An Enthusiast’s Point Of View
I normally steer away from opinions, as they are, well biased towards one person. But I feel my feeling is shared mutually among all enthusiasts. While Chinese cars are amazing value for money, they usually lack originality. Walk into a smartphone store today, yes, you have options, lots of it. But every new day, a new brand comes out, new model. All phones look the same, under different brand names. We could be seeing something like that, but with cars. I wouldn’t mind a car that looks like a Range Rover Evoque, but costs under Rs. 25 lakhs. But the lack of a story, or a history behind that vehicle makes it an entity, an object, not something to be excited about. Basically, the opposite of Ferrari.
I keep saying Chinese companies because the industry in that region works in the way described above. They are of course not the only companies which follow this methodology. It is the keen interest of said companies following the success of MG that makes me focus on companies from that region. Chinese companies also own a lot of the international brands we dream to own one day. Geely owns Volvo, BAIC owns a stake in Koenigsegg. Of course, we have MG and SAIC. Popular bike brand Benelli is owned by the Qianjiang Group. So, the Chinese have quite a presence in the auto industry.
Objectively speaking, the influx of these brands is great for our industry and even economy in a way. But the enthusiast in me is a tad worried if the excitement of cars would drown in a sea of feature-oriented competition. So, ultimately it remains a mixed bag. If everything goes according to plan, one thing is for sure, we are going to see some serious competition with these brands.
