Peculiarly, I first heard the phrase “China speed” at a Renault event, where the company’s then-boss, Luca de Meo, casually tossed it into a conversation about how Renault would now update its cars almost continuously. Hence the reason that, before the Renault 5 had even made it to showrooms, execs could tell you that it would receive improved, three-level brake regen’ in the near future. This was because the company now functions on ‘China speed’.
Since then, it’s become a common industry term. To state the obvious, it refers to the fact that Chinese manufacturers will routinely go from drawing board to showroom deliveries – with brand new models, as well as with continuous updates and improvements – far faster than European brands have historically managed.
Famously, BYD can go from someone in a boardroom saying “hey, they sell loads of those Tesla Model 3s - we should make one”, to having a BYD Seal sitting in showrooms 18 months later. That’s around 3-5 years faster than the legacy car-makers would spend on the same process.
The main reason BYD can do this is because it employs some 968,000 staff. For some context, that’s double the number that Toyota employs. And of those BYD staff, it’s reckoned that 110,000 are solely dedicated to product design and research.
I was thinking about this when I drove a car from another Chinese brand, Omoda, recently. The 9 is the halo model (currently, anyway) for Omoda; a brand that was launched in 2022 by parent company, Chery, specifically to generate sales of luxury cars outside of Chery’s domestic market. It’s the sister brand to Jaecoo, which is the more outdoorsy version: Jaecoo is the Land Rover to Omoda’s Range Rover, if you want to think of it like that.
This wasn’t the first Omoda I’ve driven; back in April 2024 I tried the smaller Omoda 5 – both the EV and petrol models. These were the cars that launched the brand in the UK, and they didn’t drive well. Interestingly, Omoda were fine to hear this and were keen to get feedback on the assistance systems, handling and more. In fact, getting feedback from experts and then customers seemed to be almost the point of launching them. Then, I drove the Jaecoo 7 earlier this year. It had torque steer and traction issues the likes of which I’ve not experienced since the 1990s, so I’d hardly recommend it.
And yet, the Omoda 9 feels… well, pretty good. Rather boring to drive, and derivative to look at, perhaps, but also inoffensive and perfectly pleasant to cover miles in.
It’s on a new platform, and it’s four-wheel drive, which I’m sure is a huge factor in how Omoda has suddenly produced a car that handles with some neutrality. But the PHEV powertrain is quiet, powerful and fiendishly clever. In fact, I’m confident in saying that it’s more refined and unobtrusive than the CVT gearbox hybrids fitted to many Toyota and Lexus models. It also offers the longest pure-electric range (93 miles, if you’re asking) of any plug-in hybrid on sale in Europe, not least thanks to a battery that benefits from very recent LFP battery cell technology that CATL has pioneered.
Basically, in just over a year, Omoda has gone from launching cars that felt outright unpleasant to drive, to something that has class-leading efficiency and that really could make a case for itself over established rivals. Pretty clever, right?
Which brings us to Jaguar. Well… it didn’t, but it probably should. We’ve all had our opinions on Jaguar’s rebranding, and its Type 00 concept car. The pomp and circumstance around it, the divisive marketing, and the company’s unusual decision to deliberately fall dormant for years before actually bringing its new era of luxury EVs to showrooms.
Well, if you ever needed a lens to clarify why Jaguar’s decision to pause everything might be considered as outright dangerous in today’s industry, it is the ultra-rapid pace and adaptability with which the Chinese brands are moving.
And it’s not just Jaguar that I worry about in terms of its pace of change. Ford took years longer than expected to shoehorn a battery powertrain into the Puma (its best-selling car). Volkswagen showed the new, ID.2All electric car to the public in 2023, but it won’t actually go on sale until next year. I mean, what’s the hold up, people? VW should be facelifting the ID.2 in 2026, not launching it. These sort of time scales were the norm 10 years ago, but now feel achingly slow.
In the meantime, which major European brand seems to actually be thriving under this pressure? Yup – Renault, which has just put itself at the top of the electric car sales charts in the UK and much of Europe.
What this does of course show is that traditional brands that don’t employ a trillion people and have the functioning budget of a small country can still really succeed in today’s market. But Renault has acted decisively and quickly in recent years, not to mention using its long heritage to every possible advantage. All of which seems to have worked well.
Don’t get me wrong, here: China’s auto makers still have plenty to learn next to more established brands. And regardless of what Chinese car makers do in the meantime, I am desperately hoping that Jaguar, Volkswagen, Ford and every other of these brands that we know and love, can find a way to thrive. After all, more choice can only be of more benefit to car buyers and the car industry that serves them.
As our sister website PistonHeads likes to remind us, Speed Matters. So my advice to the rest of the industry is to take a leaf out of Renault’s new rulebook, and remember to work at ‘China speed’.