FUTURE PROOF
The Chinese auto industry is moving at pace. And it means business, says Paul
Imagine a Mercedes AMG G but electrically powered and given one of Mansory’s medium strength goings over But you needn’t imagine because it exists I’m sitting in it It’s not just a concept either but already on sale taking on deserts swamps and blizzards By contra rotating its four motors it can turn in its own length as per a Bobcat skid steer loader It can float making slow hippo like progress through calm waters by spinning its bladed alloys That said it doesn’t look too seaworthy and they call it “emergency float mode”
Its absurdly plush cabin is ready for six lane highways too For the moment just in China mind you for this is the Yanwang U Yanwang the upmarket brand of BYD is now building more pure electric cars than Tesla plus a pile of hybrids too The U appeared at the Geneva Motor Show and while it was easy to sneer at the OTT optics the tech brooks no argument And hey a G Wagen is hardly low key in the styling department
BYD had another spin off brand on its Geneva stand too the Denza D an ultra luxe van Meanwhile metres across the hall MG was launching its own upmarket brand IM It had a series of crossovers and saloons of rather more generic aspect than the bodacious Yanwang I met an engineer on the
“YANWANG IS NOW BUILDING MORE PURE ELECTRIC CARS THAN TESLA, PLUS A PILE OF HYBRIDS”
IM project and asked what made them unique He said the first of the IM saloons the L has the power and range of a Model Performance but at the price of a normal Model Dual Motor adding that while Tesla made you pay extra for assisted driving here it was included Now those are hardly original aims but if they’ve been achieved the people will surely come
British people among them MG will sell the IM cars in Britain BYD UK says it’s “considering” the Yanwang The Chinese car industry’s global ambition takes another step up and it’s doing it without heritage
Oh hang on MG says it’s years old and back projects images of rickety old British roadsters on its event to launch the MG supermini For consistency why not the MG Metro? But MG is today part of the Shanghai Auto Industry Corp wholly owned by the Chinese state since SAIC bought Nanjing Auto which had itself bought the name and the MG TF from the rump of Rover Group It’s not a particularly pure bloodline
Even so those historical smoky MG roadsters impelled the British design studio to draw a concept that became the electric only Cyberster It’s got two seats yes but also powered scissor doors two motors and startling performance Hardly the generic budget EV crossover everyone expects from China
Its possible these premium Chinese cars might fail in Europe just as Infiniti failed But the speed shows the seriousness Toyota started making cars in ¤ and it took years before launching its premium division Lexus Hyundai took ¤ years to launch Genesis Yanwang and IM show how the movie of the Chinese car industry is being played at an unheard of frame rate