Volvo car CEO pushes back on Navarro’s ‘Pirate’ China comments

Asked about Navarro’s assertions that China’s BYD was “plundering global car markets,” Samuelsson said the description “goes a bit too far.” BYD and Volvo Car’s majority owner Zhejiang Geely Holding Group have emerged as two of China’s strongest performers and were likely to remain so over the longer-term even as the country’s crowded market consolidates.

“We’re living in a new competitive landscape, and we have to respect those who have been successful in electric vehicles,” Samuelsson said in an interview after Volvo Car second-quarter earnings on Friday.

Chinese manufacturers “have done a lot of things right,” he added, pointing to their deep vertical integration in batteries, software and the broader automotive value chain.

“You simply have to put them on the list of the new industry leaders, alongside the companies that have traditionally been there,” Samuelsson said, citing Volkswagen AG’s Audi brand, BMW AG and Mercedes-Benz Group AG.

Samuelsson was responding to a commentary Navarro published Thursday in Politico in which he accused Europe of “dithering” while Chinese manufacturers rapidly gain market share. He singled out BYD as “a microcosm of China’s pirate business model: copy, absorb, subsidize, scale, dump and dominate.”

Chinese carmakers are steadily expanding their presence in Europe despite higher European Union tariffs on their electric vehicles and BYD is currently rolling out its premium brand Denza across the region.

Volvo Car recently secured US approval to continue selling connected vehicles despite its Chinese ownership, removing a major uncertainty for the Gothenburg, Sweden-based manufacturer.