Several automakers including Ford, Toyota, and Honda have warned against China’s vehicle production capabilities, suggesting that its automakers alone can cater to the vehicular demands of an entire country in a very short time. Toyota CEO Koji Sato stated that his company “will not survive” if a major internal transformation does not come about.
The product life cycle for a Chinese automaker, from designing a car to its engineering, research and development, and mass-scale production, is probably the fastest in the world right now. That is one reason why brands like BYD have been able to grow exponentially in China and are now setting their eyes on international markets.
That is one aspect that popular marques such as Honda, Toyota, and Ford fear, since they take double the time to pitch a new vehicle in the market. The worry isn’t just BYD but several other EV companies that have the resources, ideas, and production capacity to release a new model in less than two years, with cost efficiency that is hard for brands from other countries to match.
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