TRANSCRIPT 🔗
Steve: So I'm here with a great friend and former colleague and head of or former head I guess now. Yes, in a transition. Of BMW China, CEO of BMW China just about to take over as head of Mini for all of the Americas. Sean Green. Nice to see you again. to see you, After I think what 12 years or 40 years or something like that. Yeah, yeah. Long time no see. Tell us a bit about what people don't understand about the Chinese market. You were saying to me that what we're seeing is not tip of the iceberg really. Absolutely. I mean, think everyone understands the scale of the Chinese business and the scale of the market. It's by far the biggest car market in the world. I think what people don't yet see is all of the innovation power coming out of China. in the UK, think last month, Jaycoo was the number one selling car as part of the Cherry Group. Jaycoo doesn't exist in China. It's not a brand for China. And actually, in terms of technology that's there, I would say it's on the pretty basic level. So even, let's say 35,000 pounds seems cheap in the UK, that would be considered a very expensive car in China. So what you get is... That would probably cost about 20,000. Here I'd say closer to 20,000 pounds, that equivalent car over here. So what you get for 35,000 pounds in China will blow your mind in terms of the autonomous driving capabilities, which is almost a level three system. technically can do everything, but they keep it as a level two system. For the internal electronic, you have sofas, have fridges, you have everything inside, massage functions in every seat. The value for money that you get in China now is just incredible. It's not just value for money, it's the innovation power. And you see incredible innovation. The show, I'm sure you'll see many innovations as you walk around, particularly from brands like Huawei, which is one of the market leaders here, but also Xiaomi. Xiaomi is now only three years old, but you look at the power they have. It's amazing when you walk around, if you haven't been in China, you said the last time you were in Beijing was 2011. Yeah. The difference of China. I've seen it. It's a different country compared to 2011. The advancement that you see, not only in the automotive industry, but across the technologies. Yeah. Everything is a cashless society. Nobody uses cash. I haven't used cash for probably five, six years. It must have been challenging from your point of view, because you obviously have had to represent what the Chinese market wants from BMW. And BMW is all about dynamics and... very important how the car looks but as we saying the Chinese customers sort of actually the inside of the car is almost more important than the outside isn't it? Absolutely I mean if you look at the average speeds in cities like Beijing and Shanghai it's a very low speed market so when you talk about driving dynamics maybe that's a harder sell but there is there is a segment within China that still loves driving yeah and the argumentation is in it even in an autonomous world when the car is driving itself most of the time that arguably makes the driving dynamics even more important because when I want to drive it myself, I want to really drive it and I want to experience the great driving feel. So we're pushing still hard with what we call Jiaxia Lechu, which is sheer driving pleasure in Chinese. And that's still at the heart of the brand and it remains at the heart of the brand. And if you look at the autonomous system that we're bringing with a local company called Memento, again, it's about how you interact with a car. So it's really like a co-pilot. It doesn't take over, but it's very interactive. So you can even apply the brake pedal while you're doing it. and it won't turn the system off like normal system would turn off. This actually you can use it together. So it's really like a real assisted driving in every sense. Symbiotic thing. Exactly. And we talk about symbiotic driving. Yeah. I presume that technology is coming through in many as well. Yeah. I mean, as always in our brand, it sort of starts at the top and then bleeds down through the whole range and across the group. Some of the technologies may be rather bespoke to China because it's not necessarily needed in other parts of the world. and maybe it's not easy, but I think we have, for example, a technology company in Nanjing. It's a joint venture with a local software developer called BA Tech Works, and we started that company around four years ago. They do all of the digital innovation inside the car. So, for example, on BMWs see around the world, we have a festival mode. So the whole screen lights up at Christmas times or certain anniversaries and shows a nice video. That's all written in the code in Nanjing, but we do it for the whole world. So there's a lot of benefit of the innovation power from China and the speed we can bring it to market. the benefits everywhere across the group in all countries and we continue to do that. And at the show here for BMW, yesterday you debuted the new 7 Series which is some might think was a facelift but it's much more than that isn't it? it's pretty much a new car isn't it almost? Absolutely. Maybe not the metal so much? No, mean of course the underpinnings of the car itself is still from the previous generation but essentially we've changed everything on the car. So the exterior has completely changed, interior completely changed so essentially it is... a new car. And we bring all of the technologies from the Neue Klasse, so the iX3 and the i3 that we bring at the end of this year, early next year, all of that technology again goes into the 7 Series as well. As always, I guess it's a halo product, isn't it? Absolutely. So 7 will be the, actually the first car on the road will be the 7 with all the new technologies. Right. It helps us position the car very well. Yeah, okay. And of course you've got what? Long wheelbase iX3, which is made here. Yes, mean,
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long wheelbase is always the topic for China and people don't understand why, but actually, you know, the family use in China, a lot of people take their parents or grandparents together with them on journeys. having a rather luxurious second seat row or even third seat row is actually very important to the Chinese. And we had the first long wheelbase back in, I think, 2006 when we extended the 5 Series in our local joint venture here. And now it's almost a given that every car you bring, you have to bring an extended wheelbase. And that 110 or 100 millimeters makes a huge difference to the feeling of space inside the car. When you only have to drive the Global X5 and drive our Local X5, it's really a big difference in feeling of space inside the car. And that's important to the Chinese. I notice even the i3, which you're showing here, is the long wheelbase version. So yeah, I mean, on the i3 again, people expect the longer wheelbase and it's... It's about making sure that the driving dynamics are not compromised at the same time. Because when you lengthen the car, can affect it, but the team, they know how to do it. They do a great job. No, they do it fantastically well because the overall look of the car isn't compromised at all, is it? No, I think, honestly, our outlook looks better because if I go to Europe and look at the standard cars, I think it looks like it's been compressed. So I like the long wheelbase cars. It's very elegant. And yeah, we'll see. Next generations of X5s and X7s. Let's see what we get. But what would BMW want to get from this show? I mean, this is the official launch of the Neue Klasse. So we've been talking about that car for quite some time. We launched it already in September last year in Europe. The car will go on sale at the end of this year. But really, it's our chance to showcase what BMW's answer is to the requirements of China. And I suppose this is the... What auto show in the world? I'd say it's going to be the biggest show. Between Beijing and Shanghai, they alternate each year. Now would be one of the biggest shows in the world because everything else has gone smaller. Or gone away. Or gone away. Actually in China we have around 85-90 shows a year. So it's still very much a selling show. It's not just a branding exercise. people can actually buy cars. Also in Beijing, mean less so obviously on the press days, but on the trade days then we have dealer staff on the stand, they're actively selling. So we will sell a lot of cars this week from the Beijing show. And it's a big investment so that helps the investment doesn't it? Yeah and this year, I the Beijing show this year because we're in a new hall is twice the size of last year. So of course the investment is twice the size as well. But it's important. Shanghai is a similar size and similar footprint so there's always this internal competition in China between the two cities. But I'm super happy with this year's stand. mean, it's amazing. It looks great. The team have done a great job. Looks really good. Well, listen, Sean, thank you for that. It's really good to catch up with you and see you Great to see you too. And I really wish you well in America. Thank you very I'm sure you'll knock it out of the park, as you always have. Thank you very much. Steve was my, actually the manager that employed me in BMW nearly 38 years ago. So I have to say thank you. for that opportunity because it's been... Well, I mean, that was a small contribution from me. The rest is all down to you. yeah, no, it's been good. been great to watch that progress over the years, but it's great to catch up again. Fantastic. Thank you, Thanks, Sean. Thank you.