The same consulting firm that predicts that China will produce 33% of the world's vehicles by 2030 also anticipates that only 19 automakers in China will survive by that time, out of the current 139. To be honest, I think 19 is still too many.
I agree that the current dearth of brands cannot be sustained. I wonder if there will be a bigger shift towards OEM/ODM contract manufacturing (similar to electronics). Car companies in general have shifted away from full vertical integration for decades (the exceptions being BYD and Toyota), so is there some more decoupling in store? So far we haven't seen a successful split from manufacturing/design, closest being Magna Steyr as an OEM.
The big SOEs are basically like this already. FAW is mostly making cars for VW and Toyota. The only brand they have is Hongqi.
Dongfeng, their focus should be on heavy trucks, the consumer cars don't seem worth it. The most notable car they produce isn't even sold under their own brand (Dacia Spring). How many times have we mentioned BAIC brands in this thread? 3? BAIC's largest success is probably just helping Xiaomi get off the ground.
The only problem is that the auto manufacturing is a well-protected industry worldwide, so there is a cap on how much volume can be exported.
I thought Zeekr was going to be the EV version of Lynk and Co but it seems like they're adopting a different styling
When Lynk and Co was announced, it was supposed to be PHEV and BEV, along with "one-stop" subscription (payments, insurance, and trade in) and car share service. Guess it never panned out.
