Shanghai is a city of more than 20 million people. Every day new people arrive looking for work, and looking to share in the prosperity. A few of them are expat engineers. Most sign up for three- to five-year contracts, helping companies in China to develop their business and skill levels. Some stay longer, making their careers there. There are plenty of opportunities. China's universities are producing a lot of good engineering graduates, but real automotive experience is in short supply. Working with Chinese OEMs is demanding. They tend to ask for things in about 60 per cent of the time they would take in Europe, and put less emphasis on the testing and preparation. It's unorthodox, but appropriate for the price and time pressures of the Chinese domestic market. Naturally if the OEM is talking about a product for the European or North American market, then there are different targets, and it's the task of the expat engineer to manage expectations. This makes China a two-speed market for products and engineering services. Suppliers are integrating systems for more sophisticated programs and developing low-cost products for local consumption. China's entry into Europe starts with the development of low-cost components. The next step is low-cost vehicles. Certain types of cars, especially the small ones, are commodities. The OEMs only make money on the financing and aftersales. The whole package is profitable, but the production isn't. This is what the electronics industry found out a long time ago and it shifted production from high-cost areas in Japan to Taiwan to Malyasia to China. There is no reason why a small vehicle shouldn't be subject to the same process.