Two salesmen selling Chinese cars to Slovenians, without embellishment about European arrogance, four myths about the Chinese, and the question of who will survive until 2035.
The European automotive industry is like a craftsman who for a hundred years made the best furniture in the village — by hand, from real oak, with grooves that lock without a single screw. And he was so good that he stopped looking out the window. Meanwhile, a new workshop has grown outside. Quieter. Faster. Cheaper. People have started buying there. The craftsman is still polishing his oak and says that they will return — when they know how to appreciate quality again. I sat at the table with a European flag in my pocket. Not as a layman: I have been writing about Chinese cars for years, I was even in China this year and saw a lot with my own eyes. I came with a clear purpose — to defend the old glory, the engineering, the soul that is supposed to be in every German engine. In two and a half hours, I found myself slowly losing my arguments. Not because someone was drowning me out, but because the guests were speaking from practice, and I was partly speaking from nostalgia. Tilen Hojc brought MG to Slovenia, and today it is behind the Vietnamese VinFast. Kristjan Andjelkovic leads Omodo and Jaecoo, brands of the Chinese Chery group that entered the market last fall and really made a splash in their first month. Both are salespeople at heart — and that's exactly why they're worth listening to when they talk about what no they can sell.
China is Dubai on steroids, not underdeveloped Moldova
Let's start with Chinese culture, because without it you can't understand a product of a nation. My first shock wasn't the car, but the silence. Hangzhou, with a population of eighteen million, at nine o'clock in the evening — and you don't hear a siren, an engine, or a horn. All the scooters are electric, most cars are hybrid or plug-in. The city smells of flowers, because there are flower gardens between the high-rise buildings, and on the highway fifteen kilometers from the airport there are green lanes in the middle of the road. I expected something completely different. Kristjan summed it up in a sentence that is worth remembering: most Slovenians still imagine China as some kind of underdeveloped Moldova, but in reality it is "Dubai on steroids." And until this mentality changes, prejudices will live on — which no longer have much in common with the reality of 2026.
Fifteen years ahead — and the gap is widening
How many years is China ahead of us? The guests quickly dismissed the exaggerations about “fifties,” but when it comes to infrastructure, the figures are closer to fifteen years — and both add the same unpleasant observation: the gap is not closing, but widening. A figure that illustrates this better than any debate: China’s high-speed rail network exceeded 50,000 kilometers in December 2025, which is more than all other countries in the world combined, and with 350 km/h, it covers 97 percent of cities with more than half a million inhabitants. I drove from Beijing to Hangzhou — 1,200 kilometers — in just over five hours. For comparison: all of Europe combined has just over 13,000 kilometers of such lines, and even those are not connected to a network. The difference is not in the money, it’s in the head. A fellow architect was surprised that China’s urban planning plans go back 25 years — “five floors down and fifteen up.” The fact that the first flying taxis are flying over the city today was a decision made a decade and a half ago. We fight for every earthworm and every butterfly; if five power plants need to be opened for development, five are opened. One culture honors caution, another honors progress — and that's all there is to it.
They know where they want to be in 2030, 2035, 2040. And they're going after that, no matter what happens in between. — Tilen Hojč on Chinese long-term planning
This mentality is also accompanied by work ethic. According to Andjelković, the famous “996” system (from nine in the morning to nine in the evening, six days a week) is already dead — it is being replaced by “715”, fifteen hours a day, seven days a week. Europe will never catch on to this because — thank God — it is too social. During the pandemic, we sat at home with masks, while Chinese engineers were locked in factories and developing. We see the result of this equation on the road today. And then there is the raw material superiority, which cannot be circumvented. China today controls around 70 percent of the world's production of batteries for electric vehicles — from less than 50 percent in 2021, it has risen to a near monopoly in four years, led by the giants CATL and BYD. Whoever has the battery, has the car. (source: autoblog.com)
Myth 1: Chinese cars are safety death traps
This is the myth that gave rise to this conversation in the first place. I recently listened to a podcast in which an engineer suggested that Chinese safety is a kind of “dieselgate” — that they send a specially prepared model to Euro NCAP, and the others are worse. The problem is that no one explained to the guest how Euro NCAP works: they buy vehicles anonymously as a “mystery shopper” or randomly select serial numbers at the factory. So it’s not possible to fool a single “selected” car.
Andjelković goes even further. Cherry is one of the few groups that has conducted a crash test live, in front of journalists from all over the world — last year at the Shanghai Motor Show, this year at the Beijing Motor Show. Only those who know that the result will be practically the same if repeated a hundred times will dare to make such a move. With Chinese brands, all assistance systems are standard, which is why they are regularly rated five stars by Euro NCAP today — while many European cars lose their stars precisely because the manufacturer expects the buyer to buy the safety packages. paid extraAn irony that, as someone who puts safety first, makes me a little uncomfortable.
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Myth 2: Cheap plastic and breaks down after three years
In the showroom and in the garage, this myth is dispelled at first touch. Where the European middle class today offers hard plastic and doors without rubber trim, the Chinese mid-range car offers the feel of a premium European vehicle. In the Mercedes GLC EQ, which starts at around 73,000 euros, I found the plastic like in a basic Renault; in the Chinese car for a third of that price, soft upholstery and carefully crafted details. Made in China is no longer synonymous with bad — in cars it increasingly means the opposite.
And warranties? This is where the myth turns into an advantage. Omoda and Jaecoo offer seven years of factory warranty without decreasing coverage, the new Omoda 7 has eight years or 160,000 kilometers. Practice speaks for itself: MG has sold around 3,000 vehicles in Slovenia since November 2022 and recorded only a handful of cases where the car broke down on the road. For such a young brand, this is an encouraging number — although the golden rule is that every warranty is only good for as long as the manufacturer will last.
Myth 3: A Chinese person is worthless after three years
Here the guests honestly admitted that the myth is not entirely empty. The residual value of a Chinese car can indeed drop to around 40 percent after one year, while a comparable Renault holds at 65 to 70. The reason is not quality, but price pressure: when a manufacturer lowers the price for a new buyer by a few thousand, the value of a used one drops with it. The MG4 started at 24,000 euros in Germany, but today it sells for 18,900 — and that is precisely why it is not even reasonable to launch the basic version here.
But the final figure is reversed. If you pay a third of the price of a comparable German car for a Chinese car that offers significantly more equipment, you will lose fewer euros nominally, even if you lose more in percentage terms. So the fear is inflated — but not completely empty.
Myth 4: Design is just a copy
Yes, some large SUVs are indistinguishable from each other, and in many places you can see the shadow of the Range Rover. But the accusation of “copycat” is becoming less and less accurate for a simple reason: the main designers of Chinese brands are increasingly coming from Europe. Zeekr is being created in parallel with Volvo in Gothenburg, talents from Audi and Mercedes have moved to Chinese studios, Leapmotor and the like are pulling European flavor straight into their lines. Inspiration is always in the air anyway — and the latest generation of Audi is already openly chasing a “Chinese touch” at the back. The roles have been reversed: Europe used to adapt to Chinese taste (longer rear doors, larger rear seats), now the opposite is happening.
The price that kills: why a European car costs three times more
This is the crux of it all. Kristjan illustrated the difference in his own way: if your friend gets a brick for 20 cents, that same friend sells it to me for 2.20 — so I have to sell my house for more to earn the same. China controls almost everything: 70 percent of the batteries, the lion's share of the raw materials for the drive, and at the same time it has no unions, cheaper labor and electricity, which, according to his estimate, is about three times cheaper than here. When you add all this up, a European car simply must be more expensive.
The result of this flood is brutal: China's industry can produce around 55 million vehicles a year, but sells just over 34 million domestically. More than half of the capacity is sitting idle, and the surplus has to go somewhere — and that "somewhere" is Europe, South America, Africa, and Australia. (source: bloomberg.com, english.news.cn)
And why did Chery receive one of the highest tariffs on electric vehicles from the EU? According to Andjelković, it was not because it subsidized the most, but because it disclosed the least. The Brussels investigation primarily wanted access to technology — the composition of batteries, materials, supply chains — and whoever did not provide the data received the highest duty. Tariffs are therefore not just a wall; they are also a lever for the transfer of knowledge that Europe lacks.
European arrogance: will we be Nokia or Samsung?
I've lost my last argument here. A few days ago, Volkswagen showed off the electric Polo GTI: a little over 100 kW of charging, a 51 kWh battery, 200 "horses" and a price of around 40,000 euros. A Chinese car with the same power would probably be priced at 27,000 in our market. Geely's EX30, for example, offers 22 kW alternating charging, which no European city car currently has — which is crucial for the city "lateral parker", as he can charge the battery at a public charging station in two hours of shopping.
Andjelković is cautious but clear: the brand still means something to the buyer, but the price is increasingly obscuring the real problem — the institution behind the brand. Renault's Twingo, the fastest-developed prototype in the brand's history and, in his opinion, this year's electric hit, was created with the help of Chinese partners. This is the future of European industry: not fighting to the last breath, but cooperation. Whoever devours pride first, survives.
If arrogance remains with any manufacturer, it's over. And we're not talking about brands — we're talking about the millions of people who work in this sector.
— Kristjan Andjelkovic
Let's remember Nokia. When the first iPhone came out, they were arrogant: who would need such a big screen? A year later it was too late. Samsung survived because it was there to develop the screen. So the only question that matters is: will the European car industry be smart enough to become Samsung — or will it be Nokia?
Slovenian heads: why are we still talking about electricity?
We are at home in our own reality. Slovenia experienced a surge in electricity sales in early 2026 — the share of all-electric vehicles in March climbed to 18 percent, and sales more than doubled compared to last year. This was undoubtedly helped by the jump in oil prices amid the worsening situation around the Strait of Hormuz, which made electricity more financially sensible overnight. (source: sloveniatimes.com, theicct.org)
And yet, under every post about an electric car, someone writes: "buy a diesel." The problem is psychological, not technical. Anyone who has actually driven an electric car knows that it drives like a Mercedes. Statistics confirm this: anyone who charges at home — in Slovenia, about three-quarters of households have this option — saves eight hours a year that they would otherwise spend on stops at a gas station. The average Tesla owner in the US charges away from home only a few times a year. For companies, the calculation is even more obvious: VAT deduction, investment relief, no credit rating — an electric car is often not an emotional, but a cold financial decision. I expected financial directors to be the first to calculate this.
We are also lagging behind in the technology that is right at our doorstep. I tested the Tesla FSD in Zagreb, and drove the Zeekro 9X around Hangzhou for 35 minutes without touching the steering wheel. At the show, almost every car had a green autonomous driving light on the back. While we are arguing about whether electricity is even for the "only car in the family", elsewhere the debate is going on about when robotaxis will replace ownership. Estonia is living proof: there, application cars are parked in cities, people use them en masse, and the streets along the blocks are empty. Here, everything is full, parked on the curbs.
What would a guest park in the garage?
- Kristjan Andjelković → Omoda 9. A plug-in hybrid with DC charging and, according to the importer, around 600 "virtual" horsepower, acceleration to 100 km/h in around 4.9 seconds with a weight of around 2.2 tons — and all this for a price of around 45,000 euros. A car for many kilometers, with low consumption in relation to its performance.
- Tilen Hojč → MG Cyberster. An electric roadster with scissor-style opening. Maybe not the most practical for winter, but a winner at heart.
- Best buy right now: Jaecoo 7 Urban — according to the net pricing policy (without apparent discounts) around 25,000 euros, with full equipment, which would mean a much higher price for a comparable European car.
Tesla in ten years: museum or robots?
The guests disagree on this point, and both are right in their own way. Andjelković believes that Tesla will practically disappear as a manufacturer of classic vehicles in ten years — Musk is a visionary who has exhausted the automobile to the last and will devote himself to robotics. Hojč is more cautious: Tesla does not build cars, it builds ecosystem — satellites for the internet and autonomous driving, robotics, energy. The car is just one station in it.
They basically agree: there will be fewer and fewer new classic models, and autonomous taxis will remain. Robotics is not a side story — it is predicted that in five to ten years it will be five times the market of cars, which is why Chinese groups, including Chery, are also investing in it. Cybertruck? This one, we laughed, was probably designed for Mars.
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Who will go bankrupt — or become Chinese — by 2035?
Volvo was bought by the Chinese in 2011 and is being run successfully; Zeekr from the same group is now more premium than Volvo itself by many measures. There is a hidden cannibalism here: Chinese-owned European brands are often a great source of ideas that the Chinese parent company then executes better. And yet — if someone offered me the new Volvo ES90 and the Zeekr 7X side by side, as a long-time Volvo fan, I would have a hard time deciding against the sign. The brand still has something going for it.
The guests' forecast is sober: none of the Chinese will buy an entire European manufacturer, they will let natural selection do its thing, and they will integrate themselves into existing factories — Chery has already taken over the former Nissan plant in Barcelona, where the production of the electric Omod 5 and Jaecoo 5 will start in June. The most threatened are the mass global European mid-range brands. Premium brands like Mercedes will survive more easily with the story of exclusivity (the Maybach brand as the highest level) — it will be difficult for Mercedes to justify double the price for what Omoda offers in the lower class.
Conclusion: Europe will not be buried by the Chinese
After two and a half hours, there is one realization that I am reluctant to admit: Europe will not be buried by the Chinese. It can be buried by its own arrogance — the belief that history owes us something. The Slovenian vehicle fleet is on average 11.4 years old and almost half of the cars are older than twelve years; the renewal rate is barely 4.5%. This means that the future will long be decided by the buyer, who is primarily looking for reliability and price — and this is where Chinese brands with a seven-year warranty and full equipment hit the hardest. (source: lider.si, stat.si)
The year 2035 is not far away. A child born today will not be in high school by then, and we will probably already be sitting in a car that we cannot even imagine now. So the question is not whether change will come. The question is whether we will co-create it — or just buy it. And when you stand in the showroom this weekend with cash in your pocket: don't buy a brand. Buy a car. You will feel the difference the first time you touch the upholstery.
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