A tidal wave of innovation - a change in the Automotive Industry - here's a look into the UAE market and what is happening

Welcome back to another insight story to the UAEs car market and what is maybe going to come and impact the European and American car market over time. Sure by now you all have heard of BYD, NIO, Cherry, Great Wall, and many more. All Automotive brands that have started in China and now are taking the world stages in a rush.

While the European and American markets are complaining about unfair competition and state subsidies let me say this, as a car enthusiast and automotive lover I am excited about what is happening here. The design and the technology packed into these cars is above and beyond and even if you impose some import duties on them the cars will get their audience in the market.

Let's share some numbers that I got from a recent market exploration and this is not even on the topic of EVs.

The Jetour T2 with its 2.0 Liter petrol engine sells in the UAE at 146 000 AED, currently there's a 3 month waiting time to get one of these cars with the official importer, and speaking to one of the parallel importers I got to know that he sold in the last 2 month 600 of these cars. Now this is the entry side of the story let's look at some more exciting offers and why I believe there's a revolution on the horizon that we do not expect in this force.

This amazing 6 or 7 seater SUV is called the ROX 01, it comes with a hybrid system that works around the 56kw battery, which provides the car with a rough 250km range in full electric, but with the 1.5 liter generator on board and the 70 liter tank the 500+ HP car gets a range of 1100km. Which brings this car to a consumption of an average of 7 liter per 100km. All of this at a striking 255 000 AED. This is well within the territory of Nissan and Toyota in the market but it undercuts a Land Rover by over 100 000 AED in a comparable configuration. The car is specked up to the roof with modern technology like cameras, radar and lidar sensors and as such doesn't need to hide - the built quality and materials in the interior are of great first impression.

Surely there are concerns around how to service these cars when there is no official importer yet, but gladly we live in the UAE where people are innovating and actively coming up with businesses when they are needed. So you can already get warranty packages from a lot the free service shops in the UAE as well as servicing. In fact the ROX 01 comes with a 3 year bumper to bumper unlimited mileage warranty.

Feels like I do not need to introduce this car as it went through the press a but having now sat in the car and touched it I can confirm the car is of amazing quality on first sight and the 0-100km/h number or 2.78 seconds, even if its 3 in reality gives me a smile.

Now scroll back up and look at these view examples and tell me, you do not like what you see? See that's exactly what I thought yesterday when I visited a show room that imports a lot of these cars.

Having worked more the 20 years in the automotive industry I can tell you that one of my key take aways is - get the design right and people will forgive you on the tech. Now these cars do not disappoint on technology and are to some extend even ahead of their European pears, surely miles ahead of classic American brands.

Surely the imposed Import barriers will slow down things in Europe for the electrical cars, but cars like the Jetour T2 are no electric cars and they will make their way, even the electric cars will make their way eventually and they will further reduce the market share of the established OEMs, they are well designed and hit the mark with future consumers - the established OEMs need to find answers to this fast otherwise we will see a repeat of the early 2000s when a lot of the traditional OEMs merged or even worse went out of business.

Let me know if you found this insightful and I will go a little deeper next time and show test drives and system videos.