Why Are Joint Venture Cars So Expensive?
2 Answers
There are four main reasons why joint venture cars are expensive: brand, technology and quality, configuration, and driving experience. Here's a detailed analysis: 1. Brand: Joint venture brands and luxury brands have 'brand premium.' 2. Technology and Quality: Currently, no matter which domestic brand, the durability of their cars is a concern. Whether it's the sales champion Haval H6 or Geely, which claims to be the domestic Volvo, it's a 'normal phenomenon' for their products to have poor condition and frequent malfunctions after just one year of use. In contrast, these issues are much less likely with joint venture brands. 3. Configuration: Domestic brands often use steel solely to cut costs without considering weight reduction. In joint venture models, aluminum metals must meet the standards of ultra-high-strength steel, which can increase costs several times or even more than tenfold. If this can be considered 'configuration,' then joint venture models always rank a level higher than domestic brands. 4. Driving Experience: Domestic brands cannot compare to joint venture cars in terms of failure rate and durability. Some domestic brand models even start to produce 'abnormal noises' during the initial driving phase, indicating significant issues in workmanship details.
Having driven a taxi for over a decade, I've noticed that joint-venture cars are more expensive mainly in several areas. Technically, foreign automakers charge hefty licensing fees, and this cost is noticeably passed on to the car prices. Parts also have to be imported or sourced from foreign-invested配套 factories, with tariffs and transportation costs making them over twice as expensive as domestic parts. Then there's the brand premium—cars with the same configuration can sell for 20,000 to 30,000 yuan more just by sporting a foreign badge. Not to mention that production line equipment has to be imported from abroad, and even the management team includes foreign executives. All these expenses ultimately get分摊到 each vehicle. Honestly, domestic cars have improved rapidly these days. Brands like Geely and BYD are no longer inferior to joint-venture cars, and their prices are much more reasonable.