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BYD quarterly sales beat Tesla for first time

ft.com

31–40 of 126 posts

Re: BYD quarterly sales beat Tesla for first time

#31
post #3

Only 7.9 percent of all of their sales is outside of China. They can generate fancy numbers galore on domestic soil where they have both production subsidies as well as government aid for buying said vehicles, but it's very unclear how they're going to fare outside of China.

Only reason they wouldn't take off outside China is the astronomical tariffs the West are putting on Chinese cars (100% in the US). Though depending on the wording, they may be able to just build a plant in Mexico and take advantage of NAFTA. I can't tell from the whitehouse post on the tariff if it's tied to country of the manufacturer or just country of origin (usually it's origin).

> Only reason they wouldn't take off outside China is the astronomical tariffs the West are putting on Chinese cars (100% in the US).

They're dumping domestic overproduction on foreign markets. You do that long enough and you can weaken your foreign competitors in their domestic strongholds. This can destroy high-value domestic jobs, lead to atrophy of expertise, and is especially bad to "strategic" sectors of the domestic industrial base.

Tariffs are a tool to protect domestic markets against dumping. Every other nation's automotive companies are free to compete in Western markets because they're not actively engaging in dumping. Their competition strengthens domestic rivals because it is fair and on equal footing.

Australia doesn't care because it doesn't have a domestic automotive industry to protect, so Chinese overproduction is essentially just foreign subsidized stimulus to the Australian population.

Re: BYD quarterly sales beat Tesla for first time

#32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cars was always a low margin business, that's why no one makes them anymore. Car OEMs contracted out every component and system possible. Almost all the value in modern cars is various tiers of suppliers. There's a Mercedes model they contracted out even final assembly. They went to the same Jack Welch school of business that boeing did and thought they were clever not being responsible for anything and could just be…

>They went to the same Jack Welch school of business that boeing did and thought they were clever not being responsible for anything and could just be middlemen pushing paper. Mercedes thought themselves to be untouchable due to it being a premium brand with high margins by putting a star on commodity parts, like they're a Swiss watch.

That would have been fine, but they also simultaneously cheapened the brand by pushing out models aimed at younger less well heeled buyers. A Mercedes C class (US models) is like a slightly juiced up VW to me. Nice but not special at all.

Same impact as in fashion. Louis Vuitton can try and persuade us that they remain the choice of the world's wealthiest explorers, but when every two bit junior associate realtor is sporting an LV purse, I am not so sure.

Both brands fell for the growth at all costs mantra.

Re: BYD quarterly sales beat Tesla for first time

#33
post #3

Only 7.9 percent of all of their sales is outside of China. They can generate fancy numbers galore on domestic soil where they have both production subsidies as well as government aid for buying said vehicles, but it's very unclear how they're going to fare outside of China.

Only reason they wouldn't take off outside China is the astronomical tariffs the West are putting on Chinese cars (100% in the US). Though depending on the wording, they may be able to just build a plant in Mexico and take advantage of NAFTA. I can't tell from the whitehouse post on the tariff if it's tied to country of the manufacturer or just country of origin (usually it's origin).

Including Canada (100%) affects the Tesla built in Shanghai that were being imported into Canada.

Re: BYD quarterly sales beat Tesla for first time

#34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>They went to the same Jack Welch school of business that boeing did and thought they were clever not being responsible for anything and could just be middlemen pushing paper. Mercedes thought themselves to be untouchable due to it being a premium brand with high margins by putting a star on commodity parts, like they're a Swiss watch.

That would have been fine, but they also simultaneously cheapened the brand by pushing out models aimed at younger less well heeled buyers. A Mercedes C class (US models) is like a slightly juiced up VW to me. Nice but not special at all. Same impact as in fashion. Louis Vuitton can try and persuade us that they remain the choice of the world's wealthiest explorers, but when every two bit junior associate realtor is…

It's OK, they're fixing their brand image by stopping selling their cars as Taxi vehicles. /s

Re: BYD quarterly sales beat Tesla for first time

#35
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only reason they wouldn't take off outside China is the astronomical tariffs the West are putting on Chinese cars (100% in the US). Though depending on the wording, they may be able to just build a plant in Mexico and take advantage of NAFTA. I can't tell from the whitehouse post on the tariff if it's tied to country of the manufacturer or just country of origin (usually it's origin).

Or if the build quality of their vehicles was not up to par with US regulation or the quality standards the US market is accustomed to..which seems very possible given the connotations generally shared domestically around the phrase “made in china”

The build quality of Chinese electric cars is generally pretty good.

In the past "made in Germany" used to have derogatory connotations due to German goods being worse than British ones too.

As for regulations, the BYD cars consistently rank very highly on the stringent Euro NCAP tests: https://www.euroncap.com/en/results/byd/seal-u/50187

Re: BYD quarterly sales beat Tesla for first time

#36
post #3

Only 7.9 percent of all of their sales is outside of China. They can generate fancy numbers galore on domestic soil where they have both production subsidies as well as government aid for buying said vehicles, but it's very unclear how they're going to fare outside of China.

Only reason they wouldn't take off outside China is the astronomical tariffs the West are putting on Chinese cars (100% in the US). Though depending on the wording, they may be able to just build a plant in Mexico and take advantage of NAFTA. I can't tell from the whitehouse post on the tariff if it's tied to country of the manufacturer or just country of origin (usually it's origin).

BYD is also building a factory in Brazil. It's almost ready (the deadline was later this year).

The factory stays on the same place of an old Ford factory. Ford left...

Fun fact: The street is called Avenue Henry Ford.

Re: BYD quarterly sales beat Tesla for first time

#37

I've been happily driving a BYD Atto 3 for ~6 months now. Very happy with it, its got a lot of nice software and hardware features, carplay/android auto works well, driving is nice and very smooth (especially on sport mode), and my daughter loves playing with the "strings" on the doors. The most glaring issue is the battery which is really its weakest part. Is it better than a Tesla? Probably not - there are clearly…

> The most glaring issue is the battery which is really its weakest part.

What are the issues? I thought BYD batteries were as good as they get?

I am pretty sure Teslas sold in my country (NZ) have BYD batteries.

Re: BYD quarterly sales beat Tesla for first time

#38
post #3

Only 7.9 percent of all of their sales is outside of China. They can generate fancy numbers galore on domestic soil where they have both production subsidies as well as government aid for buying said vehicles, but it's very unclear how they're going to fare outside of China.

They are selling a lot of them in New Zealand. It’s a small country so wouldn’t move the needle in terms of global sales, but I see them everywhere.

We have no domestic car manufacturing and no tariffs.

Re: BYD quarterly sales beat Tesla for first time

#39
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only reason they wouldn't take off outside China is the astronomical tariffs the West are putting on Chinese cars (100% in the US). Though depending on the wording, they may be able to just build a plant in Mexico and take advantage of NAFTA. I can't tell from the whitehouse post on the tariff if it's tied to country of the manufacturer or just country of origin (usually it's origin).

Or if the build quality of their vehicles was not up to par with US regulation or the quality standards the US market is accustomed to..which seems very possible given the connotations generally shared domestically around the phrase “made in china”

Teslas have a reputation for shoddy quality but they’re still sold in the US, i’m sure BYD will be fine

Re: BYD quarterly sales beat Tesla for first time

#40
post #15

I wonder how much Tesla's support of Trump is hurting his sales. Without going public on Trump, would his sales have increased more ? Right now seems most of his customers may be from people concerned about the environment and/or Climate Change. As time goes on, that will probably change. There is a reason heads and owners of Companies try and stay out of politics.

He already sold his cars to all the silicon valley nerds by pretending to be all about simulation theory and whatever nerd podcasts were talking about for the 2010s. Now he's catered his image to the opposite to sell to people who didn't buy on the first marketing push. Musks public persona has always been a fiction of identarian marketing
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