Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard Casto
Who is "they" in this? From an Andretti/US market perspective, this makes a bunch of sense (as you say). If "they" is broadly "F1" (FIA and Liberty). I understand your points about China. I truly don't know the answer to this question as I don't follow the this space, but have Chinese auto manufactures penetrated much outside of the Asian market? I don't see or hear about it. I can imagine a Chinese manufacture using F1 as marketing exercise (like GM is probably doing). But I just don't see one jumping in as full manufacture like Mercedes, Ferrari, etc. Lastly, while the Chinese market might be huge, does it even really care or want F1 right now? Does F1 association help any of those manufactures in the markets they are targeting today? I tend to think at this moment "no". If motorsports takes off in China then maybe. OR if a Chinese manufacture makes a BIG push in other large markets (America or European) where being associated with F1 can add some polish to their name, then "yes". I know there is a chicken and the egg situation. No doubt Zhou is helping increase popularity, but IMHO, China doesn't need or want F1 right now.
Richard
|
Let me add this then;MG has been a Chinese owned brand for several years,as has Volvo and more recently Lotus.The largest individual shareholding in Daimler-Benz is held by the Chinese group that owns the last two.
A couple of weeks ago I was prompted to seek out information about the market shares of various electric car producers and was quite surprised to learn that several companies of which I had never heard were achieving growth rates of a couple of hundred percent or more within the sector.If anybody has the interest,there are some statistics here :
https://insideevs.com/news/625651/gl...s-october2022/ .Few of the companies mentioned were familiar names.
Why might this be relevant?Well in a little over seven years I won't be able to buy an IC engined car from a dealer and not too long after nor will anybody else in Europe.GM themselves will cease to offer IC vehicles in their home market.So why they chose to partner with Andretti for the new venture is a mystery to me.Particularly when the brand they promote isn't at the top of the wish list of those of us who live in places where the roads are of modest size and fuel is horrendously expensive by American standards and we have no dealer network for a GM brand.
I would really like to see the Andretti project move forward,I'm just baffled by the brand.I would really like to see a grid of 26 respectable cars as soon as can be arranged.