Global carmakers are facing a reckoning as US, European and Japanese brands lose ground to Chinese rivals setting the pace not only in electric vehicles, but also in batteries, design and software. The BBC visited factory floors in Beijing and Hefei and found striking levels of automation and software development speed, leaving foreign brands that once dominated the Chinese market struggling to keep up.

"We have no chance against this, " Honda chief executive Toshihiro Mibe told Japanese media after visiting a highly automated factory in Shanghai. Ford chief executive Jim Farley has also warned that Western carmakers are "in a fight for our lives" as Chinese rivals expand globally.

After decades spent investing in joint ventures with Chinese partners to build vehicles, foreign carmakers are now changing the nature of those partnerships to stay competitive.

"The biggest mistake that the developed world is making is believing that the transition is only about electric cars, " says Shanghaibased auto analyst Bill Russo. "It's about who will lead the next generation of mobility technology."

Source: BBC News, "The world's carmakers are struggling to compete with China". Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g8vg72z430. Accessed on May 27,2026.