Ford created the concept of mass produced cars with the implementation of the moving assembly line. Half a century later, Toyota’s kaizen philosophy and “just in time” manufacturing further accelerated automotive production, and nearly every car plant in the world now incorporates lessons from all of the above. The next benchmark for the world? China Speed.
I’m excited we’re all here today so that we can read The Morning Dump. It felt a little more touch-and-go there than usual yesterday. I doubt Honda is letting the brief euphoria distract itself from the much larger existential threat from Chinese manufacturing, which has achieved the difficult: fast, cheap, and good.
Making cars is hard, and even the most cutting edge automakers out there are trying to get consumers to pay a monthly fee for tech you can get for free elsewhere. How long can that last? The EU and the US have a framework for a deal, but it’s not set in stone and at least one automaker thinks the EU is trying to keep out big trucks. At the same time, there’s some good news for EV charging in the US.
What Is China Speed?
People I know who do business in China and the United States often marvel at how easy and fast it is to manufacture items in the country. If you’ve got an idea, you can get a 3D mockup by lunch, a prototype by dinner, and your first crate of products ready to go to the market by the end of the week.
This is called ‘China Speed,’ and it’s what happens when a country decides it wants to be the world’s producer, and has the ability to cut a lot of the red tape that seems to slow down everyone else (granted, some of that red tape exists to protect consumers, the environment, and workers). And this isn’t just about building things. This is about everything.
Here’s a recent example from Transport Topics:
A Chinese-made Leapmotor C10 was traveling down Germany’s fast-moving Autobahn last year when the driver-assistance system braked sharply and jolted it to the side, as if boxed in by scooters in a crowded China megacity.
Leapmotor International’s Germany head, Martin Resch, was at the wheel and emailed engineers in Hangzhou to report the problem before going into a meeting. By the time he got out, a software update had been beamed to the electric vehicle, smoothing its behavior. A similar fix at a European carmaker would have taken weeks.
What is it that gives China such a huge advantage here? Sure, the country started out basically copying and reverse-engineering European and American designs, but it’s gone a lot further than that in the last few years, with Ford’s CEO suddenly not wanting to give up his Chinese car.
The Transport Topic article has the rather startling stat that China has created more than five times as many patents in “future land transportation technologies” than Germany in the last 20 or so years. That article also points to a very different environment:
While legacy automakers are trying to reduce their typical five- to seven-year product plans, their Chinese rivals can deliver a new model in under two years. Founders at Xpeng, Nio and Li Auto all had internet startups, and Lei Jun of Xiaomi has a background in software.
Workforces skew young and mobile, and pay scales are lower than at Western counterparts — with compensation often tied to financial targets, fostering an entrepreneurial culture. Ferocious domestic competition forces continual innovation and squeezes out inefficiencies.
This is the universe that Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe stepped into when he went to China, according to an article in Nikkei Asia:
“We have no chance against this,” Mibe said during a visit to an auto supplier factory in Shanghai in late February. From parts procurement to logistics management, everything at the facility was automated, and there were no humans on the production floor.
The factory, operated by a major Chinese parts manufacturer, also supplies U.S.-based Tesla and maintains consistent quality while keeping labor costs down. Mibe witnessed firsthand the source of China’s competitive advantage: fast, cheap and good.
Obviously, Honda isn’t giving up, and it’s making a move to undo the now-questionable decision to get rid of the company’s legendary and independent R&D division. That’s probably not enough to reverse the slide, but it’s a start. Over at Nissan, even the design department is trying to learn from China Speed as 36Kr reports:
Nissan’s Global Design Director, Alfonso [Albaisa], admitted that Nissan’s design department has drawn important inspiration from the speed of its Shanghai studio in China. Compared with Nissan studios in other parts of the world, the employees at the Shanghai studio require 30% to 40% less work time to produce designs.
Now, Nissan’s global studios are gradually adopting the same efficient processes, abandoning rigid bureaucracy and cumbersome flowcharts to achieve more flexible and smooth creation. This transformation has greatly promoted close communication between engineering and design and accelerated the approval speed of senior management, making the entire product development process more efficient.
It’s not just Japanese automakers that are trying to rethink how they produce cars. When Ford announced more plans for its Universal EV Platform in Kentucky last year a lot of what CEO Jim Farley talked about was how it would be built:
We transformed the traditional assembly line into a tree with three main branches. We’ll assemble the front and rear of the vehicle on separate lines. The third branch is the vehicle’s structural battery, which we’ll pre-assemble with seats, consoles, and carpeting.
These three branches come together at the end, a process that revolutionizes the factory and simplifies work for our employees.
Can anyone catch up? It’s hard to say. The first step is recognizing the problem.
The Toyota Corolla Has More Tech Than A Tesla, Unless You Want To Pay For It
One of the big messages of the Lucid Investor Day I attended last month was that Lucid was going to make $69 a month from people who want to keep their advanced driving tech. For Tesla, that’s $99, and for Rivian it’s $49.99.
As Automotive News points out, this creates the sort of weird reality where the cheapest Toyota Corolla technically comes with more standard driver-assistance features than a Tesla (after Tesla removed lane keeping assistance from its basic cruise control package).
Consumers are particularly wary of subscriptions for features that once came with the car, said Jake Fisher, senior director of auto testing at Consumer Reports.
“It’s a little bit insidious, because what they’re doing is moving these features that used to be hardware to software,” Fisher said.
One example: Some automakers have moved the remote start button once found on a key fob to a smartphone app that requires a subscription after a free trial.
I do buy the argument that software-based items might benefit from a subscription because it’ll be technology that will continue to get upgraded over the long life of a car. I’m less inclined to think highly of an automaker that moves a physical feature to an app and then charges for it.
American Automakers Are Mad That Big Trucks Might Be Kept Out Of Europe
This is one of those stories that plays against a lot of my longstanding, internalized biases. I’m a Texan and I love giant pickup trucks. I also think people should generally be able to buy what they want. At the same time, I get why people don’t want big trucks in their narrow European villages. My general sense is that any societal cost should be balanced out with some form of levy (gas guzzler tax, congestion pricing for inner urban areas, et cetera).
As part of the tentative, not-yet-ratified trade deal between the European Union and the United States, there will be a harmonizing of standards between the two countries that should allow automakers to go beyond the current EU rule, which allows a small number of vehicles to be imported without being homologated.
As Automotive News reports, about 7,000 American pickups were brought to Europe this way in 2024. There’s a new article in the Financial Times with the feisty title: “US carmakers accuse EU of blocking supersized pick-up trucks from roads” related to some alleged behind-the-scenes moves by regulators to exclude big trucks. Here’s an interesting quote from an unnamed Detroit automaker to the FT:
“The U.S. administration is aware that not only is Europe dragging its feet on the trade agreement, but they’re also looking at restricting US products and limiting customer choice in Europe.”
Limiting choice, eh? There are a couple of reasons to believe that this executive might be from Stellantis. First, Stellantis loves using the term “freedom of choice” when it comes to cars. And, secondly, a majority of the trucks imported to the EU in 2024? Rams.
The Number Of High-Speed Chargers Rose By 34% In Q1
Charging infrastructure has been a common reason why consumers in the US have said they’re hesitant to make the jump to an electric car. To combat this, the Biden Administration put a lot of money into chargers, but the pace of rolling them out hasn’t exactly been China Speed. The good news is that faster deployment is finally happening, just as gas prices have gone up.
Some 605 public, high-speed EV fueling stations switched on in the first quarter, a 34% increase over the year-earlier period, according to Bloomberg News analysis of federal data. The country now has nearly 13,500 places to quickly add electrons to a car or truck, 25% more than it did a year ago.
[…]
Most of the demand is driven by the private sector. Truck stops, in particular, have been adding electron pumps in a bid to sell lucrative snacks and sodas to battery-powered road trippers. Pilot Flying J Inc., an empire of interstate rest stops, added chargers to nearly 30 of its locations in the first quarter, from Mount Airy, North Carolina, to North Platte, Nebraska. The company now has nearly 1,200 charging stalls, roughly half of what it intends to stand up.
Alright! Charge up the car and get some jerky. Everyone wins.
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
Man, this Major Lazer song featuring Wild Belle was everywhere ten years ago. Please enjoy “Be Together.”
The Big Question
What’s your go-to truck stop snack?
Top photo: LeapMotor/Honda/DepositPhotos.com
It used to be two whole chickens, now it’s two pieces of dry toast.
White toast, bruh
Reminds me of the…Blues Brothers!
– Can I help you, boys?
– You got any white bread?
Yes.
I’ll have some
toasted white bread, please.
You want butter or jam
on that toast, honey?
No, ma’am. Dry.
– Got any fried chicken?
– Best damn chicken in the state.
Bring me four fried chickens
and a Coke.
You want chicken wings
or chicken legs?
Four fried chickens and a Coke.
And some dry white toast, please.
You all want anything to drink
with that?
– No, ma’am.
– A Coke.
Be up in a minute.
We got two honkies out there
dressed like Hasidic diamond merchants.
– Say what?
– They look like they’re from the CIA.
– What they wanna eat?
– The tall one wants white-bread toast.
– Dry. With nothing on it.
– Elwood!
And the other one wants
four whole fried chickens and a Coke.
And Jake! Shit!
The Blues Brothers!
China speed, wow! It doesn’t matter imo, it might in a war, when they need to ramp up, but not for cars and household items. They BYD has more cars than it can sell, and they are forcing places to shut down basically because they way overbuilt. Just like their cities. Moderation is the key and China doesn’t seem to do anything that way. It works out great until it doesn’t.
Good to see more chargers, this is my main reasoning for being so against ev’s. I am not against the tech, I am against the fact they were being basically forced without the infrastructure. A few more years of gains like that, plus personal installations and things will be much more palatable for average joe.
If production can be incredibly fast, then shifting to a build-to-order manufacturing method could be more feasible; the biggest barrier then is shipping.
M&M’s. 1-2 bags per stop and they are typically gone before we even leave the parking lot. I may have a problem with self control around them…
M&M’s are my cryptonite. Every once in a while against my better judgement I buy a 2lb party bag for the jar in my office. If it lasts longer than a week, I’m doing pretty good.
#1 highlights how cooked we are in the states with the “bring back manufacturing to America” isolationist push and aggressive tariffs. There’s just no way for the US to compete against that speed and integrated technology. If we need an analogue, the USSR was still cranking out Ladas and Trabbys when the rest of the world was manufacturing efficient, turbo, fuel injected 16V cars that were light years ahead.
i’ve read this before. Can anyone name the manufacturers or vehicles that have done this? It’s a big downer.
Mercedes-Benz does this. The remote start is behind an app that costs about $100 per year. I used it during the free trial and now I no longer have remote start.
Same thing happened to me. Irritating.
I believe Mazda does this, based on my research for an inevitable new car purchase probably in the next year. Which is incredibly disappointing, because I love my 2018 Mazda 3 (which wouldn’t have remote start either way, being a manual), but that would be a huge mark against them being our next new car (live in RI, our next car having remote start is one of our few non-negotiables).
Acura did it on my 2022 MDX.
Twizzlers. Sometimes Snickers. Jerky is always good too. Twizzlers help keep your sugar up for those 950 mile days.
When it comes to basic EV cars, China is definitely going to kill our industry if something doesn’t change. Our car manufacturing industry is too hampered by politics and infighting to compete.
Speed of development/iteration isn’t a magic bullet.
There’s plenty to learn from those automakers and experiment with I’m sure but what I’m interested in is whether it results in a car that will actually be similarly dependable and maintainable to the best being put out now or will they be more like Hyundai/Kia on crack.
The 2nd-generation Frontier saw five generations of Elantra during it’s run but I know which one I’d rather buy used. (Yes I know they are in completely different segments)
There’s a reason Toyotas tend to be more ‘durable’…they stick with older proven tech longer rather than jump to next new thing at every turn. The wait and see how it works out for their competitors first has it’s upsides.
Our 2021 Highlander has problems with its infotainment system. The error message? “iPOD error.”
I see this a lot about Apple too.
Just because they aren’t rushing to shoehorn in a given technology whether it be slop-generators or silicon-carbon batteries there’s always some article and/or group of people screaming about how “they’re falling behind!!!”
I won’t say Honda isn’t in long-term trouble but I feel like articles about some big company executive taking the wrong lesson away from new information seem to be popping up every other week.
Always appreciated Bunnie Huang’s and Naomi Wu’s takes on “Shenzhen speed” – a lot of it is down to having a critical mass of manufacturers and suppliers concentrated in an area, with workers and engineers circulating between them.
Kinda like Detroit in earlier days.
TBQ: when possible, something from a Punjabi dhaba such as samosa chaat. Sikh truckers gotta eat too.
Here’s a Google map list: https://www.google.com/maps/@38.1801319,-120.2941424,4z/data=!4m3!11m2!2s7N4GmiEeRceTP2YIIw9_AA!3e3?entry=ttu
I really don’t think EU negotiators need to be so hung up on the big trucks thing. They’re so ludicrously unsuitable for the European marketplace that, even if they opened things wide up, sales would still be lucky to break into the five digits, at most
I’ve heard fuel is cheap in Europe, send them some TRXes
Yeah, it’s silly proposition. Everybody who can afford the fuel bills with our fuel prices (cheapest in last 10 years or so has been around 8$/gal) has privately imported one. And those are usually motorcycle businesses, etc, that get one for marketing purposes.
No practical use here, as we’ve got more suitable vehicles for every usecase. Towing small moon? Get actual semi/lorry, these need anyways to be registered as commercial vehicle so top speed is 90km/h. Hauling? Get any size van you might need. Offroad vehicle? Get smaller pickup like Hilux or actual offroad vehicle.
Also we actually can privately import stuff, even new. No 25 year rule here.
Who in the hell is Major Lazer?
A DJ “supergroup”. If you’ve listened to Top40 radio in the last 15 years, you’ve likely heard one of their songs.
It wasn’t until this point that I realized Major Lazer is not just Diplo…
He’s also in LSD (Labrynth/Sia/Diplo). The song and video for “Audio” goes hard.
Sounds like you need to Pon De Floor.
Three guys, two nerdy and one with a cool appearance. The group’s album covers are drawn in comic book style that feature tremendously macho figures in tactical gear in action poses. The contrast between the artists and their covers is hilarious to me.
I can link this to cars – they have a song in Gran Turismo 7……that’s all I got
TBQ: for most gas stations, usually a sugary electrolyte-y sports drink, or a bottled water, or a candy bar. I’m usually only inside to use the restrooms anyway, so getting a thing is usually more to say “thanks.”
On the other hand, if it’s the Dixie truck stop in McLean on I-55, it’s usually a burger.
Yeah, I feel guilty if I use a gas station restroom without buying something. But I count gas as buying something, even though I know they don’t make much money off the pumps.
We can destroy China’s supposed speed easily.
First: Don’t allow any parts by a Chinese company if they don’t have the same environmental, pay, and safety regulations as they have in the United States.
Second: Have Cerberus run them. (Look at what they did for Chrysler.)
The pay and safety section is irrelevant when the process is fully automated. And the Star & Bars environmental regulation track record has been on a fairly aggressive slide as of late.
Factories and automated equipment are much cheaper/faster to produce when you don’t have to deal with those pesky pay/safety/environmental regulations.
Like certain US states
Yeah. I know.
This is a myth. All of the US is now bound up with regulations that slow all construction, major legal challenges and hurdles, and with high levels of NIMBY.
Red state, blue state, don’t matter.
Like all those meat processing plants hiring children in *checks notes* holy shit, EIGHT different states?
Ah, the benefits of using ‘labor agencies’ so you can claim you knew nothing about those migrant kids working in your factory on the cheap.
If it’s all automated, unionize them like a certain professional group did in France.
That’s why I threw in the Cerberus group in as a backup. Nothing is surviving them.
Our Chinese vendors were banning hazardous materials and coatings well before our local vendors started to raise concerns (isocyanates, hexavalent chromium, etc…).
Adding that our Chinese vendors were nearly universally using modern equipment that is built up to modern standards – whereas the locals would have far sketchier ‘grandfathered’ equipment.
I deliver WHMIS training as part of my job, the US is especially egregious when it comes to chemical handling.
I’ve never worked directly with Chinese companies, but I’ve done manufacturing consulting (not automotive) in various countries in Asia and I agree. A bit sticking point in a process to what we were doing was the use of Cadmium. Factories there developed processes and materials to eliminate it from what they were doing and never looked back. One large manufacture state side was still using cadmium as recent as right before covid- and the whole time complaining about regulations trying to place more restriction on it (could still be in this state, I moved on to other projects). Their factories were so nice and well-lit and CLEAN.
I worked on a project 2 employers ago to remove hexavalent chrome from plated plastic parts (grill, hood emblem, wheel center caps, etc) because of export to countries that followed EU standard.
1 employer ago, I worked on an on-shoring project for chromed parts because the Chinese platers were coming up on the deadline banning it, but the US still allowed it. So the solution was to just have the parts stamped in China and plate them after they arrives in the US.
So yeah, that’s how it’s going domestically….
Our economies are so intertwined – it won’t work.
Your idea of Chinese standards is a bit out of date.
The USA is 15% of the global economy and shrinking. China could simply ignore us and focus on rebuilding all those bridges we are burning around the world. They could call it the Roads and Bridges plan. Oh wait…
In the past I refused boiled eggs from a gas station but since I started to watch my figure (Lost 30 lbs), this past weekend roadtrip from Arizona back to Michigan, I stick to beef jerky, boiled eggs and protein bars. Food is very expensive so I only did one big meal for dinner.
About Pilot gas stations adding GM Energy stations, I never stopped at Pilot since Loves looks cleaner and better food options but since Pilot added those stations, its so easy to charge, walk inside, use their facilities, grab a few snacks, walk the dogs, come back and your car is almost done.
Does your car have a fuel cell that’s powered by your ass?
LMAO now I understand everything
Wow. Next up: truck stop sushi.
Is ozone-ing your car just a part of the end of a road trip, or do you just replace the entire interior annually? ;-P
I think they’re aiming for a full blown Superfund site.
Despite the gastrointestinal curiosity what piqued my interest the most was that there are Loves that look clean?!
Well, clean when benchmarked against a random interstate adjacent convenience store with a one or two holer…
huh… I’m stealing the term “one or two holer”. Thank you for this. You’ve enriched my life today hehehehe
Salted nut roll and an unsweet iced tea.
Do you combine the two? I am still horrified at the idea of southerners adding salted nuts to Coke.
And I don’t get the boiled peanuts thing.
Salted peanuts in Dr Pepper, I’ll admit I have not seen anyone do that in a very long time…
Brings back memories of salted watermelon also.
Oh lord, no. They are snack and beverage, separate and distinct.
Beef jerky and Chik-o-sticks.
I’m not knowledgeable of Chinese manufacturing, but I bet the Technical/Engineering side gets to lead a lot and has way more autonomy than, say, an MBA lead US corporation that focuses on next quarters ‘shareholder value’ and everyone trying to CYA every decision.
I have an MBA from a top program. I agree with you completely. If you want to ruin a good company, hand it over to the MBA’s.
The ‘ol “Make Businesses Awful” degree.
How can you tell someone has an MBA? Don’t worry, they’ll tell you!
Man. I’m a lawyer and sometimes people will ask me what I do and I say, “I’m a lawyer.” And then they make this joke at me! Like … sorry for answering your question honestly?
Jokes on them, because I also have an MBA. *slips on sunglasses and walks away from super cool explosion without even looking back*
I mean, you did just find a way to mention it without being asked…:D
If only I were a vegan who got into Crossfit while attending Harvard, I could really check all the boxes here!
I have an MBA, just thought I’d let you know.
I’m pretty sure ‘survival of the company’ doesn’t make the list of priorities, especially with the vulture capital investment groups buying up companies.
Chick-O-Sticks, has been since for always.
This is the correct answer.
What in the world is a Chick-O-Stick? Sounds like slang for a dildo.
Basically a Butterfingers without the chocolate. Shaped like a pretzel rod (or dildo, if you must).
Oh man, that does sound and look delicious (I googled it)
It’s not something you can find everywhere like a Snickers so it was a bit of a treat to find at the truck station/gas station.
I don’t think we have them in Canada.
Not surprising. I think we placed massive tariffs on Chick-O-Stick exports for national security reasons.
Sweet chili no-shells pistachios and/or a Kind bar. Also the snack of choice for a nice hike.
Corn nuts. The answer is corn nuts.
Is the question “How do you like to break teeth?”
I once absentmindedly bit into a Corn nut after having my braces tightened. It was one of the top ten most painful things I have ever experienced.
The rest of the world wrestles with various levels of local governments fighting all the way up to the federal level. Even discounting the US’ deeply entrenched two-party system and it’s modern “I can’t work with the other guy” mentality, it’s still really bad.
EV chargers as an example, even when directed and funded at the federal level, will end up being unevenly implemented.
In my younger days I would get Combos (either regular or Nacho cheese) as my snack of choice, but now they’re an easy ticket to heartburn.
Always Combos for me
So, Combos and Prilosec, now.
If your windows are tinted enough, you don’t even have to leave your car to get the Jerky.
The ol’Friendly Tug.
I heard it all started at the Kum & Go.
I read they were rebranding. What a goddamn travesty.
Come on up up to Canada and stop by a Couche-Tard!
Does anyone know if Chinese automakers are playing with the same game with trying to force bad subscriptions on their buyers as we are seeing in the US?
TBQ: Jerky and Chex Mix, original
Cheez-its