“You won’t believe what’s coming,” warned the title of a January 2023 video from the Inside China Auto YouTube channel. “Europe’s premium car makers aren’t ready for this,” warned another video from the same channel, uploaded in July.
Produced by Shanghai-based automotive journalist Mark Rainford, a former communications executive for Mercedes-Benz, the channel is one of several by China-based Western commentators agog at what they are seeing—and driving.
The channels tell salivating viewers that the tech-heavy yet keenly priced Chinese electric vehicles that have appeared on China’s domestic market since the end of the global pandemic will soon wipe the floor with their Western counterparts.
Auto executives in Europe, America, and Japan