It's weird how since like the 2018ish, the West has been holding its collective breath about how 'high-tech Chinese product X' is going to wipe out local markets by offering the same stuff cheaper and better.
We've seen this mentioned with smartphones, laptops, various electronics accessories, household stuff, and most recently cars.
Interestingly, this stuff never seemed to catch on, the best they usually managed is they became mid-tier market players.
The jury's still out on cars, but my suspicion is they're going to be far less dominant than the doomsayers predict.
The only 2 exceptions to this are dji, and Bambulab, their products are without peer.
A little confused. In the US, Volvo EVs are pretty popular (80% owned by Geely). Tencent owns most of Riot Games and a large stake in Epic Games. The GE appliances division is I think fully owned by Haier. Hisense and TCL TVs sell pretty well.
There's roborock (vacuums), Insta360 (that and DJI crushed GoPro?), Hikvision cameras, Segway-Ninebot mobility and other odd ones, TP-Link networking, TerraMaster for storage, BeeLink computers seem to be taking off.
Nothing is wiping out local markets here, but to think it isn't catching on seems too strong a statement.
Eufy vac by Anker was truly baffling launch consider all the roborock alternatives at the time, any budget Xiaomi vac was better.
It's not weird _because_ all the 2018 sentiment eventually led a bunch of export controls by US and Meng Wangzhou arrest in 2020... PRC companies don't want to fuck with getting popular in key western, especially NA markets like US because getting popular is ticket to sanction which makes operating RoW more annoying. See all the tariffs on EVs / renewables. see DJI now. See PRC doing obscene markups abroad to not look like dumping to locals but domestically the same goods sell for less. Everyone in PRC knows US will make up some retarded national security excuse to hobble successful multinational brans in high tech. So they keep all the good stuff, or price the good stuff cheap at home / in other markets. Where good is 80-90% of functionality for 50% the price, i.e. stuff that wipe markets. The really "good" stuff, as in market leaders that wouldn't simply stomp competitors, risk selling/becoming popular in west higher than ever. There was study in 20s that show incumbents (usually western) basically lose 50-100% of their operating profits once affordable PRC alternatives enter market... so now barriers are setup to scare those companies from selling products, or at least sell them at market wiping prices.
I don't know if it's just anecdotal, but I see a LOT of Chinese EVs in the England lately. Obviously nobody is buying them based on brand recognition or any sort of quality belief, brands nobody has heard of until now can only be on our streets in the numbers I'm seeing because they're significantly cheaper than buying something from a known auto manufacturer.
The one exception I'd say in the UK are MG EVs, which for some unknown reason some of my fellow Brits have some sort of affinity to as a brand.
I wouldn't dream of buying a JAECOO or BYD and everything I've seen online about their EVs absolutely suggest some at least morally dubious tactics, not to say the likely of VW haven't also had their hands slapped, but let's see how their fair mid term.
Side note: Recently got a DJI drone, have had some of their other camera related non-drone stuff, the thing is absolutely nuts for the price, DJI really are unrivalled.
Both lists have single MG vehicle, so they aren't doing terribly, but based on this, it's hard to conclude they're going to conquer the market. And this is with the UK, which has no tariffs on Chinese EVs.
My prediction is that MG is going to fall off the next couple years, considering their reliability has been terrible, according to stats. Even if they fix the issues, they're going to get a reputation and it's a long way back from that.
Infrastructure is still lacking in the UK, and not everyone has the possibility of charging at home, but the Chinese EVs are the only ones not reaching into luxury vehicle price territory (and the associated costs) in the UK.
If the pace of EV sales picks up (and I'm not convinced it will soon), it's hard to see Chinese EVs at the prices they are, not becoming extremely popular.
What could turn it around, is, as you say, terrible reliability records, but even then, that didn't seem to stop people buying ICE cars, so I'm not sure how much of an effect it'll have here either. I guess we'll have to wait and see.
I've not seen any of those higher end models myself, I'd be curious to know what kind of numbers they're selling in here versus, let's say, European high-end EVs.
I didn't mention Polestar myself either as I'm undecided whether they fit into the "Chinese brands" category; they are Chinese now but I wonder what if any influence Volvo still has on them and if so, what effect that might have on their quality and reliability; perhaps it's "none", but I see Polestar as a brand that would be a more likely purchase because of its Volvo heritage.
I've never seen a Zeekr or Xiaomi vehicle here in the UK, not sure if they're on sale here (yet).
And my prediction is that in the UK EV market, MG and Volvo are the thin edge of the wedge of Chinese cars.
BYD are on the roads now, and Omoda, soon to be followed by Zeekr, XPeng, Nio and Xiaomi. How well MG does specifically is irrelevant to all that, but your suggestion seems wishful - they have several new models out this year.
Tesla's brand reputation is in a ditch, and the big EU brands are struggling to keep up.
I've really not looked too much into Chinese EVs beyond some YouTube channels talking about some of their sketchy tactics to incentivise "influencers" and presumably subsidies to get to the kinds of prices they're selling at in the UK.
I wouldn't consider buying any of them so all I really know is what I see on the streets.
That's the implication I was making; I know they're Chinese that's why I raised them, my point is, people are buying them presumably on brand recognition (the exception in that list), which is beyond me because I would _not_ buy an MG (Chinese or otherwise).
No they are not, the only Western market I could find where they have significant penetration is in Australia. Places like the UK have no tariffs on Chinese EVs, and no domestic industry to protect, yet Chinese cars are barely in the top 10.
They already had all of the composites experience from making bikes and wheels in carbon for the western brands, and now they are producing their own designs and offering highly competitive price to performance.
What was the problem? I thought my Eufy was excellent when I had it. It was one of the blind models, where it would seemingly wander around randomly, but it wasn't actually random. It may miss a spot on one pass but would usually get the spot on the next run.
I've since upgraded to a Dreame with lidar and mopping that actually maps my place. It also has a Home Assistant integration so it can be automated and scheduled. But my original Eufy kept my old apartment floor in great shape.
We have had the X10 Pro Omni for a bit over a year now and we have been enjoying it. A mix of hardwood/carpet. I have it mop 3 times a week and vacuum alternate days. The mopping has been good. I change out the mop pads and blow out the filter once a week. The vacuum is OK, nothing compared to an upright, but it keeps dog hair manageable. If we only wanted vacuuming, I would have probably chosen a different brand.
I also bought the eufy home security system and it's pretty trash but I'm in it now. The video doorbell is solid to be fair but the whole thing is so slow I question it being local.
I think you really need to separate the brands because the power banks are still the best.
The single most important thing to understand about Chinese brands is that in China, party members sit on the board of these companies. And those party members can dictate action as they see fit. You can take them to the kangaroo court if you like, but people generally don't voluntarily waste time.
People think that China is USA 2.0. It's not. It's a communist state with a single ruling party with unilateral control over every aspect of the country. They have capitalistic facets because communism doesn't work on it's own, but trust that the authority system is totalitarian, and if they want spyware in your product while you lie about it, there will be spyware in your product and you will lie about it.
We've already heard that there are kill switches in Solar PV equipment[0], networks with Chinese brands are to be considered compromised[1], I'm certain we can assume the same for Chinese brand EVs having remote control and/or kill switches.
It's interesting to see the non-response from governments over it so far; though there was recently rumours of an MoD ban on Chinese EVs but that seems to have been shot down[2] so far.
The problem isn't trustworthiness, we know very well what's going on here, "privacy not included", the issue is that if another nation that's not friendly to you controls huge swathes of your infrastructure, they could use that access to cripple you should a "disagreement" occur.
With the kind of infrastructure that holds Chinese technology in the west, they could shut down entire power grids, bring roads to a stand still, shut down entire countries worth of networking, cellular networks and worse. This is leaving out the surveillance and data collection potential as it's not the topic at hand.
To be clear, my issue isn't with China specifically, but as a westerner, they're not a friendly nation (to mine).
The same of course applies the other way around, and I can imagine a scenario of other citizens sitting in their respective nation having this same conversation about western technology.
As an european, the US doesn't appear to be very friendly to me, or rather, their friendliness is conditional on the EU acting like a vassal state (or vassal federation). The current US administration doesn't even pretend like that's not the case, but past administrations acted like this as well.
China seems very much like a more straightforward and predictable trading partner.
Trade isn't really the concern I'm implying here. US isn't likely to initiate a "special military operation" without our (European's) borders, but China could certainly get ideas from a more local aggressor.
Whether or not that's likely is another story, but it's possibly a non-zero chance and handing over control of critical infrastructure should be a concern.
I have 2 x Omni X10 Pros and they're very good. No problems at all so far. I have all hard wood flooring though, I don't think they would be great on carpet.
* The "mop" function is pretty much useless. It's very good at creating a thin layer of grime across our entire house. It basically just pushes grime from the high traffic areas of the high into the lower areas. Even with an aggressive setting for "mop cleaning", it just doesn't get clean.
* The vacuum function is okay-ish. It does pretty well at keeping our dog's hair at bay, but it misses a lot of fine dirt and sand.
I can't speak to the mop function, I've never had a robo mop.
I've had robot vacuums for about a decade now. Originally a Botvac, now a Shark. They're not a complete vacuum replacement, I've never had one always able to get every corner perfectly and get all the deeper dust and what not. What they do well is control all the animal hair in my home. There's a lot of shedding in my house, I'd have to spend time vacuuming every other day or there would be hair everywhere.
Plus two kids, lots of random crumbs and what not. Nice to be able to just open the app and say "clean this room" and then go back to spending time with the kids instead of taking the time to vacuum myself.
Having the robot run every other day means I can just do a deeper vacuum clean once a month or so but still have generally very clean floors day to day. Not a complete replacement in the end though.
Yep, my $150 Amazon warehouse deals Eufy picks up about two large handfuls of cat hair daily if I run it consistently and more if I run it every few days. And this is one medium sized shorthair cat I comb regularly!
I’ve only needed to replace consumables like the little side brush and roller brush and the cheap Amazon knockoff brands work fine for me.
They're good for tidying, not deep cleaning, assuming they're not bottom barrel (i.e. no laser if those still exist), and have decent app to streamline process (i.e. invisible walls, cordon rooms).
They're GREAT if you really drink the koolaid and start fengshuing your interior around it, i.e. as I upgrade I'm getting robovac friendlier furniture, more stuff on legs with right clearance, chairs with wider spacing or arms that can hang off table to keep legs off ground. Have one of those small portable blowers and a feather duster. Routine is to blow crumbs onto floor, feather dust some surface, shake the dust corner and let the robotvac handle it every few days. It's nice to always come home to a reasonably clean house.
Robot mops, i.e the dedicated kind, especially with self cleaning + tank actually getting pretty competent now. The drag a light microfibre towel across floor like tiny Japanese maid has always been mid... they work pretty well on laminate surfaces though. Problem with mops is IMO harder user experience problems... need better maps or algo to avoid carpets.
Robovacs still suck when constantly worried if it's going to accidentally drag cat vomit across the house because you forgot to check and sometimes cats just vomit.
I used to expect anything they made to be good by default. Now, it's the opposite.