China Replaced German Carmakers. Can Porsche, Audi, VW Fight Back? | Max Brandt, Bestselling Author

Max Brandt is the author of the SPIEGEL bestseller China Speed and has been to China more than 150 times. He started on the factory floor at ThyssenKrupp, sold a car-steel business to Wuhan Iron & Steel, and is now writing his next book, The Slowness Trap (Die Langsamkeitsfalle). China exported 7.1 million cars in 2025. Chinese brands went from about 50,000 to 700,000 sales a year in Europe. Porsche's deliveries in China fell from 95,671 to 41,938. Max explains why German carmakers have been replaced in China, why BYD isn't German, what dark factories mean for jobs, and whether Europe's car industry can still fight back. Chapters 0:00 Trailer 1:46 Who is Max Brandt 3:30 The numbers 4:20 Cars against AI for chips 7:20 The car as a device 12:21 Updatable cars 17:34 Can Europe scale? 22:30 Tariffs 25:50 2035 or 2030? 29:22 Trump, Xi and the real rival 34:18 Batteries and magnets 36:07 Porsche, LVMH and the end of the status symbol 42:54 What Europe lost 47:32 Are the Chinese happier? 52:23 The double punch 59:37 Industrial AI 63:24 Dark factories 67:06 Close #BYD #ChineseCars #GermanCarIndustry #ElectricVehicles #ChinaSpeed