Last week I dropped into Shanghai for a couple of days to visit the auto show. I’ve been to the Beijing show before and even one in Wuhan, but never to Shanghai, and it didn’t disappoint.
Last week I dropped into Shanghai for a couple of days to visit the auto show. I’ve been to the Beijing show before and even one in Wuhan, but never to Shanghai, and it didn’t disappoint.
The Shanghai show is everything you ever heard about. It’s massive, the biggest show in the world. Bigger than the former Frankfurt show. Think of the LA show, the Chicago show, Detroit and New York put together. Now double that. Now double it again. That’s how big it is.
And it’s got everything, from the blingiest custom van you’ll ever see like this one from a company called Shenzer, to this mean looking SUV called the Dragon from Dongfeng, to this real-live version of a comic-book anime car called the Big Emperor, to this fuzzy wuzzy Wuling mini EV that was a magnet for little children who were at the show.
I saw several cars using plastic trim with what looked like giant mica flakes embedded in it. I don’t know if I like the look, but it shows that the Chinese are experimenting with everything.
There was plenty of tech to look at too, like this low-voltage battery for heavy-duty diesel trucks from CATL that uses sodium for its basic chemistry. It also showed this battery pack for a passenger EV that also uses sodium. And Bosch was showing off the latest it has in electric motors.
A recurring theme was with eVTOLs and humanoid robots which were scattered throughout the show at different display stands.
One of the dangdest things I saw at the show was this line of young female blogger/influencers. These happened to be at the Xiaomi display but they were at other OEM displays too. They just jabber, jabber, jabber on and on and on and I’m told that the car companies pay them to be there. And then it’s kind of a race to see who gets the biggest audience. I was also told that automakers will even pay people to log in to drive up viewership so the car companies can brag that more people are looking at their display than anyone else’s.
There were quite a few concept cars at the show. Here’s like the Honqi HIS that is a study in smooth surfacing. I liked this chunky but compact 4-door off-road concept from MG called the Cyber X. But I was most impressed with a couple of concepts from Buick, including the Buick Electra, which was shown as both a sedan and as a crossover. And the Electra GS that looks like a grand touring sedan.
JAC showed off concepts for a sport sedan called the Define S and an SUV called the Define X. And then there’s this concept from Hyptec, called Earth. Hyptec, by the way, is part of GAC. Inside it has a sumptuous interior. The Chinese really put a big effort into making their interiors as appealing as possible.
Anytime you see a car with clamshell door and no b-pillar you can almost automatically assume its just a concept car that will not go into production. But not this time. Zeekr has this van where the front doors slide forward and the rear doors slide rearward to create a huge opening. Also note that the front doors swivel rearwards.
Gullwing doors are complicated and expensive and add a lot of weight to a car, but Hyptec showed off this model, the Hyper HT, with gullwing doors. And the price of this car is only $45,000.
Several automakers showed movie screens that descend from the headliner for rear seat passengers, like in this Aito M9 SUV. It also has a terrific immersive sound system and rear massage seats. The price on this one was about $68,700.
Audi used the show to sort of re-launch the brand where it’s getting rid of its famous logo of 4 rings and just going with the letters A-U-D-I instead. My read of this is that years ago Audi became the car to have for government officials. And so if people see you driving an Audi, they automatically assume you work for the government. So, to try and shake that stigma, Audi is dropping the rings.
When Mercedes fully owned the smart brand it only offered dinky little cars. But now that Geely partly owns the brand, it’s bringing out larger models.
How do you attract a bunch of people to your display when there are so many brands at the show? Why you put on a fashion show with young women models showing off the latest trends and colors in clothing, that’s what you do. And you do it with blaring music, like FAW did at its booth.
Despite all the emphasis on New Energy Vehicles in China, more than a few gear heads were interested in piston power, like these guys checking out the latest engine lineups from Volkswagen. And Great Wall Motor had no problem prominently displaying this twin turbo, twin intercooler, 4-liter V8 that goes in its SUV called the Tank.
Here’s one of the coolest cars I ran across at the show, it’s from Chery Automotive and it’s called the i-Car 23. It’s an A-segment off-roader that offers two different battery packs. A 60 kilowatt hour pack for rear drive powered by a electric motor with 155 kilowatts of power, or about 210 horsepower, and 300 newton meters of torque, or 221 foot pounds. And there’s an 82 kilowatt hour pack for a dual-motor, all-wheel-drive version that provides 500 kilometers of range, or 310 miles. i-Car really expects to sell a lot of accessories for the 23, including this electric mountain bike for $1,000. The base price is around $15,000 for the small battery and $20,000 for the bigger battery, and i-Car thinks most of them will go out the door for $20-30,000. By the way, that includes a bumper to bumper lifetime warranty for the first owner and a lifetime warranty for the battery, motor and ECU for whoever buys it after that.
You keep hearing that Chinese consumers are not interested in American cars, but people were all over the Mustang GT convertible, and though I don’t have a picture of it, they were swarming in and out of a Bronco that had the doors off. And I was shocked to see a Ford Explorer fitted out as a police car.
I also got to go for a ride outside of the show to learn about a low cost, Level 2 ADAS system from a company called Autolink. L2 ADAS is a hot thing in China but BYD is offering as standard equipment and that’s forcing everyone to find a low-cost version so they don’t have to give too much away for free. The Autolink system has 3 radars, 7 cameras and 12 ultrasonic sensors. Total cost is $1,000. Based on my ride, it needs more development, but they’re clearly getting close to it being ready.
To my eye, too many Chinese cars are overly designed. Some of them are outright garish. But I thought that the Changan Avatr 12 Royal Edition looked terrific. The front, the rear and the interior are really well done.
One of the best features I saw was this combination tailgate, trunk, hatchback on the Changan E07. Note how the backlite slides forward to create a huge opening in the rear—perfect for tailgating. All you product planners out there, take notice.
So there you have it, my photo tour of the Shanghai show. And believe me, what I showed you here only scratched the surface. Even so, I think this gives you a pretty good idea of what went down in Shanghai.
