Yuritopiaposadism [none/use name]
SinoLegacy automakers like Ford and Volkswagen try to blame their declining global market share on unfair subsidies and cheap labor. As a global supply chain expert, I expose the brutal reality: they are actually losing a war of industrial physics.
In this video, I break down "The 18-Month Death Sentence." We explore how traditional Western automakers are paralyzed by a rigid 4-5 year R&D cycle, launching vehicles with technology that is already obsolete. Discover how Chinese EV manufacturers are treating cars like consumer electronics on wheels, utilizing extreme supply chain modularization to compress development down to an astonishing 18 months. Learn why tariffs and protectionist policies cannot save a fundamentally slower iteration cycle, and why hardware founders must learn to iterate at the speed of software to survive.
I am not convinced the fast iteration cycle is as desirable with physical goods as it is with software, looking at this from both a safety and consumerism lens (think fast fashion).
Poor, innocent legacy auto maker smol beans like Ford and Volkswagen...
Man, if only these tiny mom&pop outfits had the ability to plan ahead or do anythin,g but sadly they are just too tiny.
GIT EM GIT EM
A quicker iteration cycle with input direct from customers is a common aspect to Chinese business operations across many sectors. They clearly want to collaborate with customers on fixing flaws and innovative new features to maintain market share, a completely different value proposition to traditional western brand loyalty and monolithic design cycles.
There was a good article I can't find about how Chinese electronics manufactures did with with cheap "feature phones" for African markets. The iterations were ridiculously fast as they evolved the designs to include market-specific features like extra battery storage, dual sims, skin-tone adjustments for the camera software, flashlights and integrated carabiners. These all had specific use cases for the customers based on things like unreliable grid power, swapping sims based on local carrier promotions and deals, and being able to use the phone as a emergency light.
What new features are chinese cars getting that people care about? Pretty much every innovation I've seen in my lifetime has only served to make cars worse.
As much as this is true, this is true for western cars. And even then, finding that an issue is mostly relegated to people who don't want everything to morph into the minimum 2,5t SUV. This group consists nigh exclusively of driving enthusiasts whose ideal car is something like an E30 or an MX5 because the gizmo-SUV sucks to drive and active travel people because the gizmo-SUV will kill you if you're not in a car maybe even if you are.
Oh don't get me wrong, I agree that western cars are shit, my point is more that I doubt rapid iteration and new "innovative features" have much to do with success of chinese automakers. Rather I suspect they succeed because they have the easiest access to the largest market in the world, China.
I've seen the claim that Chinese customers prefer Chinese cars nowadays because of modern features that western cars lack. No idea what those features are, though.
Like in this article from 2023:
Chinese buyers think local brands are more interesting to look at and make Western cars look years behind both in terms of design and technology.
China dunking on capitalists for their five year plans.
I found a YouTube link in your post. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
