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BYD overtakes Tesla and Kia as the best-selling EV brand in key overseas markets

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Re: BYD overtakes Tesla and Kia as the best-selling EV brand in key overseas markets

#161

BYD has to me become an icon of US decline vs Chinese expansion. It’s just one example among many of China charting the way forward and innovating while the US recedes further into backward-looking, protectionist policy. See: US politicians on both sides trying to ban BYD imports rather than incentivizing stiffer competition from US automakers. Another example: massive growth in Chinese renewables while the US opens…

The problem the US has, at least in this area, is that it's manufacturing is in the dumps and that's not even plainly bad thing.

No US born child in the last 30 years aspired to working a factory job. The US is an advanced economy with advanced jobs. We get degrees, we sit at desks, maybe even sit at home, work on computers, and generate an order of magnitude more wealth than our screw turning counterpart overseas.

I can tell you with first hand experience, that this problem is much deeper than "the US needs to catch up" because in reality what is happening is that China is the one playing catch up. The US is already 30 years into the endgame of economic development. China is where the US was 75 years ago, and on paper, the US has only progressed from that point.

Re: BYD overtakes Tesla and Kia as the best-selling EV brand in key overseas markets

#162

Is BYD beating Kia here in the UK? It's hard to tell from the SMMT figures [1] but it looks to me as if Kia sold just under twice as many vehicles as BYD. Given that so much of Kia's lineup is now BEV, I'm not sure who is winning. Tesla is doing poorly here. That's almost entirely down to Musk's public image, not because BYD make better cars. [1] https://www.smmt.co.uk/vehicle-data/car-registrations/

I see plenty of BYD around, but I see more Kia cars. Maybe I'm biased with my EV6 GT Line S, but I wouldn't swap it for a damn thing.

Re: BYD overtakes Tesla and Kia as the best-selling EV brand in key overseas markets

#163

It's a shame their cars are being devoid of its own identity. If you squint you might think it's an Audi or Range Rover. A bit like wearing Adiboss or Gacci clothes. Nothing wrong with that. Hopefully BYD will make something original and with style on its own. But counter example is e.g. new Audi look like Kia. Funny.

The chinese are utilitarian but also, like anyone, care about aesthetics. Why make something that looks good enough when that isn't your main goal and the jobs already been done

Re: BYD overtakes Tesla and Kia as the best-selling EV brand in key overseas markets

#164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The world before all of the big beautiful tariffs. It's depressing that we can't buy BYD in the USA. It's feeling more and more like being stuck with a Lada in the 1980s.

Are BYD cars specifically banned or do they just not comply with all the US regulations?

I cannot answer your question but I visited China last year and the amount of different EVs they had was staggering. And really nice vehicles, I was very impressed with that.

Re: BYD overtakes Tesla and Kia as the best-selling EV brand in key overseas markets

#165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason I called out Lada in my original comment is because it's a counterpoint to what you just said. The Lada was the result of too much protectionism. Produced from an empire that was too inward looking and feared interacting with the rest of the world on equal terms. BYD keeps performing well in the rest of the world. If we hold US consumers hostage to prop up companies like Tesla, we risk allowing them to sta…

I prefer to take my chances on stagnation vs Chinese industrial hegemony

what has become of America where we are now scared shitless of China... oh well, i is what it is... America our ancestors built would have been like bring it on bitches and here we are "oh please, lets not let China in, our companies are subpar and we stand no chance against such a foe...

Re: BYD overtakes Tesla and Kia as the best-selling EV brand in key overseas markets

#166
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always take these views with a grain of salt, many immigrant's view of their home country is ossified at the time of emigration.

In the same vein, it’s reasonable to take a foreigner’s view with a grain of salt. For all its impressive progress, China doesn’t show off its problems. The “West” had the same problem many times during the first Cold War, where things in the Soviet Union seemed really great from the outside. Only after the collapse did the truth become clear. Now, I don’t think China is even remotely similar, but never forget that i…

In the US it's practically a right of passage to be a young adult and very vocally hate the country, hate the government.

In China you don't have a life in front of you if you do that.

Re: BYD overtakes Tesla and Kia as the best-selling EV brand in key overseas markets

#167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The world before all of the big beautiful tariffs. It's depressing that we can't buy BYD in the USA. It's feeling more and more like being stuck with a Lada in the 1980s.

Are BYD cars specifically banned or do they just not comply with all the US regulations?

[flagged]

Re: BYD overtakes Tesla and Kia as the best-selling EV brand in key overseas markets

#168

BYD has to me become an icon of US decline vs Chinese expansion. It’s just one example among many of China charting the way forward and innovating while the US recedes further into backward-looking, protectionist policy. See: US politicians on both sides trying to ban BYD imports rather than incentivizing stiffer competition from US automakers. Another example: massive growth in Chinese renewables while the US opens…

I was glued to the window while flying over southern China recently. There is so much infrastructure you can see from the air, even in fairly rural provinces. So many bridges. So many wind turbines. It is visibly a country on the move, a country that believes in itself and its ability to do things. The Chinese Century is increasingly palpable, for better or worse.

I traveled to Wuhan twice a year for business for much of the last decade (until the pandemic).

China was a growing country that clearly knew how to build infrastructure. In Wuhan, they built an entire development intended to employ 100,000 engineers (Huawei + our US company's 50). They built a subway system in a decade that's bigger than New York City's. I took the high-speed rail to Beijing and it was superb. They replaced an old, shabby international airport terminal with a new one with the widest concourse I've ever seen. They subsidized regular flights between Wuhan and San Francisco on China Southern airlines. The Hyatt Regency there was one of my favorite hotels I've ever stayed in (cheap and high quality). In a big commerical district, they had the largest screen I've ever seen that had a Blue Screen of Death :-)

Dazzling yet I'm not bullish on China due to its demographics, among many other reasons.

Re: BYD overtakes Tesla and Kia as the best-selling EV brand in key overseas markets

#169

Would be great if we could buy/drive these in the US. Funny how we have a "free market" only when it is convenient for certain interests...

Free market does not exist

Or rather, it exists briefly until it is naturally captured by the biggest players.

Re: BYD overtakes Tesla and Kia as the best-selling EV brand in key overseas markets

#170

BYD has to me become an icon of US decline vs Chinese expansion. It’s just one example among many of China charting the way forward and innovating while the US recedes further into backward-looking, protectionist policy. See: US politicians on both sides trying to ban BYD imports rather than incentivizing stiffer competition from US automakers. Another example: massive growth in Chinese renewables while the US opens…

The problem the US has, at least in this area, is that it's manufacturing is in the dumps and that's not even plainly bad thing. No US born child in the last 30 years aspired to working a factory job. The US is an advanced economy with advanced jobs. We get degrees, we sit at desks, maybe even sit at home, work on computers, and generate an order of magnitude more wealth than our screw turning counterpart overseas. I…

> China is where the US was 75 years ago

Quite a wild claim

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