BYD is more affordable than Tesla in at least 10 places outside the West.
- In each of the 10 markets where both Tesla and the Chinese carmaker BYD list prices online, BYD’s lowest-cost option is cheaper than that of Tesla.
- While Tesla focuses its sales in North America and Europe, BYD is expanding in Latin America and Southeast Asia.
I’m a fan of BYDs though, I just wish they were cheaper in the UK. Britain is not subject to the EU import tarrifs but the Atto 3 for example is around almost twice the price of the same Australian model.
I understand we’re further away from China than Australia is but then they do have their own ships now. Anyone know why?
Its not just a matter of shipping. You need dealerships and licensing and the like. England is notorious for its long line of middlemen who make everything more expensive. So no surprise BYD can’t get a competitive vehicle into a state that hates foreign competition and loves rent-seeking at every turn.
“we looked at the prices between the two lowest-priced cars on ten different websites. Here’s a whole article about doing that.”
Germany and France are car makers, so:
The charges come on top of the existing 10% levy on cars imported into the EU, meaning Chinese-made EVs face total tariffs of up to 48%.
also, strangely:
Tesla has filed a complaint against the European Commission after the imposition of tariffs by the bloc on its Chinese-made electric vehicles.
Yes they were afraid of reciprocal tariffs from china, but also many Tesla’s sold in Europe are actually made in Shanghai, the Berlin factory only makes high end model Y’s.
All of the German car makers were actually opposed to the import taxes on Chinese EVs, as was Germany as a whole. But it got passed on the EU level anyway.
i’m guessing that your sources would all be in German?
I remember reading about it in german media, but you can easily check the votes in the EU gparliament, as they are public. Specifically there’s a nice list of how they voted on that particular issue here (english/reuters). Germany voted “against”.
Like @barsoap@lemm.ee wrote, the (german) articles mentions fears of “retribution” taxes by the chinese. And when these tarifs were announced/planned, china did immediately say they’d react accordingly (so it’s no an unfounded fear). Another earlier article also mentions “expert opinions” that question benefit for the german car makers due to their large export volume to china (and at least some of them having plants in china making their vehicles, too).
Now a very recent article from last week notes that the profit of VW-Group has dropped around 31% over last year, and a large part of that is coming from lower sales (and more competition) in China, as well as general restructuring costs. But I have absolutely no idea if the “reverse tariffs” are actually already in place by China, or just planned, or if they reverted their stance. It might also be that they just made independently bad decisions and this is just a consequence of that…
Edit: corrected some nonsense, oops.
I have no idea but this article includes a section. German manufacturers feared a tariff war and aren’t as exposed to Chinese competition in the first place as unlike e.g. the French German companies aren’t competing as much on the low-budget market.
Tesla has more features than BYD BUT you have to pay extra to activate them. So buying a Tesla means you pay for features you can’t use without additional payment.
With BYD, you get all the features available when you buy the car.
Seems like an obvious reason to buy BYD even if Musky didn’t go Nazi.
All features working right out of the box is a very advanced technology, leap years ahead of tesla swaticar.
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The BYD taxis in China are making me want an electric car more so, but I can’t financially justify letting go of a working ICE car.
Same situation. My vehicles close to 20 years old each with zero issues. But when one goes i def want a BYD
Good, fuck Leon
Never thought I’d root against an American company but here we are…
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That’s the way it’s been for decades, if the US is doing something, there’s any other country doing it better
This says nothing about how they undercut Tesla (and every other non-Chinese automaker) but I’ll tell you:
- slave labor
- massive government subsidies
Tesla too has
- massive government subsidies
Not nearly as massive
Source on slave labor at BYD?
BYD construction site in Brazil shut over ‘slavery-like’ conditions : https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/dec/24/byd-car-factory-construction-site-brazil-shut-chinese-nationals
There were accusations and reports for their factory in Brazil (source: BBC, as well as many others at the same time). I personally didn’t look much further into it and haven’t tried following the story since, but I would research if I was looking to buy a car.
Edit: Note I’m also not the op of the comment.
BYD is Chinese. Very common there.
They have opinions, never sources
The poster above you provided a link.BYD contracted a Chinese construction firm to build a factory in Brazil that the Brazilian labor authorities shuttered over the slave like working conditions.
