BMW sales boss: Chinese brands will struggle to capture Europe

BMW doesn’t fear the incoming wave of aggressive Chinese rivals, its sales boss has said, insisting they will find it very hard to dominate the European market.

Firms such as BYD, Chery (which owns Omoda and Jaecoo) and Xpeng have all expanded rapidly in the UK and Europe in recent years. But Jochen Goller doesn’t believe they will eat into BMW’s market share.

Speaking to Autocar ahead of the Munich motor show, Goller said: "When Toyota came, afterwards BMW was still selling more cars than before. The Koreans came and we’re still selling more cars. We’ve managed our brand position and products and we’ve added products, which meant it didn't hinder our growth.”

Goller previously ran BMW’s Chinese operations so has a deep knowledge of the market. He said: “China has an extremely strong, very diverse auto industry, so the fact that they are going out like the Japanese and Koreans before is very normal. Of course they will occupy a certain market share; whether it’s 10% or 15%, it will happen. We definitely don't take the Chinese lightly: they build good cars. There are no bad cars in China.”

But Goller insisted that some of the factors that have allowed Chinese firms to rapidly claim a dominant position in their domestic market don’t apply in Europe. He noted that the low cost base and incentives allowed such firms to set “an extremely impressive price” in China but “they will not to the same extent be able to do that here".

“Also, the purchase reason [for Chinese customers is having] a ‘smartphones on wheels’, and the focus on digitalisation is not exactly what European customers want.

“[Chinese firms] will be successful, but to believe they can repeat this incredible market rate which happened in China in other markets is difficult.

"They are smart, because the most successful Chinese brands in Europe are European brands owned by the Chinese: MG and Volvo are technically European brands.

"The Chinese brands are not yet so successful, but they will come and there will be a certain market share that is clearly happening.”