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Electric vehicle sales are booming in South America – without Tesla

reuters.com

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Re: Electric vehicle sales are booming in South America – without Tesla

#81

Post by impossiblefork »

fpoling wrote: post #71
impossiblefork wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For a while maybe, but cheap EVs are being manufactured in Europe as well, and while this could reduce petrol prices, it's also going to reduce the need for petrol stations, and I think makes petrol basically dead even in a cheap-petrol scenario. A Renault Twingo is going to cost something like 20,000 euros. That's twice the price of a Dacia Sandero, but a Dacia Spring is 16,900. The difference is only 4000, which co…

A modern small and medium-sized car in Europe consumes like 4-6 liters/100 km. Even if one drives 15 thousands km/year (way above average) that gives like 900 liters of gasoline per year or like 1500-1700 euros with typical European prices. And electricity is not free especially when using fast chargers. So at the end the savings is about 500-1000 euros per year. Which still is a good deal, but explains why people pr…

Ah. I hadn't realised that modern petrol cars had gotten that efficient.

When I had a petrol car it was like at least 12 L/100 km, probably more. I remember 100 km drives (Stockholm-Uppsala and back) costing hundreds of Swedish crowns in petrol.

Re: Electric vehicle sales are booming in South America – without Tesla

#82

Post by moffkalast »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #34
weinzierl wrote: post #18

When I grew up in Germany it always made me proud that 100% of taxis were Mercedes Benz. If a car can withstand the rough demands of taxi service, it has to be good. And even in South America back then German cares were ubiquitous, especially Volkswagen. When I was in Brazil this spring[*] I rode a lot of Uber and they were 100% BYD - 100%, no exception. It's not that my head hadn't known that German auto was dead bu…

BYD recently went live with a highly automated, large scale manufacturing facility in Brazil. The BYD Dolphin Mini sells for ~$22,500, and the manufacturer already has 200 showrooms open across the country. https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/11/22/cop-brazil... https://www.byd.com/us/news-list/First-BYD-Electric-Vehicle-...

I'm surprised Mercedes was ever price competitive for taxis even in Germany, I mean the average VW would do the job just as well at half the cost.

These days they're both priced like they're selling Ferraris anyway so yeah. The ID Buzz starting at 70k EUR is such a joke.

Re: Electric vehicle sales are booming in South America – without Tesla

#83

Post by rr808 »

weinzierl wrote: post #18

When I grew up in Germany it always made me proud that 100% of taxis were Mercedes Benz. If a car can withstand the rough demands of taxi service, it has to be good. And even in South America back then German cares were ubiquitous, especially Volkswagen. When I was in Brazil this spring[*] I rode a lot of Uber and they were 100% BYD - 100%, no exception. It's not that my head hadn't known that German auto was dead bu…

I think the issue is to create an ICE is a very complicated process requiring lots of specialist knowledge, skills and technologies. An EV is just much simpler, comes down to who has the cheapest batteries. Europe and Japan are great at the former, the latter no chance.

Re: Electric vehicle sales are booming in South America – without Tesla

#84

Post by Tade0 »

IshKebab wrote: post #33
weinzierl wrote: post #18

When I grew up in Germany it always made me proud that 100% of taxis were Mercedes Benz. If a car can withstand the rough demands of taxi service, it has to be good. And even in South America back then German cares were ubiquitous, especially Volkswagen. When I was in Brazil this spring[*] I rode a lot of Uber and they were 100% BYD - 100%, no exception. It's not that my head hadn't known that German auto was dead bu…

To be fair taxis have unique requirements. Taxis in the UK were like 80% Prius for a long time because they drive very long distances and hybrids are very cost effective for city driving where you're doing a lot of low speed driving and don't have convenient recharging opportunities. But most people aren't in that situation. Still, I think BYD are kind of killing it.

> But most people aren't in that situation.

Those who commute from the suburbs actually save even more as hybrids achieve their lowest consumption going a steady 50-70km/h.

Of course the same people could just get an EV and charge at home, but in terms of cost-effectiveness hybrids still win in this use case.

Re: Electric vehicle sales are booming in South America – without Tesla

#85

Post by lifty »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #31
Animats wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Although Ford's CEO now gets it, Ford's product line doesn't reflect it yet. Farley has been bringing a few sample BYD cars to the US, for Ford people to drive around and to take apart. Farley dragged his executive team to China to see a BYD plant. They came back scared. But what Ford actually sells is 1) an F-150 converted to electric, 2) a Ford Mustang converted to electric, and 3) a Ford Transit converted to elect…

"Americans only want trucks and SUVs." (I hear people say.) Cool. Then allow BYD non-trucks, non-SUVs into the U.S. then. The Japanese back in the 70's showed U.S. automakers that price and mileage (in that decade anyway) were important to Americans. I suspect price is still important.

Why would they allow it? It would destroy the remaining car industry in the US. Better to at least maintain a car industry, even if it’s inefficient.

Re: Electric vehicle sales are booming in South America – without Tesla

#86

Post by 1970-01-01 »

paxys wrote: post #7

Tesla was dead in the water when it became obvious that they couldn't make a sub-$30K car happen. They will still probably do well as a luxury brand, but China is going to fill in the demand for affordable EVs in the rest of the world outside USA/EU.

Assuming they just manufactured vehicles, then this would be the correct take.

Re: Electric vehicle sales are booming in South America – without Tesla

#87

Post by EliteGadget »

haunter wrote: post #73
EliteGadget wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It isn't just Chinese EVs there are Korean brands on the road e.g. Jaewoo. https://jaecoo.co.uk/ I'm in the UK and the only new Fords I see are these huge F250/F350 which make my 4x4 (which is relatively small compared to a modern 4x4) look tiny.

You managed to write the name wrong, Jaecoo not Jaewoo, and it's chinese not korean. On top of that it's a throwaway account.

I mixed these brands up. Thanks for the correction.

They (Jaecoo) opened a dealership 20 minutes from where I am.

Re: Electric vehicle sales are booming in South America – without Tesla

#88

Post by jeltz »

haunter wrote: post #73
EliteGadget wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It isn't just Chinese EVs there are Korean brands on the road e.g. Jaewoo. https://jaecoo.co.uk/ I'm in the UK and the only new Fords I see are these huge F250/F350 which make my 4x4 (which is relatively small compared to a modern 4x4) look tiny.

You managed to write the name wrong, Jaecoo not Jaewoo, and it's chinese not korean. On top of that it's a throwaway account.

Pretty sure they confused Daewoo with Jaecoo. But as far as I know Daewoo does not exist anymore.

Re: Electric vehicle sales are booming in South America – without Tesla

#89

Post by EliteGadget »

jeltz wrote: post #88
haunter wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You managed to write the name wrong, Jaecoo not Jaewoo, and it's chinese not korean. On top of that it's a throwaway account.

Pretty sure they confused Daewoo with Jaecoo. But as far as I know Daewoo does not exist anymore.

I confused Jae-woo (a Korean name) with Jaecoo. I think I must have mis-spelled the name when googling them after seeing the Dealership near me. However I do remember Daewoo, I don't think there many left on UK roads.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jae-woo

Re: Electric vehicle sales are booming in South America – without Tesla

#90

Post by LunicLynx »

lawn wrote: post #65
SilverElfin wrote: post #9

In Europe didn’t basically all brands take a hit? It was framed as Tesla falling behind but it’s more that Chinese EVs are so cheap, nothing can compete. Even within China the competition is insane, with over 100 car companies fighting to survive and giving out big discounts.

Volkswagen is doing very well in Europe.

Even reuters disagrees.

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/volksw...

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