So in the past 2 months, Audi and Nissan are closing factories and layoffs and M&A:-

15 Nov 2024 https://carspiritpk.com/protestors-reportedly-storm-meeting-at-audis-brussels-plant/
28 Nov 2024 https://carspiritpk.com/nissan-might-sell-majority-stake-to-honda/ & https://www.pakwheels.com/blog/honda-reportedly-buying-nissan-is-this-the-end/
03 Dec 2024 https://carspiritpk.com/nissan-cfo-quits-as-automaker-grapples-with-crisis-drastic-cuts/

At the same time, BYD is surpassing production figures:-

04 Nov 2024 https://www.pakwheels.com/blog/historic-month-for-byd-500000-plug-in-cars-sold-in-a-month/
20 Nov 2024 https://carspiritpk.com/byd-celebrates-30-years-of-innovation-achieves-10-million-nev-milestone/

and adding manpower:-

10 Dec 2024 https://www.pakwheels.com/blog/chinese-giant-byd-to-outperform-honda-in-annual-sales-figure/

The apparent reasons for this are:- (read with a dose of sarcasm, some are actually true some are just some propaganda points and some are irrelevant points usually just generically posited against Chinese products)

1) BYD is Chinese
2) Chinese is communist
3) Market dumping tactics
4) Chinese products have poor quality
5) Technologically backward
6) Stealing of ideas and designs
7) EVs are more polluting
8) Sweatshop labor
9) No labor unions
10) No labor rights
11) Copy-cats
12) No resale value
13) Protectionist policies of Chinese government
14) EVs bad ICEs good
15) Exploitation of labor in lithium mining

By the way here is some news from within China:

17 Nov 2024 https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/jUAR4ngKhUqREEAkLACzeA Audi’s largest dealership in Tianjin closed with million claims28 Nov 2024 https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/ibxpwPZqii4s_m984Y2ncw Volkswagen sells its car plant in Xinjiang
Audi/VW had a 50+ years run in China with taxis being VW Santana and Audi being the bulk purchase by the government for government officers official car. Now Chinese products are far superior and Audi looks like goodbye soon. China didn’t ban VW when their (VW’s) product was better, but now Europe is banning Chinese cars just because Chinese EVs are so much better. Even some Chinese people I knew myself, sold their Audis and bought Zeekr, Polestar and XPeng. They don’t regret their decision.

Tesla is also building a Gigafactory in China and one in India.

“Audi plans to safeguard production line positions and focus on “indirect” jobs, such as those in development.”

It is totally political. Germany is superficially a democracy while deep down it is a communist where labor unions are stronger, and in a position to exploit the government and the enterprises. So the “rights of the working class” funda which is strong there is going to cause the downfall of the country’s best assets. Now the company is preferring the assembly line workers over R&D and product development.

I’m reading deeply into it. The engineers and architects who take the company into the future will be sacked while the labor class will be literally worshipped with generous social security benefits that continue beyong their end of service and probably will be lifetime. Then these sacked engineers will be hired by competitive firms from China Veitnam Thailand Morocco and other places where the automotive industry is up-and-coming with market-competitive tech. Unfortunately these new markets have weak labor rights and loss of limb and life & adverse health effects for production line workers is common, where they are considered replaceable. These engineers and designers will design world-class and competitive products for these companies. Then these new foreign brands companies will be competitive and their products will capture the market. The production line workers being hugged by the management will have nothing to do because nobody’s buying their company’s products. Then the government will apply taxes on foreign brands and use that tax money to feed the labor unions and social security benefits to the leeches.