Some Chinese car brands are doomed to disappear, warns Skoda boss

A battle for survival amongst Chinese car brands could be on the horizon, as Skoda’s sales and marketing boss has warned that the sheer number of brands operating in China is “not sustainable”.  

In an interview with Auto Express, Skoda’s board member for sales and marketing Martin Jahn said: “Everybody knows there will be a consolidation. There are about 150 electric brands in China – that is not sustainable.”

Chinese car brands are having a big impact in the UK at the moment. Approximately one in 10 new cars sold in Britain last year was by a Chinese brand such as BYD, Chery, Jaecoo or Geely, and that ratio is only expected to increase when more marques like Zeekr and Denza arrive on our shores in 2026.

When asked how Skoda is responding to the Chinese firms challenging it, Jahn admitted “we know we have to become faster”, but he couldn’t see the brand adopting such a rapid product launch and refresh strategy as those new arrivals from China.

“The question is, what is financially sustainable?” Jahn explained.  “I think there will be a consolidation of the Chinese car industry and the question is, how long can you keep so many brands and launching new cars at this pace? Because the question then is whether you can depreciate all the investments? So how long is this sustainable?”

He also asked: “How many new things, better things, can you really bring to the customers and what do customers really want? We noticed that sometimes the cars and the features are too much. What do you really use in the car? How many buttons can you really use? 

“So we are looking more at simplification. We want to bring a good package, a good car with good specs, with good service – I think that's our differentiation from the Chinese. 

“The good service network and reliability, good residual values, those are the benefits that we have compared with the Chinese.” 

Jahn added: “When you have so many facelifts so quickly, then it's also a question of surveys. How do you keep the parts? How do you manage the complexity at the dealerships?

"Bringing new models so often can mess up these residual values. Again, there's two sides to every coin and I think for us to be more stable, more solid, more reliable, it has paid off so far.”

Meanwhile board member for technical development, Johannes Neft, said Skoda does keep an eye on and compare itself with the Chinese competition, but added: “I think one of the most important things is that the customer knows what he gets when they’re buying your car. 

“This is where we have a big advantage already, because our cars like Kodiaq, Superb and Fabia, they’re brands within the brand already. So everybody knows what they get.

“And sometimes you get the feeling there are a lot of different new cars from different Chinese brands, but where is the differentiation between these cars? What are they standing for? And I think we have to keep the character of our cars, we have to keep direction.”

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