Nico Rosberg: E-cars from China shocked him

Since the end of his Formula 1 career, Nico Rosberg (39) has been involved as an entrepreneur and investor. As such, he is also a great advocate of sustainable innovations and invests specifically in start-ups that focus on green technologies, electromobility and renewable energies. As an expert on these topics, he was now a guest and was shocked by the current electric cars from China in this conversation.

However, not in a negative sense, he is rather positive. In an interview with host Gabor Steingart (62), Rosberg tells that he was recently in Shanghai and drove there with the Chinese electric cars. “Unfortunately, the sobering message comes from me now,” says Rosberg when asked whether the Chinese models could do more than others. “The Xiaomi is a one-to-one copy of the Porsche Taycan. So it is unbelievable that something is allowed. That you can simply recreate the one to one.”

“Five to ten years ago you got into the car in China and then everything went on,” sums up Rosberg. You preferred not wanted to drive faster. “And now we drove and unfortunately the result was that it is simply a great car. In every respect, the quality inside, from the materials, of assembly, everything is the highest luxury and also driving behavior – I still had an engineer with me, it was just enthusiastic.

His view of the developments in the German automotive industry remains optimistic despite the competition from China with cars from BYD, Hyundai or Xiaomi. “I hope that we will get the curve, the chance is still there,” said the former racing driver. “The future is electrical.” That was a hundred percent for him.