Car dealer mogul Burkhard Weller believes the Chinese have a 15 percent market share

He is one of the best-known and most successful car dealers in Germany. Burkhard Weller has known the industry for almost 50 years. After his return from China, where he visited the MG plant in Shanghai, the authors of Union Mobilität spoke to him about the offensive of Chinese brands on the German market, whose potential market share he sees at 10 to 15 percent: "And one or the other European manufacturer will have to give up volume, because the market is no longer growing," says the founder of the Weller Group in an interview.

Weller has added MG, a Chinese brand, to its range. He runs 35 car dealerships with brands including BMW, Toyota, Lexus and Seat. He knows from his experience with these brands: "It took the Japanese 25 years to build cars that meet European standards in terms of feel and appearance. It took the Koreans 12 to 13 years. The Chinese did it in five."

He chose MG for one reason in particular: "Other Chinese brands make the mistake of entering the market at the top, i.e. with vehicles for 60, 70 or 80,000 euros. I don't think the German consumer is receptive to a Chinese car above 60,000 euros, not even an electric car." This is shown by his many years of experience with Lexus. The Japanese premium brand is still struggling in Germany, even after 30 years. MG, on the other hand, already has cars for 18,000 euros in its range. The all-electric MG4 is available from around 32,300 euros.

According to Weller, the fear that car dealers will earn less on maintenance and repairs as a result of e-mobility has not been confirmed: "The costs will only shift to other areas. An electric car needs significantly more tires than a petrol or diesel car, also because of the weight and acceleration. Then there are the electronics and sensors. Every repair quickly becomes very expensive," says the dealer, who has been selling electric cars for 10 years. He sees no real difference to the bills that workshop customers with electric cars or combustion engines have to pay. (aum)