Chinese tariffs, chinese cars and a lot of what’s coming next
Welcome to AI Collision 💥,
In today’s collision between AI and our world:
- The motor show has changed a LOT
- Top of my shopping list
- Chinese self driving cars whether you like it or not
If that’s enough to get the much better looking cars on the road, read on…
AI Collision 💥
Last weekend I took my boys to their first motor show experience.
I always used to love going to the Motor Show. Getting to see the latest and newest cars and dreaming one day of owning one of these mechanical marvels. Getting to sit in cars that would probably always be out of reach, but still that moment of just enjoying the brilliance of human invention and innovation wrapped up in something that goes really fast from 0 to 60mph.
The “good old days” of motor shows you’d see the big German makers, BMW, Mercedes, Volkswagen, Porsche. Then the best of Italy, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Alfa Romeo. Even the best of Britain would be on display, Jaguar, Bentley, Rolls Royce, McLaren. And then the big US ones, GM, Ford, Chevy, Dodge. And last but not least the Asian makers, Nissan, Toyota, Mitsubishi, Subaru, Honda.
It slowly changed over the years, a little less of the big marquee names. Rolls stopped showing up, the Americans disappeared, and makers from Korea, like KIA and Hyundai began to appear.
Well, it’s been a couple decades since my last motor show and boy have things changed again.
No more German makers. Zero US ones. A splattering of Koreans and Japanese makers, but the dominant region, nay, the dominant country with brands and vehicles on display was China.
And I’ll be frank, historically the Chinese have not had a great reputation for car design or quality. The Japanese took the quality crown, usually the Italians for the design.
But now, as I walked the halls, watching my boys absolutely peaking at being able to jump into and climb around the inside of all these high-tech cars, I realised the Chinese aren’t making such bad stuff anymore.
A lot of the selling points were focused on “European design” with high-tech systems and interiors. And even with the bigger more rugged trucks and SUVs, it was about better design, more tech and fundamentally undercutting the big legacy makers.
To me it was a wild disparity to what I was used to. To my boys, the idea of a whole bunch of Chinese high-tech cars, is now just normal.
What else I noticed, sitting in a lot of them, is they were wonderfully nice to sit in. In fact, the BYD Seal had arguably the most comfortable car seat I’ve ever placed my backside into. And the upcoming Foton Tunland V9 truck is quite literally right at the top of my shopping list later this year.
That’s right, that beast above is a Chinese truck (or ute as we call them in Australia). And the inferred (they couldn’t tell me exactly) price point is going to blow a lot of people away I reckon (around £25,000 to £30,000).
But almost everything was connected, with advanced safety systems, surround cameras, autonomous driving features, electric, or at worst hybrids. It was a glimpse at what our automotive future looks like.
Now, before I wrap up with today’s essay, I would like to highlight one more thing. I started writing the bulk of today’s essay last week. And I say this because I wrote it before the news came out that Europe was looking to lift tariffs on Chinese cars, in favour for fixed minimum pricing.
The EU had lumped China with tariffs on their cars last year. But now it seems they’re looking to open the doors again for a more favourable deal for both sides. No doubt it’s a direct response to the tariff wars President Trump has levelled at the world.
The way I see things playing out is that Europe and the UK, Australia, and every other major non-American car market will end up awash with high tech, Chinese made, beautifully designwed, connected and smart, intelligent, AI-driven autonomous cars.
For entire generations, like my boys, it will be just a normal way of life. A change for you an me perhaps, but very normal for them. And names like BYD, Zeekr, Foton, XPeng, Deepal, GWM, this is what the car market looks like for us all. Sure, maybe these don’t penetrate the US market – specially not with tariffs that lift the price of them to Ferrari and Porsche prices – but they don’t need to reach the US market.
The rest of the world will be driving autonomous Chinese cars, and I don’t see a future that looks any other way.
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Boomers & Busters 💰
AI and AI-related stocks moving and shaking up the markets this week. (All performance data below over the rolling week).
Boom 📈
- Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) up 24%
- Palantir (NASDAQ:PLTR) up 19%
- Arm (NASDAQ:ARM) up 18%
Bust 📉
- Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) down 8%
- Amesite (NASDAQ:AMST) down 5%
- Vicarious Surgical (NASDAQ:RBOT) down 4%
From the hive mind 🧠
- The smiling assassin. Bessent comes across all kind, nice and courteous. But he’s ruthless, and he may end up as the most effective US Treasury Secretary in history.
- Hello yes, is this the AI chip competition administrator? Yes. Thanks, I’d like to enter a new tournament participant please. Name? Google.
- Dr. Oz is shaking up the US healthcare systems. And he’s doing it with AI.
Artificial Polltelligence 🗳️
As will be our regular format from now, we’ll look at our polls from last week, and give you the results in today’s Monday edition of AI Collision.
And last week, I asked if amid the market mayhem and chaos if you’d managed to buy stocks before the sharp rebound, or if you didn’t – and some options as to why.
Here are the results…
You know this is pretty indicative of the state of the markets right now. I would be shocked if it was a 90% or so win for the yes category. But cautious action is definitely I think the story here. A mix of yes, and no because I’m not sure is on the money.
What I would say is that it’s very likely it will remain mixed where one day the market rockets, and then strips it back for a day or two, rinse, repeat.
So, as I say, caution action and caution optimism is warranted. But it’s not a case of dump it all the moment the market does something. Be cautious, careful, reasoned and rational.
Weirdest AI image of the day
Believe in the yields
ChatGPT’s random quote of the day
“Computers themselves, and software yet to be developed, will revolutionize the way we learn.”
— Steve Jobs
Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to leave comments and questions below,
Sam Volkering
Editor-in-Chief
AI Collision
The only problem with buying anything Chinese is like the turkeys voting for Christmas
. They have a one hundred year plan to destroy capitalism. They will do it by systematically undercutting the price of any article they wish to sell until they have destroyed every other competitor, then they move in and charge whatever they like.
This is the one reason why I will never by Chinese goods even if they are superior to the other goods on sale.
As I drive along the road in my trusty old turbo diesel car I see more and more hybrid and electric vehicles twice the size of my car. I park up outside the supermarket and my car fits neatly into the space with room to spare. I see electric vehicles that no longer fit into a standard parking space, quite often the front and rear overhang the white lines and some are now so wide that they no longer fit into a parking bay. I do wonder as new Chinese self driving cars become more prominent on our roads if the sizes might increase further to incorporate new features like bathrooms, bedrooms, meeting rooms and even gyms. Who knows some might even include rooftop parking spaces for my size of car.