The Red Tide cometh

The days of Chinese products being cheap copies of Western ones are disappearing fast, and Mic van Zyl predicts the same will eventually happen with vehicle manufacturing.

- Mic van Zyl

I have a good mate I have known for almost a decade who used to look after Nissan East Africa when I did business with Nissan South Africa on the supply of accessories for the then-new Nissan D23 Navara.

He has subsequently left Nissan SA, due, no doubt, to the deteriorating situation of this once automotive giant. It seems all is not well with Nissan as a motor company globally, which is a real shame.

I recently caught up with him and learned that he has recently joined a new startup company representing a leading Chinese car brand here in South Africa. We met at his new office for coffee, and my first reaction was, “How could you?” I then noticed he was not the only ex-Nissan person now working for the new company. Things started to make sense when the conversation eventually turned to the Chinese company and their products.

From our chat, I gathered a key characteristic of Chinese vehicle companies that sets them apart from the traditional or legacy brands from Japan, Korea and Europe: they are far less complacent about their products and ambitions.