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.
This is why Americans hate China. It’s legitimate competition for them.
Proven an idiot in a single sentence. Good work, man.
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.
As if Tesla was famous for its quality and durability either.
That view is unfortunately out of date.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.
There is nothing unfortunate about being able to buy products that are both cheap and high quality.
So where would you go for that?
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
Are these even street legal in the US? Our safety standards are obscene. Air bags alone cost 5k.
It’s why Tata never released a vehicle here.
I drove an atto 3 and a Mercedes gla, both for an extended weekend, same destination. I would always pick atto. Better features, easier to use and, most important, actual room to store stuff for the family. Especially the head and legroom in the back, it’s not even funny how cramped the back seats in German cars are. We have been hustled.
