Are Joint Venture Vehicles Considered Domestic Cars?
2 Answers
Joint venture vehicles are not domestic cars. Below is a detailed comparison between domestic cars and joint venture vehicles: Appearance Design: Domestic cars have relatively less independent R&D and are still in a stage of imitation. Joint venture vehicles, leveraging their product advantages, make improvements based on domestic consumer market demands, making them more market-friendly. Thus, joint venture vehicles have an edge in appearance design. Safety Performance: In terms of safety performance, domestic cars outperform joint venture vehicles. Configuration Reduction: Comparing two car brands, it's evident that joint venture vehicles suffer from severe configuration reduction. Complaint Rate: Feedback from car owners is crucial. Data shows that in recent years, the complaint rate for joint venture vehicles has been soaring, while domestic cars have not made the list.
I think many people confuse this concept. Although joint venture cars are indeed produced and assembled domestically in China, using local workers and parts, legally and essentially, joint venture cars and purely domestic cars are two entirely different things. For example, my Volkswagen Lavida was manufactured in Shanghai, but Volkswagen is still a German brand. The corporate structure behind them determines this—they are established through joint investments by domestic automakers and foreign brands. However, if you're referring to the place of production, then all joint venture cars can be considered domestically manufactured, since their VINs start with 'L' for China. The key is whether we're talking about the origin of production or brand ownership when discussing cars.
