Does Anyone Care That Jeep Will Start Building Cars In China?

Japan was a curious rival of the United States, having gone from a military foe to one of America’s biggest suppliers of electronics, cars, and other goods in rather short time. If you read sci-fi from the ’80s, there was also a fear of a strong political role that Japan would play globally. That didn’t quite happen, and once the bubble burst in Japan the greater influence was probably a cultural one than a political one; few people still alive feel negatively about buying a Japanese car.

China is different. There has been no large scale military conflict between the US and China, but both militaries clearly see the other side as the most feared antagonist in a global conflict. Americans buy an enormous amount of goods from China, but few of these are recognizably Chinese-branded. I’m sure plenty of people bought a TCL television without realizing the company was headquartered in Guangdong. China has become the world’s manufacturer, and, for years, you could buy a Chinese-built car in most of Europe and the US.

A Chinese-branded one is a little different, and it’s interesting to see who is building what. When I write The Morning Dump I don’t often lead with a question, because I want to help find answers. Today will be a little different, too, because I am a little curious. Jeep is one of the most quintessential American brands and, soon, will start building cars in China. Will this bother anyone? Canada will be an interesting test case for Chinese cars, and it sounds like automakers with non-obvious Chinese owners, like Lotus, will lead the way. Everything is politics, and the President of the United States has weighed in on right-to-repair on the side of consumers.

That’s heavy. Let’s end light. It’s a Lacoste Alpine!

Jeep Will Build An Electric Car In China

China has built Jeeps before. Back in the ’80s, then-Jeep parent AMC made a deal with the Beijing Automotive Industry Company to form what became known as Beijing Jeep. The trick to that, of course, was that they weren’t branded Jeep, even though they were obviously XJs. And, of course, the current Chinese car industry builds plenty of Jeep-like things as well.

What hasn’t happened before, I don’t think, is a Jeep-branded, Chinese-built Jeep sold in a Western market. With Stellantis expanding its deal with Chinese automaker Dongfeng, that’s what’s apparently going to happen. Here’s how Bloomberg describes the vehicle:

Stellantis and Dongfeng Motor Corp. will jointly produce the large sport utility vehicle, which will be launched alongside other new models carrying the iconic name, Fabio Catone, head of Jeep in Europe, said on a media call. Stellantis will have six Jeep models available in the region by the end of the decade, compared with two now, he said.

That’s interesting. It’ll apparently be a D-Segment midsize SUV and, presumably, some sort of New Energy Vehicle (full electric or EREV). There’s a little more intel from the Australian site Car Expert has a few more details:

In a statement released over the weekend, the automakers announced the existing Dongfeng Peugeot-Citroen joint venture plant in Wuhan will produce two “Peugeot-branded” models from 2027. The design of these two vehicles will be based on the Concept 6 and Concept 8 SUV revealed at the recent Beijing motor show.

Both concept cars are on the large side, and if exported back to Europe would help the brand flesh out the top-end of its lineup, which currently tops out with the 4.79m-long 5008 SUV.

This vehicle will join the Recon and Compass in Europe, and shows that Stellantis still sees the brand as a player on the continent. Addressing the potential issue of having a Chinese-built Jeep, European brand head Fabio Catone didn’t seem worried, as Bloomberg reported:

“Jeep is a US brand, certainly, but it’s also a global one.”

I remember when Jeep started selling the Italian-built Renegade in the United States. There was a concern that people wouldn’t want it. To quote Dennis Nedry: See, nobody cares.

The Canadian PM Making Deals To Get Chinese-Build Lotus SUVs Is Amusing To Me

The Lotus Eletre is a curious vehicle and, surprisingly, has been in the middle of the push-and-pull of global trade. It’s been expected that Lotus will sell the Eletre in Canada under a new rule allowing in a quota of Chinese-built cars, and they even gave Thomas one to review.

Now, we have more details via Reuters on how it all came together:

“Geely Holding Group’s Lotus brand electric vehicles will arrive in Canada ​next month under an agreement between Prime Minister Mark Carney and Chinese President Xi Jinping, China’s ambassador to Canada Wang Di told ‌Reuters on Friday.

They will be the first Chinese-owned and manufactured vehicles for sale under an agreement that allows up to 49,000 Chinese EVs to enter Canada annually at a reduced tariff rate, as Carney tries to diversify Canada’s trade away from the United States.

“Geely EVs will be arriving in Canada next month and they will be holding a ceremony when the cars ​are delivered in Montreal,” Wang said.

Eventually, Chinese-built cars that are not branded as other vehicles will arrive in Canada, but it’s interesting to see that even in Canada they’re starting with cover-brands.

President Trump Says It’s Ok For People To Repair Cars

President Trump surprised automakers when he said that they told him it wasn’t ok for people to repair their own cars:

“We had the auto industry in yesterday. They don’t want people to fix their car. I said, ‘That’s strange!’” Trump said. “They have a thing; nobody’s allowed to fix their car.”

In response to this, President Trump signed a memo indicated support for people to be able to repair their own cars, which is generally a good thing, though this one seems to be mostly limited to emissions equipment:

During the previous administration, crushing environmental regulatory burdens caused the average cost of vehicles to soar. My Administration has therefore taken historic action to reduce or remove these burdensome regulations and decrease the rising costs that consumers face. With the largest deregulatory action in United States history, my Administration rescinded regulations concerning greenhouse gas emissions for light-, medium-, and heavy-duty vehicles, and affirmed the right to fix agricultural and non-road equipment.

Consumers and aftermarket-parts manufacturers and resellers, however, face continuing regulatory uncertainty concerning whether aftermarket parts may be used in repairs due to the Clean Air Act’s (CAA) prohibition on tampering with emissions controls. The California Air Resources Board (CARB) has the only certification process for aftermarket parts currently recognized as sufficient under the CAA, but that process is faulty. Obtaining a CARB Executive Order certifying that a part does not increase vehicle emissions takes increasingly long — now well over a year — even when an applicant has all of the paperwork and testing in order. It is increasingly costly, and it effectively hands the determination of Federal compliance over to the State of California. Further, because it is the only currently available and accepted certification process, the certification of parts is bottlenecked at CARB, driving up costs and limiting the supply of compliant parts. To further ensure vehicle affordability, it is the policy of my Administration that consumers should be able to fix their vehicles with affordable parts without being deemed to have circumvented emissions controls.

It’s time to diesel swap one of David’s Jeeps, I suppose. [Ed Note: I’m pro-us being able to fix our own cars. I am also not a huge fan of the complications associated with California’s strict emissions standards, particularly for older cars. But I do like emissions standards in general, as I want my son to grow up with healthy lungs. So some level of balance here is the answer; it’s not “you can’t fix your car” and it’s not “you have to fix your car 1980s car that you rarely drive with these expensive parts or else.” It’s somewhere in between. -DT].

Check Out This Sweet Lacoste Alpine

Ok, that’s a lot this morning, please enjoy this one-off Alpine A290 RALLYE done up with a Lacoste theme. I love it. They even shot a video:

That’s fun.

What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD

We’re going to Lime Rock, so I’ve got to play some Hall & Oates. Are you out of time, or just “Out of Touch”?

The Big Question

Where was your car built and do you care where cars are built?

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