Driving with Dunne

Last week, Geely proudly announced that it was the first Chinese automaker to officially enter the Canadian market. BYD, Chery and others are right on their tail, ready to deliver their full range of products. So, now seems to be a good time to ask: How quickly will Chinese brands win market share in Canada.  And will the Chinese succeed in using Canada as a staging area for entry into the US market? Joining us today is my former colleague from J.D. Power, Freda Wang.  Freda has achieved tremendous wins working as a senior executive for Mercedes (both in China and Canada), Aston Martin and Jaguar Land Rover. Born in Beijing, she knows China. Living in Toronto, she knows the West.  We'll look at Chinese brands in Canada, but we will also pull the lens back to examine how the Chinese view competition and how that differs from what we're accustomed to in the West. Freda Wang on the Driving With Dunne podcast. 

China's automotive manufacturing machine is extraordinary, featuring a concentration of scale and firepower never before seen in the past century. Consider these numbers: China manufactures more cars than the next five countries combined. The PRC is on track to export 12 million vehicles this year. That's up from just one million in 2020.  That number, 12 million, is causing tremors across the world, from Europe to SE Asia to South America. Overall global demand for cars in is not growing. So every export from China means one less car built somewhere else. Now, Western automakers are feeling real pain. VW is talking about laying off up to 100,000 workers by 2030. Honda just announced its first annual loss since 1955.  What is triggering China's export juggernaut? And why now? For answers, we turn to my good friend Jorge Guajardo, former ambassador for Mexico to China and a man with a deep understanding of how China works. In today's conversation, I ask Jorge the following: What is driving car exports from China? And what can Western countries do to respond and compete with the industrial colossus? 

What do we really know about Xi Jinping, China's most powerful leader since Chairman Mao? Answer: Incredibly little.  Xi is the embodiment of inscrutability, the ultimate poker face.  And second, the Party he has led since 2012 is notoriously secretive and opaque. But, wait, there is a fresh glimmer of light. His name is Joseph Torigian, a highly respected scholar who has written an incredibly powerful book about Xi Jinping's father, Xi Zhongxun. Through it, we learn a lot about Xi Jinping himself, his unbelievably harsh formative years living in a cave in dirt poor rural China, his quiet rise to power and the principles that guide his extraordinary reign as the No. 1 in China. What does Xi Jinping want for China ? What does it mean for Americans, Europeans and the rest of the world? Joseph Torigian, author, The Party's Interests Come First, has answers, here on the Driving With Dunne podcast

Our guest today, Lizzi Lee, is smart, daring and unconventional. After earning a PhD in economics from MIT, Lizzi Lee took a bold right turn and dove into research and writing. A few weeks ago, Lizzi wrote a very compelling piece in Foreign Affairs about the risks facing Chinese companies - price wars and vanishing margins at home. The stubborn underlying problem is that China cannot shake itself free from chronic overcapacity. Well, why not, we might wonder. Just shout down the extra plants and get supply in line with demand. It's more complicated than that, of course, especially in China where jobs and stability are number one. Too much capacity, too little profits making everyone a little bit tired, a phenomenon the Chinese call involution or neijuan in Chinese to roll up or coil up.  Born in China, formative years in Hong Kong and Singapore, and now in America, Lizzi gives us an insider's view of the realities oin the ground in the PRC as we get ready to head in to 2026. 

Earlier this year, I enjoyed a delicious lunch in Mexico City with Luis Lozano,  the former CEO of Toyota de Mexico. Luis immediately impressed me with his knowledge of the Mexican car market, the shock of hundreds of thousands of Chinese imports since 2020 and the possibilities that Chinese automakers will try to make Mexico a production base for exports to the United States. One of his goals, Luis told me, was to open American eyes to the current realities of Chinese cars. They are good value for money, they are coming our way. And they are not turning back. So, which companies are ones to watch? Are they going to build plants in Mexico as they have done in Brazil, Spain and Thailand? How soon? In today's conversation we get answers to those questions here on the Driving With Dunne podcast. 

President Trump and President Xi,  the two most powerful men in the world, met last week in Korea to try to, basically, calm things down.  China had just flexed its muscles, threatening to limit the export of key inputs like rare earth magnets and other critical minerals without which auto assembly plants in America could, within weeks, come to a standstill. America could inflict its own damage, by widening the net of sanctions on Chinese companies and individuals. Looking at the images on the TV screen, I began to wonder: In what areas are America and China still in agreement? Taiwan? No. South China Sea? No. Russia? No. Chips? No. Trade. A big no. That got me thinking about what lies ahead. To bring clarity and wisdom, I welcome Jorge Guajardo, former ambassador of Mexico to China to the show to ask him some fundamental questions: Since the US and China seem to have different values, different priorities and different regulations, can they ever see eye to eye? Who is decoupling more quickly, the United States or China. And how will Mexico play its cards as it finds itself squeezed between China and the United States with the car industry, investments and jobs looming large.

Here's a question I get a lot. How did China get so good so fast. People with front line experience in the People's Republic  talk about something called the China arc. Chinese leaders identify your company as the global leader. They entice you to invest in China. Chinese companies gradually extract know-how from you. Then they begin to compete with you inside China. Pretty soon, they are present in global markets, giving you a run for the money everywhere. The clearest example of this is solar panels, where Chinese now control more than 90% of global production. There are more: Magnets, batteries, ship-building and drones. Starting 10 years ago, China began accelerating its arc in two high value industries: Smart phones and electric cars.  Today, it turns out that Apple finds itself n the mother of all Chinese arcs, one with huge implications for the company's long term competitiveness. That's the captivating message from Patrick McGee, author of a tremendous new book titled: Apple in China: The Capture of the World's Most Valuable Company. For over a decade Apple consistently invested more than $50 billion into training Chinese suppliers? How come. Well, Apple wanted to be absolutely  to make certain that hundreds of millions of iPhones  ChIna built were the highest quality in the world. Flawless.  Yes, that's $50 billion. a year, a number, which McGee points out makes America's post WWII Marshall Plan look like chicken feed. McGee is a terrific guest, lively and smart with lots of fun asides. What's catfishing? Not what you think. And is the what's this about 300 million roving employees? McGee has answers, on the Driving With Dunne podcast.

Dazed, bruised and confused. That's how leaders of global automakers and suppliers operating in China feel these days. Since 2020, they have seen their once formidable China sales and profit machines vanish. As a group global automakers will sell 8 million fewer vehicles in China this year than they did in 2020. Eight million! People at headquarters are asking some tough questions: Where did things go wrong? And could it have been avoided? This is where a person with years of first-hand experience in China becomes valuable. Meet Mitch Presnick, a visiting fellow at Harvard and before that, the founder of the Super 8 Motel franchise in China. Mitch knows China and gives it to us straight. The Chinese are not boy scouts, he reminds us. It's necessary to negotiate super hard, and to keep negotiating even when you think the job is done. Sounds exhausting, right? Well, that's the bar for survival in China –  for Chinese people just as much as for foreigners.  In today's conversation, Mitch lets us know what's required to compete and recommend tools that will serve us well not only in China but in dealing with Chinese businesses as they go global.  

In the good old days of driving, we needed to make sure the mechanical things worked: Things like the engine, of course, the steering and the brakes. We were in charge of driving the car.  Now, for better and for worse, technologies are moving in and taking over. Sensors, cameras, on-board computers, software. Those powerful technologies are mostly invisible to the naked eye. They give us directions and infotainment; they help to avoid accidents. The more advanced technologies can now deliver us from Point A to Point B without human intervention. That's quite amazing when you think about it. And more than a little bit scary. How do we know that the sophisticated hardware and software will operate safely every time we get into the car? The reality is that there is no such thing as a perfect system, at least not yet. But there are ways to minimize our risks. That's where QNX comes in. The company, based in Ottawa, Canada, delivers real-time operating systems for safety critical applications.   As COO John Wall says, the modern car is becoming a robot on wheels. How can we know for sure that our robot remains our best friend, always looking out for our safety and security? John Wall has answers, today, on the Driving With Dunne podcast. 

By now, you have probably heard that there are more than 200 million connected cars on the road today. But, wait a minute. What is a connected car – and how does a connected car make our lives better? A simple way to think about it is that a connected car is one that is linked to the internet, just like our phone. And like our smartphones, that linkage gives cars an ability to deliver countless new features and functions via over-the-air updates. Connected cars are new in another way: For the first time in over one hundred years, the automotive industry relies on a different  industry - cellular - for key innovation. So, how exactly do automakers engage with the tech providers, the ones holding the valuable tech patents? Enter Avanci, a company formed in 2016 to serve as a bridge and broker between the tech powerhouses and the automotive giants. Joining this episode of the Driving With Dunne podcast is Laurie Fitzgerald, President, Avanci Vehicle. Laurie walks us through Avanci's unique role working as a vital go-between for global carmakers and the global tech providers. Laurie also shares her very first experience driving in Ireland, a right-hand drive market. Was the car connected?