Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The size of BYD's factory

twitter.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

191–200 of 651 posts

Re: The size of BYD's factory

#191

Post by seanmcdirmid »

8note wrote: post #159
hnthrowaway0328 wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When Trump ups everything from China by 100% I guess US would be able to make something with profit?

I doubt it. It's much easier to either launder or manufacture the goods in a third country, that benefits from most of the same incentives that made Chinese manufacturing go through the roof. Americans will be buying Chinese goods with "made in Vietnam" or "made in Mexico" stamped on it. The American profit will be in setting up those laundering schemes

If the Trump tariffs are based on country of final assembly, then yes, final assembly will just occur somewhere else, but it will take a couple of years to setup, and the inflation shock by that time will have done a lot of damage to the economy (recession likely, depression possible). It makes sense that it took Trump forever to find a treasury secretary willing to go along with this.

Re: The size of BYD's factory

#192

Post by [deleted] »

kjellsbells wrote: post #152
bdangubic wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

west can compete. unlike byd’s, which get bricked all the time without infrastructure to maintain and repair them, west (and japan even more so) build cars that last. this is china we are talking about, the last thing I want is a car made by them… :)

People used to say the same things about things made in Taiwan, then Japan, and then China, for things like electronics and white goods. It was true - until suddenly it wasn't. In engineering you ultimately have to build stuff. Over, and over, and over again. You'll mess it up a lot at first, and then one day you'll realize that you haven't. China is not stuck in 1965 trying to make an EV out of a saucepan and a back…

[deleted]

Re: The size of BYD's factory

#193

Post by orangesun »

edot wrote: post #100
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #27

The number of construction vehicles doing something versus sitting around waiting for labor in that shot is impressive.

Yeah, I have never seen something like that in America in my life. Always plenty of machines sitting around, and every few weeks some guys will hop on them for the day, but other than that they just sit there. It almost looks AI generated how densely packed those are - though I assume that this is real footage.

It does seem to have an AI look to it. The resolution is pretty poor.

Re: The size of BYD's factory

#194

Post by kalleboo »

felipelemos wrote: post #108
kristianp wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that cars are at least double the mass they need to be. The size of cars needed for a school run or to drive to work are generally quite small, but most people seem to have giant trucks for the occasional times they go camping or carry something large.

> but most people seem to have giant trucks for the occasional times they go camping or carry something large. This is the reality in United States, but not in most of the world.

Sadly though, other countries are trending the same way.

Re: The size of BYD's factory

#195

Post by mnau »

lazyeye wrote: post #150
p2detar wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a clear reason why such factories are being built in China and if you are a USA or German citizen, you wouldn't like it. In a BBC article from a couple of days ago [0], they hinted that China intends to take the lead into transitioning developing countries from fossil fuels to green tech. They produce batteries, EVs and solar panels. Just this year alone Pakistan of all the countries, imported 13 gigawatts (…

How is the power being generated for all this manufacturing capacity?

60% coal, some baseload nuclear (5%), renewables (30%). They have massive dams (14% of electricity IIRC).

Coal share is shrinking, a lot.

Today, capacity factor of coal plants is below 50% (that's why you always see China builds coal plants... that stand idle) and their coal consumption has been more or less flat for a decade. The plan is to use coal plans when wind doesn't blow and sun doesn't shine. Natural gas is a national security risk due to imports, but they do have a lot of coal.

Re: The size of BYD's factory

#196

Post by throwawaymaths »

kjellsbells wrote: post #152
bdangubic wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

west can compete. unlike byd’s, which get bricked all the time without infrastructure to maintain and repair them, west (and japan even more so) build cars that last. this is china we are talking about, the last thing I want is a car made by them… :)

People used to say the same things about things made in Taiwan, then Japan, and then China, for things like electronics and white goods. It was true - until suddenly it wasn't. In engineering you ultimately have to build stuff. Over, and over, and over again. You'll mess it up a lot at first, and then one day you'll realize that you haven't. China is not stuck in 1965 trying to make an EV out of a saucepan and a back…

Yeah but Japan has long had a cultural obsession with delivering high quality products. I don't know if China ever did, but if it did, much of it was wiped out during cultural revolution and replaced with succeed at all costs.

And there is a difference between success and excellence.

For example there have been zero bullet train fatalities in its entire history, and several Chinese HSR fatal accidents already. For political reasons the quality of the HSR wheels in China took a sharp downturn so expect more accidents in the coming two years.

Re: The size of BYD's factory

#197

Post by ninetyninenine »

hackernewds wrote: post #160
ninetyninenine wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We Americans have more to fear from economic and technological dominance than we do from military invasion. As a budding superpower ready to unseat the US from it's throan. All China has to do is wait for progress and time to run it's coarse and emerge the victor. If anything, the US is the tigger happy country as we watch the inevitable, looking for any excuse to use to stop them. Remember, why the hell does China g…

why does they have to be a winner and loser. everyone can thrive? except the United States is being buoyed by two main elements. 1) the ability of the internet to extract value overseas while untaxed in the client country 2) The H1B visa which funnels the best talent from struggling countries 3) strong institutions and financial and education centers and 4) military industrial complex that thrives on basically manufa…

> why does they have to be a winner and loser. everyone can thrive? except the United States is being buoyed by two main elements.

Why can’t there be a winner and a loser and both the winner and the loser cooperate and thrive with loser having the humility to admit he’s a loser? Isn’t this the same peaceful consequence? Just say China is better and admit inferiority for the everlasting peace. Why can’t you do it?

Because competition and cooperation are intrinsic parts of natural selection and therefore evolutionary biology and therefore human nature. Don’t pretend to be above your own nature.

Or do pretend. We can all act according to our ideals and deny our basest instincts, but don’t expect the mob to act the same way in aggregate.

Re: The size of BYD's factory

#199

Post by seanmcdirmid »

bdangubic wrote: post #138
Animats wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There were many terrible electric cars out of China for years. Every province had its own little EV manufacturers. China's car industry is less concentrated than the US, but the big players are winning. BYD is only the 9th largest carmaker in China. SAIC, Changan, and Geeley are the top 3. SAIC and Changan are state-owned, but Geeley is private, as is BYD. SAIC makes about 5 million vehicles a year. General Motors, o…

it will take years before they can prove that their cars are made to last. I won’t be lining up to buy them but in 5-10 years perhaps

Kia/hyundai went through that phase already, and just got through it with absurd 10 year warranties when they first came out. China could do the same in the states, although I think they will have enough traction in SEA/Africa/Russia//Australia by then that they won’t have to.

Re: The size of BYD's factory

#200

Post by [deleted] »

edhelas wrote: post #25

All this to produce machines of 2T to displace 80kg of human on average (think about it, the battery weight more than what it actually need to move on average) and maintain/develop car dependency infrastructures. This is the worst way of improving our efficiency and progress toward a more optimized, efficient economy and reducing massively our climate and biodiversity impact. I want those kind of factories to produce…

[deleted]
Post reply on HN