BYD overtook Tesla as the world’s top seller of electric vehicles (EV) at the end of last year, crowning an extraordinary rise for the Chinese carmaker.
It delivered more fully electric cars than Tesla for the first time in the three-month period to December 31, and slashed the sales lead held by Elon Musk’s company over the year as a whole.
So how did a little-known Chinese battery maker grow so quickly to become Tesla’s biggest rival?
I know their cars will likely never be sold in the U.S., so I’ll probably never have the opportunity to sit in one, let alone buy one.
I would almost guarantee they will be sold in the USA at some point in the future.
- in 1957 the first Japanese car was sold in the USA, and now Toyota is a household name
- in 1986 the first Korean car was sold in the USA, and now Hyundai is a household name
- in 2023 the first Vietnamese car was sold in the USA, though you may not have heard of Vinfast yet.
The scale of production, and the ever increasing prices of cars in the USA continuously gives way to a lower cost import.
Sure but after WWII, we became close allies with Japan. We have been close allies with South Korea since the Korean War. And after Vietnam we have become relatively close with Vietnam.
China is a direct political and economic enemy to the United States. We won’t see a Chinese car brand in the US for at least several decades.
From what I understand, it’s safety regulations in the US preventing it. However, regulations in the EU are more likely to be able to see the BYD cars imported.
So, the US government is at a stagnant stand-still where they can’t get anything done and it’s been that way for about a decade now. Further, Republicans screech bloody murder about anything related to China. They wanted to ban Tik Tok but American companies stealing data is totally fine. US government putting backdoors into electronics is fine, it’s just bad when China does it. It’s not like the NSA has an entire wing dedicated to intercepting packages and inserting physical taps before the electronics even make it to customers doorsteps.
The point being, don’t expect US regulations to get worked on positively for allowing these kind of imports any time in the near future. US government is fucking broken and some folks in politics want it to be that way, because it gives one party carte blanche to sell the idea of authoritarianism as a solution.
I mean, good. Fuck Tesla’s overpriced bullshit approach.
In Europe Teslas are actually cheaper than any equivalent electric car. Still wouldn’t want to be seen driving one
