I saw this recently: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tS_fJJxMjn4
TL;DR Byd is amazing and fatally flawed. The details are too much to place here.
BYD overtakes Tesla and Kia as the best-selling EV brand in key overseas markets
311–320 of 467 posts
Re: BYD overtakes Tesla and Kia as the best-selling EV brand in key overseas markets
#312Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have two chinese-born coworkers (who spent 20-30 years here in the us) in the same room. When we talk about china's expansion, I am always jealous of the public projects, infrastructure, housing, etc. They always point out the huge unemployment of young people, declining birth rate, and other social ills. They say they're worried when the building stops. Even more people will be out of jobs. And when the nation age…
China will likely become the go-to place for immigrants within couple decades. Just like any other developed economy had.
I do wonder about this. With demographic collapse coming for almost all nations, or with a notable trend line for it to come, what would happen if other nations basically prevent emigration? Better to keep their people than lose them. Alternatively, those with large populations can use this as a bargaining chip in trade negotiations.
The coming decades will be interesting.
Re: BYD overtakes Tesla and Kia as the best-selling EV brand in key overseas markets
#313Earlier quoted context omitted.
BYD has its own "God's Eye" self-driving tech, and unlike Musk's pigheaded insistence on cameras only, BYD is incorporating LIDAR into their cars across the range: https://thedriven.io/2026/01/11/byds-cheapest-electric-cars-...
> LIDAR You still believe that? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukLgCJUeBuI
There are plenty of FSD failure examples on YouTube too. I don't think you can draw conclusions from that. Especially because FSD isn't actually driverless yet, unlike Waymos.
Re: BYD overtakes Tesla and Kia as the best-selling EV brand in key overseas markets
#314Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wonder what happens if someone from the US buys one in Canada and just drives it home? At what point and how do they get charged an import tariff? When they register it?
AFAIU, import duties aren't really something you're necessarily "charged" as much as it's something you have a legal obligation to pay. Sure, maybe you could buy a car in Canada and bring it in to the US without paying the tariffs... we call that smuggling.
It's hardly smuggling if there is no process to collect the duties from you. Are you meant to walk into a random local government office and hand them a bunch of cash and say "i think i owe you this" ?!
What if it's a used car, not new, what's the tariff then?
I can't believe there is no process to collect it if you import it just by driving across the border.
Re: BYD overtakes Tesla and Kia as the best-selling EV brand in key overseas markets
#315Earlier quoted context omitted.
Who cares? China is revving up energy production in renewables to out eat the fossil production, but all of these processes are energy hungry, and you have to pay the non renewable cost to create the renewables. But then you don’t need the fossil fuels anymore. My solar panels will produce for the next 30+ years and power my EV with very little effort or maintaining, whereas the fuel I used to drive my ICE car to the…
The US with its high natgas generation is much cleaner than a majority coal driven generation scheme. I'm puzzled why we talk about "US decline" when we're pretty much creating paeans to marginal energy construction. Sure China's trajectory is good. But it's still not at the point where it's cleaner per capita than the US and it's still quite far from that. Let's talk about reality here. The US shouldn't rest on its…
> But it's still not at the point where it's cleaner per capita than the US and it's still quite far from that.
China has significantly lower co2 emitted per capita than the US already. Per kWh no, but that's a different thing. AFAICT China's renewable growth is now outpacing demand growth significantly though, so that per-capita gap will widen, and the per kWh is steadily improving as well, and faster than the US.
For some concrete numbers: China added 400GW of renewables in 2025 vs 78 GW of coal generation. Reduced CO2 intensity of power grid by 5% vs US 3% drop. In 2025 US total power emissions went up 5% (for many reasons, but arguably high gas prices and lots of data centres) while China total power emissions dropped 1.5%
All the details make China's path look much cleaner than the US's.
Re: BYD overtakes Tesla and Kia as the best-selling EV brand in key overseas markets
#316Earlier quoted context omitted.
it follows marxist principles and is building towards communism, which isn't overnight. It's currently in a socialist stage. Also, Xi is closer to the captain of a ship rather than an absolute monarch. He has a lot of power, yes, but that's because the party trusts him, not because he demands it
In the age of Mao, wasn't it closer to Marxism? There are more billionaires in China now, then there were back then. By that I mean, the wealth disparity in China is at an all-time high now, is it not? Xi removed the 2-term limit from his own position, and has been doing an excellent job at consolidating his power base, through all means necessary. Disclaimer: I believe that pure "capitalism" and pure "communism" are…
>In the age of Mao, wasn't it closer to Marxism?
Not really, marxism is a way of looking at the world, not an economic system in itself
>There are more billionaires in China now, then there were back then
They hadn't even built capitalism fully, so it makes sense that there was less capital
>By that I mean, the wealth disparity in China is at an all-time high now, is it not?
it is, and they're currently working on how to deal with that
>Xi keeps remove the 2 term limits from just position, and has been doing an excellent job at consolidating his power base, through all means necessary.
Sure, but that's just politics. Ultimately if the majority of the party had a problem with him he wouldn't be in power for long before a coup or a request for him to step down happened
Re: BYD overtakes Tesla and Kia as the best-selling EV brand in key overseas markets
#317Earlier quoted context omitted.
With EVs, Tesla's the only one in the US not phoning it in. I used to think they were until I got a new Model Y Juniper. I don't count Rivian or Lucid until they actually have even somewhat affordable EVs. But pretty much everyone else in the US is doing a piss poor job with EVs and just don't seem to care at all. Ford seemed to have lost interest in the F-150 lightning. I agree that trade needs to be a two way stree…
How do you like Model Y so far? I am eyeing that and a Rivian. The newest Y design is great (outside) and the price is where I want it. But I can’t help thinking that it will break the second I complete my signature for purchase/lease.
I absolutely love it. I had a Model 3 for 7 years before that, and that car (at least in 2018) felt like a slightly beta car. Manufacturing was a bit shoddy in places, but still was an _awesome_ car to have for 7 years.
But the Model Y seems like they fixed everything I complained about with the 3. Smoother ride, everything feels higher quality, and FSD (if you can get it) is just amazing.
Anyway with Teslas, you feel like you're living 10 years in the future from everyone else on the road. But Full Self-Driving makes it feel even more stark.
Like I said, at the price points of the Model Y (at its quality), there aren't too many alternatives. At least in Sept 2025 when I looked. I wish there were.
I don't count BYD because I was never going to buy a BYD even if it was available, because of how deeply connected these cars are nowadays. Maybe it's irrational, but giving the growing drumbeat of some sort of conflict with China over Taiwan, it doesn't seem prudent to have a fully connected car phoning home to the CCP.
Re: BYD overtakes Tesla and Kia as the best-selling EV brand in key overseas markets
#318Earlier quoted context omitted.
Doesn't Tesla have a factory in China?
They do. Because Elon is proving himself to be quite an idiot. China was more than happy to welcome him in, and have him teach them how to build an EV. They simply copied what they could and improved on it. "The communists will happily sell the capitalists the rope the capitalists hang themselves with"
The timing doesn't line up. BYD has already been selling EVs by the time Tesla opened a factory in China. Heck, they were selling EVs even before _Tesla_ existed.
And they clearly have their own expertise. There are videos of BYD and Tesla car teardowns, and you can see that they quite differ in design philosophies.
I think China was more interested in creating more competition internally, rather than just ripping off the technology.
Re: BYD overtakes Tesla and Kia as the best-selling EV brand in key overseas markets
#319BYD 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…
It makes sense to ban BUD imports but don’t you dare try and both sides this argument by saying EV and renewable power strategy are the same on both sides.
Re: BYD overtakes Tesla and Kia as the best-selling EV brand in key overseas markets
#320Earlier quoted context omitted.
EV trucks don't work yet. The technology isn't there yet in this country. You can't tow.
??? There is such a thing as a cybertruck. It can tow better than any other truck.
> ??? There is such a thing as a cybertruck. It can tow better than any other truck.
Better than any other truck? I don't think so.
Better than any other EV truck? Unsure.
Or if we're still referencing that fully discredited "Cybertruck can tow a Porsche and still be faster than a Porsche", well: https://www.theautopian.com/a-cybertruck-towing-a-porsche-91...