There’s never been a time like it. New car brands are landing on Australian shores at a furious pace, most of them coming from China.
It’s a huge shake up to our market, affecting car buyers, car owners, dealer franchises, service departments, parts suppliers and, of course, the mechanics working on the vehicles.
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The list of newbies is overwhelming, and many are brands most of us have never heard of before. Over the past 18 months, brands entering our market – or just about to – include Deepal, Denza, GAC Aion, IM Motors, JAC, Leapmotor, Skywell, XPeng and Zeekr. Then there’s brands we’ve had some exposure to before – Chery, Foton and Geely – while old familiars Smart and Cadillac have also made an Aussie comeback.
Complicating matters further, Chinese brands like to have sub-brands rather than all under a single badge. Chery, for instance, now has its semi-premium Jaecoo and sportier Omoda as standalones, and we’re told they’ll have “30 to 40” Jaecoo/Omoda dealerships separate from Chery’s.
Uphill battle
Many industry experts agree it’s too many new brands, too soon. Establishing a marque in Australia is no easy thing, and the success of Tesla and BYD have been the anomalies this past decade. Failure is the more common route.
In my 25 years as a motoring writer, I’ve seen countless brands come and go. Hummer, Alpine and Chery managed three years, Rover four, Proton and Infiniti seven, Dodge ten, and Smart hung on for 12. Opel, rather amusingly, lasted less than a year.
Even if these brands offer long warranties, when they exit Australia it’s damaging to owners. Our consumer laws mean the departed brand must honour warranties and cover spare parts for a certain number of years (there’s no official number), but will they really be as helpful and customer focused knowing they have no future in the country?
And when they go, there’s a fire sale of remaining new car stock, so current owners suffer a huge hit to resale values.
But there are positives to this new wave of entrants, not least for those working in the industry. General Manager of the Sunshine Coast’s Pacific Motor Group, Alister Eiseman, has recently opened Maroocyhdore’s new Geely showroom, the Chinese brand joining the group’s longer established brands like Ford, Kia, Jaguar and Land Rover.
I asked Mr Eiseman what the new Geely brand and the shift to electrification meant for his technicians, and the challenges it brings. Geely, after all, has entered Australia with a single model, the full electric EX5.
“Manufacturers are providing EV-specific training, creating exciting new development opportunities for technicians and sales teams,” he said. “EVs present a rapidly evolving sector requiring continuous learning, and we’re proud to be upskilling our workforce in this space. Brands like Geely are setting a new benchmark by integrating comprehensive training programs from day one, including multi-day sessions with vehicles and direct factory insights.”
Plugging in, or not
If you’re the sort of technician always striving to learn new things and embrace electrification specifically, these new brands offer substantial opportunities. And as Mr Eiseman acknowledges: “The automotive sector continues to face significant workforce shortages,” so the chance to find a role with increased responsibility via a new brand opens up.
But the increase in hybrid, plug-in hybrid and full battery electric technologies – and the upskilling required to work on them – isn’t desirable to all, not least some industry veterans. Basically, you lot who’ve worked on combustion cars your whole career and aren’t enamoured with all this new electrification stuff and the influx of new Chinese brands with batteries at their core. I get it. A thumping V8 can make work a lot more fun than working with high voltage.
“The pace of change and continuous learning required, particularly around new technologies, can be demanding, especially for long-serving industry professionals,” said Mr Eiseman.
This is a genuine concern. And it can be overwhelming with new models arriving at a staggering rate, and everyone must be quickly across them. That means the salespeople trying to explain the tech, features and powertrains in the new cars to customers, and those in the service department quickly getting their heads around their complex workings.
And, with so many of these new vehicles being EV-only, just how motivated will skilled mechanics be when there’s very little mechanical in these cars to work on? An electrical engineering degree feels more relevant when working on such cars rather than a mechanic’s qualification.
Building trust
Another concern stems from being employed by a box fresh brand. Some of these new players will of course thrive and survive, but there’s an inevitability some will fall. That means job insecurity at best, and job loss at worst. No matter how lofty a new brand’s goals, you’d fancy your long-term chances are better at a Toyota dealership.
Launching a new and obscure EV-only or EV-heavy brand doesn’t look ideal timing right now. The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) chief executive Tony Weber said in April: “While the supply of EVs is increasing (in Australia), the demand for EVs is weak. The early adopters have acted but the rest of the vehicle-buying public has not followed. This is consistent with a number of other advanced markets around the world.”
One thing that can’t be ignored is the increasing global penetration of Chinese car brands and Chinese-made vehicles. EVs are a key battleground in the country’s apparent ambitions for global automotive supremacy. In 2023, they produced over 30 million cars – that’s more than the US, Japan, South Korea and Germany combined. Much of that growth has come from China selling cars to Russia (over one million in 2024), when every other car maker withdrew over its invasion of Ukraine.
Australia has proved highly receptive to Chinese brands, helped by a trade agreement and therefore rock-bottom prices. Even if Aussie buyers would prefer to shop for legacy brands such as Toyota, Ford or Mazda, in these cost-of-living times, cheap cars have arrived at just the right time.
Ready to play
This year so far, Chery – which only returned to Australia in 2023 – is outselling Honda, BMW and Suzuki. Most of that is due to the super-cheap Tiggo 4 Pro at $23,990 – small SUV rivals are typically thousands of dollars more.
Helping the Chinese cars’ cause are high specification and generous warranties. And it’s worked. In 2024, Chinese-owned MG was Australia’s seventh biggest-selling brand, while GWM was tenth. BYD and Chery saw huge growth last year too, and both are targeting a top ten place.
We’re soon going to have 80 unique brands selling cars in our relatively small market. Which of the new players survive remains to be seen, but you sense big investment with minimal return won’t be tolerated for long. And the increased competition – even if it’s short term – will likely see long-established brands fail in Australia as already sliding sales drop further, denting whatever small profits they were making.
Citroen has already recently failed here, and others will likely join it in the casualty department. It makes for uncertain times for all in the industry, not least the mechanics working on the cars. There’s undoubtedly upskilling and career-advancing potential for some, but it’s inevitable it’ll be a rockier road for others.