Two decades ago, German engineers used to joke among themselves about the prototypes for new cars presented by their Chinese joint venture partners, which in at least one case were cut and pasted from advertisements of German models.

“They had no ideas of their own — they were just copying,” says a senior software executive at a German carmaker.

The same engineer was recently presented with a wish list for a future vehicle operating system his company wants to develop. Point for point, it mirrored features that have been unveiled by Chinese electric-vehicle manufacturers.