers ... Does the country have their own school of automobile engineers, designers, designers?

- Large successful brands for the most part, of course, attract specialists from the outside. But not in order to lead and always solve everything, but rather for the training of their people. We are behind you for five, ten years we will walk, look - and then we ourselves will begin no worse. You will earn money and go home, and we will grow up our own, who already understood everything.