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posted by martyb on Thursday November 15 2018, @01:37PM   Printer-friendly
from the sign-of-things-to-come dept.

Ford's China partner planning to sell in U.S. in 2020

Ford Motor Co.'s newest Chinese partner, Zotye Automobile, is preparing to launch at least two SUVs in the Blue Oval's backyard.

The relatively small Chinese automaker Zotye Automobile International Co. is partnering with California-based HAAH Automotive Holdings to look beyond its home market and form a new sales distribution company in the United States known as Zotye USA (pronounced ZOH-tay) — a tie-up that would sell direct competitors to some of Ford's most lucrative SUVs.

"We're facing a new reality where the Chinese domestic market is slowing for the first time in recent memory," said Michael Dunne, CEO of Hong Kong-based ZoZo Go, a firm that advises automakers on the Chinese market. "Now that things have gone soft, automakers are finding themselves in a situation where they have to export and find new markets. Zotye is possibly the first, but they won't be the last."

Also at MarketWatch and CNET.


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  • (Score: 2) by Arik on Thursday November 15 2018, @11:15PM

    by Arik (4543) on Thursday November 15 2018, @11:15PM (#762407) Journal
    "The Chinese are good at making cheap products in large quantities, they aren't however known for producing high end high quality products."

    I'm afraid you're wrong about that. Chinese manufacturers are making a ton of high end products. They just don't put their own names on them. But they're still making it.

    It's actually kind of funny how it works. A Chinese company makes products for a big foreign brand, and they have quality checks and demands written into the contracts, with hefty penalties for failing to meet them - so they put out a good product. Then they will also clone that product (or come as close to that as they can get away with) for their own brand *but* they don't clone all the QC stuff. They sell them for much less, but they still have a hard time selling them *in China* where all the cards are in their favor. Chinese people avoid Chinese brands! They will pay more for a foreign brand, even though it's the same design produced from the same factory, because they know that all the junk components that were rejected by the foreign brand just get used for the Chinese brand, and QC is essentially nonexistent.

    This isn't just electronics, it's virtually everything. It's baby formula, in spades, and it's very definitely true in cars too. In China, driving a Chinese brand of car is a way of screaming to the world 'look at me, I'm poor, I'm a failure.'

    So at first glance this doesn't look likely to gain any steam at all. Of course it's possible they'll find an angle, but if they follow the typical pattern for Chinese brands so far, this is no threat to Ford's ability to buy cars from China, slap their brand on them, and sell them here for a profit.
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