The European cars made in China

Imagine buying a new Volvo in Germany and discovering that it was made in China, shipped to Europe, and sold as a European car. This is not a provocation: more and more Western car manufacturers are now having their models produced in China and then importing them to their home markets. We have always thought that European cars are built in Europe, by European labor, with local standards and controls. Instead, the opposite is happening: companies like BMW, Volvo, and even Tesla are taking advantage of Chinese production capacity to save on costs and sell "European" cars in Europe that are actually produced on the other side of the world. Have you ever thought about that? The protagonist of this story is the European automotive industry itself, which until a few years ago saw China as the great threat and today treats it as a low-cost factory. Take Volvo: in Sweden, it is considered a national symbol, but since 2010, it has been owned by the Chinese company Geely. Today, most of the Volvo XC60s you see on European roads are made in Chengdu, not Gothenburg. One figure above all: in 2023, more than 250,000 cars produced in China were imported into Europe under Western brands, a figure that almost doubled in two years. Tesla has also started shipping Model 3s from its Shanghai factory directly to European ports. And behind these numbers, there is always a question of costs: Chinese labor is still much cheaper, and the factories are among the most automated in the world. A BMW engineer said that manufacturing in China allows the cost per vehicle to be reduced by more than 20%. But there is also a less visible story: that of those who work in these factories. A Chinese worker who assembles seats for Mercedes said that his monthly salary is less than a thousand euros, yet the car he works on will be sold in Germany for more than fifty times that amount. What few consider is that this production dependence on China makes European manufacturers vulnerable: all it takes is a diplomatic crisis or a new customs tax, and suddenly the entire chain gets jammed. And here comes the twist: it is not China that is invading Europe with Chinese cars, it is the European manufacturers that are doing the opposite, using China as a factory to return home with lower prices. If you think this is just a business matter, there is an unexpected detail: some "European" cars sold in Europe don't even have a production line at home. They are 100% made in China but with a European badge on the hood. But there are those who see it differently: according to some analysts, this strategy could also strengthen European industry in the short term, because it allows them to compete with the prices of Chinese electric cars without laying off staff en masse in Europe. Others, however, warn that in the long run there is a risk of losing know-how and production capacity, turning Europe into a simple outlet market. The phrase to keep in mind is this: today, the "European" cars we drive could be more Chinese than we think. If this change of perspective has struck a chord with you, you can press I'm In on Lara Notes — it's not a like: it's your way of saying that this idea is now part of your way of thinking. And if tomorrow you happen to tell someone that European cars are often made in China, on Lara Notes you can mark the conversation with Shared Offline — so you'll have a reminder of when you changed your point of view. This idea comes from the Financial Times and saves you at least 6 minutes of reading.