For the longest time, most people working in, or covering, the automotive industry thought of Chinese-made cars as cheap and subpar—something you wouldn’t want your worst enemy to drive. I’m certainly guilty of this, too. When Chinese cars would occasionally make it to Western auto shows, we’d joke that many of them looked like “communism Corollas.”
Well, nobody’s laughing now. As we’ve covered extensively at InsideEVs, China’s latest offerings in the electric vehicle and plug-in hybrid space feel a decade ahead of Western competitors. Battery technology, software, manufacturing techniques, you name it—China’s way ahead. And many of the cars feel like convincing alternatives to Mercedes-Benzes and Range Rovers.
But I realized something yesterday when we were recording this podcast that kind of snuck up on me: even China’s cheap cars are now way better than ours. And they still have cheap cars. Blame the thirst for profits or tariffs or whatever you want, but you can’t even buy a Ford in America for under $30,000 anymore.
It’s hard not to feel a little left behind these days.
On today’s episode of the Plugged-In Podcast, we’re doing the second and final recap of our trip to the 2025 Shanghai Auto Show. My co-host Tim Levin and I are joined by Staff Writer Kevin Williams, who has driven more Chinese EVs than maybe any other Western journalist. And we’re going to cover some of our favorite things we tried over there, from Nio, BYD, Lynk & Co and others. Spoiler alert: the luxury stuff was great, but it was the cheap stuff I longed for most when I got home.
Plus, we’re also discussing a potential end to EV tax credits back home. That doesn’t feel like a great move amid everything I just mentioned, does it?
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Contact the author: patrick.george@insideevs.com
