US man travels to China and finds out exactly how Chinese performance cars are 'taking over' and why that means we're 'cooked'

This US YouTuber traveled to China to test some of the hottest Chinese performance cars on the market right now, including the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra.

As you can imagine, he was positively impressed.

But what’s interesting is the reason why he was impressed.

Chinese performance cars rely on incredibly high-level tech

This is going to sound convoluted but bear with us.

This YouTuber, in a way, is yet another piece of evidence that cars are basically smartphones on wheels these days.

Miles Somerville, a car guy, is a YouTuber who started his career as a frequent collaborator with Marques Brownlee, a tech guy.

Until recently, Marques Brownlee only talked about tech.

But that’s the thing: cars are tech.

That’s why Brownlee began featuring cars on his main channel.

This eventually led to the creation of a dedicated car channel, boosting Miles’s own YouTube career by exposing him to Marques’s massive audience.

It’s a niche case study, we know, but Miles and Marques aren’t alone.

These days, most tech YouTubers end up directly or indirectly talking about cars.

And that brings us to the main reason why Miles believes Chinese automakers are on the rise.

China skipped a generation of technology

At some point, China must’ve realized they were never going to catch up to American, European, and Japanese automakers.

So they stopped chasing them with – let’s face it – pretty bad internal combustion cars and began focusing on electric cars.

Clearly, they got good at it pretty quickly.

With exceptions, most ‘legacy’ automakers failed to take electric cars seriously for so long, which gave China an advantage.

With a strong focus on technology and vertical integration – BYD owns the cargo ships it uses to transport its own vehicles – Chinese automakers are now on the rise.

And it gets worse for legacy brands, because Chinese manufacturers used the money they made selling their EVs to fund the development of hybrid technology.

As a result, their only weakness – the internal combustion engine – is no longer a weakness.

This is why he thinks we’re cooked

Miles traveled to Beijing, China to take a closer look at some of the most talked-about Chinese performance cars.

He got to drive the 1,500-horsepower Xiaomi SU7 Ultra, and he also had the opportunity visit showrooms for Nio, Xiaomi, and AITO.

“Four years ago, Xiaomi cars didn’t exist at all. And now, we’ve gone from nothing to the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra in like no time at all. It’s scary how quickly they’ve gotten this car to be as good as where it is,” he said in the video.

The first thing that stood out is that these brands prioritize ‘lifestyle’ retail, with lounges, coffee bars, and integrated ecosystems that often surpass traditional dealership experiences.

They’re also focusing on innovation.

The Yangwang U9 is the perfect example: it’s the fastest car in the world, but it’s also a self-driving car, and it can also ‘dance’ and jump.

No one else had ever thought of doing that.

“I feel like China’s sort of in their like 1980s 1990s Japanese car era right now,” he concluded.

Well, clearly, he’s not wrong.