‘Temu Range Rover’ Highlights China’s Ascent in UK Car Market

**SPEAKER_1** (0:02)
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio, News.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:08)
You're listening to Bloomberg Businessweek with Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec on Bloomberg Radio.

**Tim Stenovec** (0:14)
It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a so-called Timu Range Rover.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:18)
Timu?

**Tim Stenovec** (0:19)
Yeah, Timu Range Rover. It's called the Jaecoo 7 You may never have heard of it if you're listening or watching us in the United States, but it was the UK's top-selling car in March.

**Carol Massar** (0:30)
It's amazing. A bit more than a year after entering the UK market, the import is outselling Land Rover's comparable Range Rover Evoque on its home turf, earning the nickname Timu Range Rover, a nod to the online discounter, and it's less expensive.

**Tim Stenovec** (0:45)
It is, and we should note, it's not sold on Timu. No, no, no, it's just a nickname.
Not yet.

**Carol Massar** (0:50)
It's just a nickname right now.

**Tim Stenovec** (0:52)
Jacob Reid is Bloomberg News global business reporter. He joins us from London. Keith Naughton is Bloomberg News auto reporter. He joins us from Detroit. Jacob, I want to start with you. I want you to tell us what this Jaecoo 7 is.

**Jacob Reid** (1:07)
Yeah. Well, look, I can't take credit for the nickname, but it's this SUV that launched in the country not that long ago. As you say, it's already the best selling car.
Lots of people are likening it to that Range Rover, the shape, the design, the features. In fact, it's maybe no surprise because those two companies are partners in China. But as you say, it's known for the price. Unlike the US, unlike the EU, the UK hasn't added additional tariffs on. People love all the snazzy features it comes with, the heated seats, the panoramic sunroof. It's really capturing buyers in the UK.

**Carol Massar** (1:47)
This is what happened when Range Rover owned by Jaguar, which is a subsidiary of the Indian multinational Tata, right?

**Tim Stenovec** (1:55)
It's no less. Again, another nesting doll.

**Carol Massar** (1:58)
Another nesting doll. Keith, come on in on this. I mean, the automaker has gone. Coming off of certainly the crisis, different companies and different countries owning different automakers, I feel like.
I don't know. How do you make sense of this? It's just a changing auto market. And I feel like Chinese role in it is changing faster than we all anticipated.

**Keith Naughton** (2:21)
Yeah, I mean, the irony is the US has the greatest barriers to the Chinese. They're not really in this market. However, Volvo, the Swedish carmaker is actually owned by Geely, the Chinese auto conglomerate. They have a factory in South Carolina. So the Chinese are sort of in America, but not in a big way, not in the way they are in Mexico, not in the way they are in South America or Europe, where they're making huge inroads.
Because, yes, their cars are cheaper and they look cool, and they have great features and great tech, and consumers love them. I mean, we have an affordability crisis in the auto industry. So if you can cut 15,000 off the price, sold.

**Tim Stenovec** (3:05)
Yeah, we don't see them here on the streets in the US, but one thing I bring up all the time, Keith, is that Ford CEO Jim Farley talked about a Xiaomi SU7 on a podcast a few years ago, and he had this thing on some loan, you know, and he like didn't want to give it up. Like people love these cars, but they are all, and we talk about this with Ed Lobo all the time, they are all over the road, Jacob, in other countries, including the UK.
It's not just the price that is attractive to people about this, it's also the options, and then also the warranty too. So can you just go through some of the checklist of like why this thing is so attractive?

**Jacob Reid** (3:42)
Yeah, I mean, I promise I'm not a Jaecoo salesman, even though my name is Jacob, but it has that seven-year warranty, as you say, and that's a very deliberate attempt by this Chinese company to say, hey, we're new in this country, you might not know us, but rest assured, we have the quality, we're willing to stand it up. And they've actually, there's a lot of dealerships, and if you read the story we wrote, we went to one of them, but for years and years, it sold cars from Ford, and the management came in and said, lads, we're going to start selling from Jaecoo, and they're all like, crikey, what's Jaecoo?
And they say, they've never been busy yet. People love them. So they've got that warranty, they've got all of these add-ons, and they're a third cheaper.