Learning fast in Shanghai
Posted by Jason Barlow at 11:00AM on Thursday 19 April, 2007 5 Comments
'They're very sharp,' the bloke on the plane said, 'and they learn fast. Very fast.'
That's a senior Ford engineer, talking about his Chinese colleagues.
Ford builds the previous generation Transit in China's densely industrial heart somewhere.
A few years ago it also took the unprecedented step of unveiling a brand new car, the Focus saloon, at the Beijing motor show.
A nasty shot across the bows for anyone labouring under the delusion that this was still the land of comedy knock-offs, faux Phantoms and Mercs wearing the automotive equivalent of the old Groucho Marx specs and 'tache disguise. Funny foreigners, in other words, with no grasp of what makes a car desirable or how to build one.
Well, I'm going to find out exactly how funny these guys really are during the next few days.
It's the Shanghai motor show tomorrow, and I've come to China to see first hand what's what. I've just been for a walk around the block and I'm already bewildered. I thought downtown Dubai was Blade Runner made real, but this is something else.
The Shanghai show is an event that would have barely registered with Top Gear or indeed anyone outside the Shanghai area five or 10 years ago. This year, though, BMW has chosen to unveil a brand new concept car here, despite the fact that its home event - the enormous German corporate willy-waving competition known as the Frankfurt motor show - is less than six months away.
In a few hours' time I'll be talking to chief designer Adrian van Hooydonk, BMW creative director and leading automotive philosopher Chris Bangle, and BMW's new chief executive Norbert Reithofer.
It's a long, long way to come to wheel out the big guns in support of a concept car that apparently radically showcases elements of BM's latest design direction. Maybe, just maybe, it's proof that the Shanghai show is now the most important. Symbolically, at least.
On the other hand, it could be the usual parade of laughable old tosh. We'll see.
I'll tell you one thing though: if they start building new cars as quickly and effectively as they're building new buildings then it really is goodnight Vienna, Wolfsburg, Russelsheim, Stuttgart, Ellesmere Port and all the rest.
I'm writing this blog at a desk in my hotel room in the Grand Hyatt hotel on the 70th floor of the Jin Mao tower (the hotel reception is on the 54th floor, and there's another 30-odd floors above that). There's a new, equally tall skyscraper under construction just across the way. And there are hundreds of others out there, studding the skyline as far as the eye can see.
Shanghai is expanding, and fast. The Huangpu River is almost as busy as the roads below, and yet it's so wide that even massive container vessels look quite small. Plastic bags and other airborne flotsam and jetsam keep zipping past my window at high speed, carried along on the air currents that whip up between tall buildings.
You get a unique perspective on life from a vantage point like this.
Apparently China is set to invest the equivalent of £50bn in its rail network over the next decade. As we headed into the city we were overtaken at unbelievable speed by the Maglev which runs from the airport into central Shanghai.
The Maglev, the ingenious magnetic 'levitating' train, was invented in the UK. As was rail transport itself, unless I'm very much mistaken. We invent it but they make it work, and how.
Something tells me we won't be laughing at these funny foreigners for much longer. Boy, do they learn fast.
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5 Comments for "Learning fast in Shanghai"
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The Chinese are learning what fast, exactly?!
Take a look at some of China's automotive products such as the CMEC City Smart, the Chery QQ and the Laibao SR-V to understand what is going on.
It is one thing to buy up a defunct marque and their manufacturing process (MG), another to blatantly rip-off another car's distinctive styling (Geely 300, BYD F8), but to simply buy an example of a car and copy it without the manufacturer's permission is nothing intellectually challenging.
Piracy means zero research and development costs.
The PRC growth miracle is real but the Shanghai maglev is a poor metaphor for it.
The train and track are German technology, built by Germans and operated by Deutsche Bahn.
It's too expensive for locals to use and runs at a whacking great loss. It was late in being finished and stops not in the centre of town where you need it or even the centre of Pudong, but in the middle of nowhere so you've got to have a car or taxi to get to it.
It depends on how you define automative powerhouse. If you mean will it be country that's making tons and tons of money selling tons and tons of cars, then yes, I think definitely.
I also think, rubbish as their product is, it's only going to get better (out of necessity), rather than them saying "oh we can't do this, we need to buy from Japan and those 'established' manufacturers."
But the important point is, they're not selling them where you (as in Barlow) are and not to the people (you as in Barlow/Top Gear) you reach out to. So if you're asking if we're going to see you 'rubbing pig-fat' (to paraphase JC) into some Geely PR executive, then no, you're not going to be anytime soon.
I'm sorry, I am just not impressed.
Learn fast they might, but cheap is still king in China. Sadly that comes with tacky things and eye-wateringly bad products, be it cars, toys, PCs... you name it.
I think that we will be laughing at Chinese cars for at least another decade, just like we did with Skoda and all the Korean and Malaysian filth, called cars.
I remember very clearly the British laughing at the first offerings Honda made to motorcycling in this country: oil-tight engines, good electrics and that was just the step-through 50cc moped.
The Honda dream motorcycle at 250cc with overhead cam and electric start that could keep pace with most of the British bikes of 500cc was the death rattle of the British industry.
You may think what they are offering is crap but there are huge numbers of motorists that would rather buy a shiny new crap car rather than a secondhand, knackered "good car" like the Korean offerings.
No, we should not laugh, we should be very afraid. I looked at some BMW branded motorcycle clothing last week... it's made in China.
I rest my case your honour.