When China’s BYD recently overtook Elon Musk’s Tesla as the global leader in sales of electric vehicles, casual observers of the auto industry might have been surprised.
But what’s caught other carmakers around the world off-guard is something else about BYD, which is backed by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway: its low prices.
“No one can match BYD on price. Period,” Michael Dunne, CEO of Asia-focused car consultancy Dunne Insights, told the Financial Times. “Boardrooms in America, Europe, Korea and Japan are in a state of shock.”
BYD can keeps its costs low in part because it owns the entire supply chain of its EV batteries, from the raw materials to the finished battery packs. That matters because a battery accounts for about 40% of a new electric vehicle’s price.
Uh… yeah? China beats nearly everyone on price but you don’t go there for quality and durability.
The American car companies haven’t exactly been stellar with regards to quality, reliability, and safety lately either.
Lately?
My VW-built EV seems pretty high quality. China and USA aren’t the only game in EVs.
Get Yourself an European car??? That’s where you go for quality
Then get yourself a Japanese car. That’s where you go for reliability.
Depends on the make and model.
Mazda non turbos are very reliable. My 2014 Mazda 2.5l only ever needed oil changes, tranny fluid changes and now at 130k miles I have to do the front control arms. My VW 2010 Passat wagon 2.0tsi needs constant maintenance, like carbon cleaning, water pump dsg fluids, pcv and so on, but I have 200k+ miles on it with no oil burning and original suspension parts.
Woah woah we don’t use those words here buddy
Didn’t the Japanese car industry only just finally jump in the EV game?
I think toyota and hyundai are in the game now
They are, they just wasted a lot of time with Hydrogen tech instead building up their EV capabilities
Strange how that reputation persists even when they tak, a car made by someone else and put their name on it.
Maybe you haven’t looked into just how badly Teslas are made, it’s become a meme.
Oh, I find that even more hilarious. But that’s a Musk issue, not a place of manufacturing.
Actually, that’s also a place of manufacturing issue. Apparently teslas made in China are higher quality than teslas made in the US.
Eg. https://insideevs.com/news/381527/chinese-tesla-model-3-better-than-american/
As if Tesla was famous for its quality and durability either.
That’s what the British car industry said in the 60s and 70s about Japanese cars. Everyone bad mouthed anything made in Japan as being poor quality.
The Japanese succeeded through good products and their domestic rivals (in Britain) being arrogant, xenophobic and letting standards slide thinking they were great and couldn’t be beaten.
I’ve a Japanese Honda CRV (ironically built in UK) and a Chinese built MG5 EV. The EV is best built car I’ve owned in 35 years.
Many established car brands are going to disappear Tesla, I believe, being one.
I once read that the failure of British industrial policy to engage labour as a long term competitive edge instead of a dispensable short term concern saw Germany overtake British car makers. Germany dealt with labour strikes more comprehensively by engaging labour in policy structures. Like including Labour representatives in boardrooms.
I wonder how this may reflect on Chinese / Western competitiveness.
Found the piece: https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-23406467
Sounds like it’s almost a 1:1 copy of what happened with the Brits.
For whatever reason, English speakers are easily-duped into thinking non-English speakers can’t compete.
They produce a lot of quality and durable products in China. Apple and Tesla are both producing there, as do many thousands of other companies.
Quality and durable (produced under slave labor)
Do you have any proof of that? I’ve seen people say the same thing about Adidas and Nike, yet I have friends working for their factories and have never seen or heard of such a thing.
Your iPhone / Samsung is manufactured there. So no, that’s a bad take. You get what you pay for, and good quality is still cheaper than made elsewhere.
Samsung is slowly moving some production from China though. For instance, my phone is manufactured in Vietnam instead.
That doesn’t say much about the build quality though as the reason companies are moving out of China is Chinas increased manufacturing costs.
Samsung isn’t building their phones in South Korea anymore?
The BYD cars they sell in the West are pretty decently build. I’d be more worried about the aftersales services. Chinese electronics companies always have shitty customer service. Like Lenovo and Huawei. And since a car always needs some repairs during its lifetime I will never buy an EV from a Chinese brand unless they have proven to have good aftersales service.
This is why I love my Toyota - only recently brought my first Mazda after 8 or so Toyota.
Daewoo. Had a gf that owned a Daewoo. It was a car, lol. Only real problem was we had to drive an hour and a half to get the thing serviced.
Not to mention: I’ll eat my hat if the CCP isn’t providing some sort of subsidization, for no other reason than the fact that it’s a national pride thing for them
Most carmakers get heavily subsidized. All the German ones for example. It’s a big industry and states like to keep their brands competitive.
furiously typed into their Chinese Assembled IPhone…
South Korea Samsung…
Samsung phones are largely assembled in Vietnam. It looks like they’re one of the few phone companies not relying on China though.
BYD is better quality than the shit Stellantis puts out
Removed by mod
Depends on what you are buying and the price you pay.
People who have bought them seem happy. That looks like they have comparable value for money.
BYD builds a higher quality and more durable car than Tesla.
That view is unfortunately out of date. Many Chinese products are of equal or superior quality to their global counterparts. Think Lenovo laptops and OnePlus smartphones. Chinese stuff can be cheap and high quality.
Both Lenovo and OnePlus are garbage. Out of all the shitty companies and you go to those two for an example of quality?
Sources or stfu
So where would you go for that?