reply French media: European car dealers accept the "Made in China" trend

According to a report on the website of Le Monde on April 12, Citroen launched its new executive model, the C5X. While its predecessors were all made in France, the car will be built in Chengdu, China.Part car, part SUV, tall and long in profile, consistent in length (4.8m), and luxurious and comfortable in appearance: this is the C5X, Citroen's (part of the Strandis) high-end new flagship, which made its global debut on April 12th. The C5X will be available in late 2021 to early 2022, "updating the executive model in the purest Citroen tradition".As such, it is the successor to the mythical DS (1955), CX (1974) and XM (1989), except that it will not be made in France's historic Rennes factory, or even in Europe, but in China, at the Strantis factory in Chengdu, the report said. This is likely to spark some controversy and bring the "Made in France" proponents to the fore. However, in what appears to be the beginning of a trend, some European (or French) brands are making cars in China and then exporting them.The DS9, also from Strantis, will reportedly come from a Chinese factory. Renault, on the other hand, builds its Dacia Spring, a small electric car from its K-ZE, which is already available in China, near Wuhan."We estimated that by 2025, the western manufacturers in the production of car sales in Europe will grow to 500000 in 2020 from zero," Mr They take British company executives DE, Xie Muer said, "for industrial opportunism, stern landis company will be produced in China D large cars, this will bring burden to currently have excess capacity of the factory. But most European manufacturers prefer to produce small electric cars in China."These small electric cars, including Renault's Dacia Spring, BMW's Mini and Daimler's Smart electric cars, represent significant production volumes, the report said. Daimler Smart left France this year, saying goodbye to its factory at Embacht in Moselle.To this category can be added more "premium" models such as the Tesla Model 3, built in Shanghai for the European market, and some of the Volvo XC40, sold in Europe but produced in China. The latter example is peculiar: Volvo is a Swedish carmaker, but its majority shareholder is Geely, one of China's largest privately owned car groups.So Strantis, in an atypical way, has joined the trend with two large cars under its French brands. Is this a clever move? Citroen is a brand that prides itself on the very essence of French style and spirit, as well as representing a certain art of living that people prefer to be comfortable rather than show off.Vincent Kirby, chief executive of Citroen, said: "This may surprise you, but China's car factories are among the best in the world in terms of quality. In my previous career [note: Kobe spent 14 years at Nissan], when we ranked the quality of our plants around the world, the top three were in China, much to the disappointment of the Japanese."