this post was submitted on 05 Apr 2024
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Electric Vehicles
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It's not impossible to understand. It's currently impossible to mimic.
BYD has vertical integration unlike any other manufacturer. Because BYD has been fostered by the Chinese government to first ensure dominance in their domestic market. And now disruption in foreign markets.
China would not allow or subsidize every stage from raw material mining through vehicle assembly for say GM. They have and will for BYD because it was created to undercut all the existing manufacturers.
I know. But the incumbents have been putting off the transition to EVs for decades in the name of short term profits and now they're caught with their pants down. If they had seriously invested ten years ago, they'd be much further along.
BYD owns mining rights no foreign maker would have been able to invest in per Chinese regulations. The Chinese government sold them Xian Qinchuan for a faction of it's value. A state owned car manufacturer that was in really poor shape that the party wanted to offload. BYD then shamelessly copied the Toyota Corolla to make the company relevant again. Faced no legal consequences for doing so because China doesn't care about IP law. There have been credible reports of BYD using slave labor throughout their operation.
So no. GM or BMW or someone should have just invested more wouldn't have achieved the same results. Tesla is the only one that kinda comes close. And even they can't match BYD costs per vehicle because Elon isn't using slave labor just yet. Wouldn't put him past trying in the future to match BYD.
@Zipitydew the Chinese government wanted it to happen and invested. They take the long view. Most companies in china appear to be government entities of some sort. BYD is sort of a black swan in as much as the Chinese government wanted to be the market leader and is prepared to disrupt the traditional players. Tariffs probably won’t work as China will market to the rest of the world. What may help is incentives to modernise and produce cost effective vehicles. Non Chinese car manufacturers really stuck their heads in the sand for at least 10-20 years and are now paying the price.
The last time I saw this much angst was during the oil shock of the 1970s where US gas guzzlers were unsellable due to the high fuel costs. Japanese cars were the target then as they were relatively fuel efficient.
BTW, Chinese labour costs seem to be increasing so maybe the days of people working for a pittance aren’t as relevant as they used to be.