But now, said Mr. Ang, the Geely board member, his company has no plans to
export cars to the United States until "2009, 2010 or 2011." Meanwhile, Chery
has twice pushed back its target date for exports to the United States, first
from 2007 to 2008, and then again to 2009.
Other Chinese automakers are even more cautious. Shanghai Automotive
Industry, First Auto Works and Dongfeng Motor -- joint venture partners of
multinational automakers that are taking steps to produce their own cars -- have
all taken go-slow approaches to exports in recent months. And they are refusing
to set targets for selling to advanced countries.
Chinese automakers still have strong advantages that will help them in the
long run -- skilled and diligent workers like Ai Biaohui, for instance, a
strapping 22-year-old at the sprawling Geely operations here in east-central
China, who labor for less than US$250 a month. Chinese cars often retail for a
quarter or more less than models of similar size in the United States, with
domestic subcompacts selling at home for US$7,000.
Moreover, the government supports the industry by allocating to automakers
the choicest land, near deepwater ports. The site for the Geely factory here in
Ningbo, for instance, is just 600 yards from the docks.
And there are other intangibles. Geely, among the more efficient makers, not
only does not have to worry about unions, it even hires drill sergeants from the
People's Liberation Army to improve discipline.
In visits across the country to car factories run solely by Chinese
companies, it is apparent that most are not ready for global competition.
At a BYD factory in Xi'an in western China on a recent afternoon, for
example, car engines were stacked up like 15-foot walls along both sides of the
assembly line because of a delivery mix-up.
Workers in blue jumpsuits worked between the man-made heaps of
plastic-wrapped engines. The jumble of cars at the end of the assembly line made
it hard for workers to move cars off the production line.
Chery, in Anhui province in east-central China, has delayed exports partly to
focus on improving safety. Malcolm Bricklin, who has a distribution agreement
with Chery to sell its cars to dealers in the United States, said that Chery had
realized that regardless of price, American buyers expected cars to exceed
minimum standards for safety and passenger comfort.
If Chery cars were subjected to crash tests now, he said, 'they could pass
regulations, but they would not be five-star crashes."
Still, some Chinese automakers have a slight head-start through their joint
ventures, which tie some of them to Japanese and Korean manufacturers that have
already gone through the long process of developing a manufacturing backbone and
figuring out the marketing networks needed to navigate the United States and
Europe.
From a joint venture in the southeastern city of Guangzhou, Honda now exports
hatchbacks to Belgium. DaimlerChrysler is working out the final details for a
joint venture with Chery to build Chrysler-designed Dodge subcompacts in
east-central China for export to North America, using a combination of imported
and locally made parts.
Nanjing Automobile has bought the MG name and much of the factory equipment
from Britain. But three of the first four models planned for the American market
will be sedans carried over from British designs. Only one, a coupe, will be
designed in China, said Duke Hale, the president and chief executive for North
American operations.
The exporter of Landwind New Vision sport utilities, which failed the German
testing, will try again, according to Peter Bijvelds, the chief executive of
LWMC, the Dutch importer of the vehicles to Europe.
The New Vision had met all safety regulations, he said. But he conceded that
the test had hurt. Now, LWMC plans to try importing a completely different model
from China next summer.
Japanese and Korean automakers cracked the American car market by climbing up
a ladder of larger and costlier models. China, too, will start with low prices.
But the global market has become so integrated and competitive that China
will have to move much faster than past companies in building manufacturing
capability and technology.
In the case of Japan, automakers had time to experiment with inexpensive
subcompacts, like the early Honda Civic, before moving to reliable midsize cars
and on to technologically advanced luxury models like the new Lexus GS 450h, a
gasoline-electric hybrid sedan.
