Here's Why Chinese Cars Are Ahead Of The Game

by Tim Healey

Published: October 31st, 2025

here s why chinese cars are ahead of the game

Hello there! It's podcast time again!

This week on the TTAC podcast, we discuss why Chinese cars are so technically advanced with Robby DeGraff from AutoPacific.

Matthew Guy and I discuss NASCAR at Martinsville and battery booster packs. And we touch briefly on the coming championship race at Phoenix.

You can find us wherever you get your podcasts or by clicking here. If you like what you hear, please leave a review!

We thank Robby DeGraff and Matthew Guy for their time, and Matt Posky for editing. Most of all, we thank you for listening!

We'll see you next time!

[Image: BYD/VerticalScope/TTAC.com]

Become a TTAC insider. Get the latest news, features, TTAC takes, and everything else that gets to the truth about cars first by subscribing to our newsletter.

Find Guaranteed Fit Parts at eBay Motors

#China #ChineseCars #Podcast #TtacPodcast #Nascar #Racing #ProductReviews #stuffweuse

Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

More by Tim Healey

Comments

Join the conversation

6 of 18 comments

Asc on Nov 03, 2025

Ahead of the EV game, perhaps.

An old neighbor (who drove an RX-8) traded his wife's Gen 1 Prius college car when it needed a new battery pack. He said it was a crummy car once you got past the hybrid part, nothing special, and not worth that expensive a repair. I suspect the Chinese core automotive competence doesn't fare any better when looking past the drivetrain.

2 Reply
FreedMike on Nov 03, 2025

They're ahead of the game in EVs (among other things) for the same reason we were ahead of the game when it came to computers and computer connectivity in the '60s, '70s and '80s - the government primed the pump. That, of course, really chaps the "Ayn Rand 4EVR" gang's a$$...and then they express their undie-bunchiness using personal computers and the Internet, both of which came about largely because of (you guessed it!) big government spending that primed the pump. And, no, they typically don't see the irony.

2 Reply
- See 3 previous
- Jeff on Nov 03, 2025
  
  EVs are not going away we will see more of them in different uses like delivery vehicles. Amazon is using EV delivery trucks around where I live. Amazon has tens of thousands of delivery vans in its global fleet and Amazon plans on having 100,000 EV vans on the road by 2030. There will eventually be a breakthrough in battery technology where range will increase and charging times will get quicker. The Chinese will be the leaders in EVs but that is because the Chinese Government is spending the funds for EVs and China is increasing their electrical generation. This will happen despite the naysayers but it will take some time, I don't see ICE going away anytime soon. A positive result could be gasoline and diesel will become less expensive if demand for ICE falls off.
  
  Like
- 1995 SC on Nov 04, 2025
  
  "There will eventually be a breakthrough in battery technology."
  What do you base this on? If there was some giant gain to be made wouldn't the electronics industry have been all over this? I'm not saying they won't improve, but isn't the more likely outcome small and incremental improvement at this point? We are already seeing chemistries that sacrifice some overall capacity in the name of stability and price. So where on the horizon is this magic battery? Solid State? Ultracapacitors? Been hearing about them for years. What if batteries have reached the same state as ICE development? It's not like they are new.
  
  Like
- Jeff on Nov 04, 2025
  
  1995 SC--There has always been breakthroughs in technology. Maybe not as fast with batteries but it will happen. Maybe you don't want to see it but just look at our phones and laptops the battery technology and the technology is much better than it was 20 years ago. The more EVs that are on the road the more knowledge will be gained and there will be improvements. Amazon is increasing their fleet of EV vans and just by Amazon's experience with those vans improvements will be made over time. Did any of us in the late 90s and early 00s ever predict the I Phone but after 2007 things changed.
  
  Like
- Johnster on Nov 16, 2025
  
  "There will eventually be a breakthrough in battery technology." I'm still waiting for the 100 mpg carburetor and for my flying car.
  
  1