Local rivals are considered better value and have smarter features Chinese buyers want
<!–
–>
by Chris Chilton
February 23, 2025 at 12:00 p.m.
–>
–>
- Chinese drivers are turning their backs on Porsche in favor of domestic products such as Xiaomi SU7.
- They think that Porsche cars are too expensive and lack gadgets and desirable technological features.
- Porsche sales landed 28% in China in 2024 and Taycan deliveries almost halved the year.
The Chinese smartphone giant that has become the automaker Xiaomi proudly announced last week that its SU7 Ultra sedan had lapped the Shanghai international circuit almost 1.5 seconds faster than the previous record holder, the Porsche Taycan Turbo GT. But the Porsche China crisis goes far beyond the second ranking of a racing table.
Plus: Xiaomi Su7 Ultra Smashes Taycan Turbo Gt’s Lap Record at the Shanghai circuit
For years, Western car manufacturers have relied on China to provide growth and a massive part of their income. But now, local car buyers are increasingly rejecting the European brands long established in favor of Chinese brand cars produced at the national level. Porsche is far from the only Western automotive company that takes a hit, but it took a very large.
Porsche China sales are in free fall
Porsche sales in China dropped 28% amazing in 2024, and Taycan EV deliveries in the past very popular dropped by almost half, the automaker revealed last month. Admittedly, 2024 was a year of change for several models, including the Taycan, Panamera (also below) and 911, but the crisis has less to do with that and more to do with changing attitudes in China to its own automotive brands more and more competent.
In the SU7, for example, Xiaomi has built an electric sedan which seems almost as good as a Taycan, makes more power and costs a fraction as much. The Ultra de Haut-Parlaire which beat the Shanghai file is at the price of the equivalent of $ 112,000 at $ 230,000 of the Turbo GT and is 1,527 hp (1,139 kW / 1.548 PS) against 1,092 hp ( 815 kW / 1.108 PS) for the German car in the launch control of the launching order of the launch order for the launch of Control Mode.
Other SU7 models offer a ratio of blows-/-Yons just as attractive. No wonder Xiaomi sold more than 100,000 last year and Porsche only changed 21,000 Taycans.
“I think Chinese consumers at the moment are ready to accept that Chinese companies can produce cars that are considered premium for them,” said Gary NG, economist at Natixis Corporate & Investment Banking, in New York Times.
But here is the Bit Wild: the SU7 is currently sold in China and this sales figure of 21,000 Taycan units is a world number. Imagine how much the SU7 could make more damage if it was available elsewhere.
On other markets, of course, Porsche can currently rely on the strength of the brand, a cultivated through decades of race history and pop culture appearances. It is less a draw in China, where Porsche has not existed for over 70 years. In addition, buyers’ heroes are technological marks, and they want Porsche technological functionalities and Western brands cannot deliver, but Chinese people can.
Porsche plays technological catch -up
You still cannot buy a Porsche with a level 3 level, or a fully manual level 2 driver assistance system (although the latter, co-developed with Mobileye, arrives this year), while SU7 equipped Du Lidar is delivered with a 56-inch head-up display and Xiaomi smartphone and AI know-how mean that drivers enter the car and can transfer their telephone interface to The multimedia SU7 screen with a single button. The German, American and even Japanese and Korean brands have all underestimated the importance of vehicles defined by software, said an industry expert in NYT.
In some cases, there are reasons for their reluctance. Brands like Porsche and Ferrari have taken care not to jump to provide ADAS systems earlier than other brands, as they wish to preserve their harshly won reputations as manufacturers of pure drivers. You would never see any brand showing how his EV could run on an unmanned track, as Byd did with his Supercar Yangwang U9 last week.
Plus: EVS should excrete gas cars in China in 2025, 10 years ahead of the calendar
But Chinese buyers are pragmatic and less obsessed with the classic idea of driving pleasure. Leave the treble and simply give us the technology, they say effectively by ignoring the Taycan and buying cars with more advanced systems, such as SU7. The fact that buyers are so young – on average 33 years in 2021 for the Taycan – suggests that they are potentially more open to change brands.
Could this happen in the West?
And how long even before European and American drivers, if we give the choice between a Porsche and a Chinese product that does the same thing for half the price, also start to ignore Porsche cars? I love cars like the Macan and the Taycan, but do not pretend that it cannot happen, at least to the four -seater models.
We welcomed newcomers like Tesla and Rivian, considering them as legitimate rivals in Porsche, so why not Xiaomi? Ford boss, Jim Farley, said that he liked to lead to his SU7 that he does not want to return it. American prices and certain persistent anti-Chinese feelings provide a hill to climb, but the Chinese plunge it. Look how far Kia has arrived in 35 years, then look at how Xiaomi arrived in a relationship with a single car.
What would you do to bring Porsche back on the right track in China? And do you believe that it will ultimately have the same problem in Europe and America, or does he have the power of the brand to stay ahead? Leave a comment below and tell us what you think.
