E-cars from China are convincing across the board

VW and Mercedes, BMW or Ford – the old guard of car manufacturers is getting a rush of new competition in Germany. Asia is no longer just a sales market, more and more manufacturers are also going the opposite way and offering their models in Europe, especially Chinese brands. Made in China is no longer a flaw.

E-cars from China: Crash test puts an end to prejudices

For decades, the made in China label was a sign of dubious quality. Several car manufacturers are currently proving that this is changing massively and are taking the plunge and bringing their models to Europe. In Germany, several firsts from Chinese brands are about to be launched in 2022. Two from Great Wall Motors (GWM) have now joined proven in the Euro NCAP crash test.

The BEV compact car Funky Cat from Ora and the SUV Coffee 01 from Wey, a plug-in hybrid, were tested. Both brands belong to the GWM Group, and the models are said to be the first of their brands for the German market. The fact that the Cat and Coffee 01 come from the same company is also evident from their performance in the crash test. With minimal differences in the individual categories both achieve the full five stars (Source: ADAC).

Overall, the larger and more expensive Coffee 01 performs slightly better than its smaller sibling. Both score with solid safety values ​​and additional assistance functions such as emergency braking or pedestrian detection. At the same time, the Chinese-made Tesla Model Y was also tested. It has a small lead over the Chinese brands, but that doesn’t change the overall ranking. the China e-cars can keep up.

Also new and from China, the MG4 Electric:

Since the criteria for the NCAP crash test were revised, assistance systems have become an important part of the assessment. New models that cannot compete in this category are therefore slightly devalued. Assistants are an additional security feature. Conversely, cars that do without them are not necessarily less safe.

Price advantage for e-cars from China

What also makes the Stromer from Chinese brands particularly attractive is the more differentiated orientation compared to many European manufacturers. There are also large, competitive models from the Far East. But the manufacturers there also have smaller models are not sworn off, which are becoming increasingly rare, for example, at VW, BMW or Ford. However, it is precisely these that could become more interesting for customers in Germany if inflation continues to rise.