And, a recent tour of one of the Asian powerhouse’s vehicle plants has proved this beyond a shadow of a doubt, at least to Honda President and CEO Toshihiro Mibe.
“We have no chance against this,” Mibe said upon a visit to a Shanghai parts factory, commenting on its seamless automation across all levels of production. Logistics, procurement and all aspects of the process were so automated, in fact, that he did not spot a single human worker on the supplier’s floor.
Ford executives saying even three years ago that China was way ahead of the game
Toyota’s CEO has likewise said regarding not just his company, but the industry in general, “unless things change, we will not survive”
Hey ? There’s dozens, if not hundreds of them, Chinese, European, Korean…
Oh. In the USA huh ? Damn, shame about your govt blocking them all. Maybe you’ll change things up at the mid terms, good luck with it.
No
At a 30 sec glance at your history and based on your reference to Renaults in Oz then first question - WTF - it’s 3am over there, go to bed !
Then 2nd question, what exactly are you lacking in the way of small car options ? Another 30 sec dig suggests Oz has any number of small BEVs available all of the usual culprits from China, Korea and Europe are available (as they are in most countries, Canada being 1 exception for a few more months, and obviously the US).
https://www.cars24.com.au/car-guide/best-selling-bev-models-australia-2025/
Nissan Leaf, MG4 and BMW iX1 are not exactly F150s - they’re all reasonable sized hatches.
Yes there are plenty of people driving large cars in Oz (I’m from there originally) and they’re now feeling the pain of the fuel prices, it will shape their behaviour, particularly the city folk driving Ford Rangers etc without ever taking them off road.
If I’ve guessed wrong on the country whatever. There’s very few countries outside of North America that don’t have small and medium BEVs easily available
You got the country right. What’s your idea of a small car? When was the last time you drove in Australia? How large are the lanes where you live?
Of the cars you listed (or better said the website listed) only the Nissan Leaf is under 1800 mm width ( 1780 mm ). With a length of 4490 mm it’s not exactly a small car though, but I’ll grant you it’s within an acceptable size range for a vehicle. I haven’t seen many around tbh. The MG zs EV follows closely at 1809 x 4323, acceptable sizes but not small.
The Tesla T3, TY (you see these two a lot), Kia EV5, and BMW ix1 are well above 1900mm width. The T3, by far the most popular, is exactly 1933mm W x 4720cm L, the TY only 3cm longer. Hardly, hardly what I’d call a small car.
The other models listed are all above 1800cm width, and their lengths are over 4200 mm.
Let’s compare these sizes against popular PICKUP models. Ford Ranger: 1910 mm x 5225, Volkswagen Amarok: 1910x 5350, Mitsubishi Triton 1815x5305, BYD Shark3 1994x 5195, Nissan Navara 1850 x 5120.
TESLAS ARE WIDER THAN PICKUPS. Why??? Most other EVs have comparable widths to those of a pickup. Is that small?
Examples of actually small cars: Honda Jazz 1694mm x 3996, Toyota Yaris 1710x 3940, Suzuki Swift 1735x 3840, Nissan Micra 1665x 3780, Fiat Mini Cooper 1744 x 3876. These are relatively recent models. If you look for older ones, before 2020, you’ll find even more under 1600mm. Before the 2000s, you get cars even narrower than that.
New roads might take the current average car sizes into account, but nobody is broadening already existing streets.