Posted on 02/02/2024 5:25:18 PM PST by cba123
A decade ago, Elon Musk laughed off the threat posed by Chinese electric carmaker BYD. He's not laughing now.
The Tesla CEO warned investors in a recent earnings call that Chinese EV firms will "demolish" their Western rivals if trade barriers aren't put in place to limit their expansion, after BYD finally overtook Tesla as the world's top seller of electric cars.
"The Chinese car companies are the most competitive car companies in the world," Musk told investors during Tesla's Q4 earnings call.
"If there are no trade barriers established, they will pretty much demolish most other car companies in the world," he added.
Chinese EVs are already subject to a 25% tariff in the US, which has largely kept them out of the US market.
But lawmakers have called on the Biden administration to hike those tariffs even further, and revisit trade rules with Mexico to prevent Chinese companies from using the US' southern neighbor as a "backdoor" into the American market.
(More at the link)
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.nl ...
Best selling vehicle in the world was the Tesla model Y. It looks like an egg. Tesla sold 600,000+ of them in China last year, manufactured in China.
The article says the best selling EV car maker is BYD. If true, it’s probably mostly the Chinese domestic market that puts them over the top. They make many models and have hybrids as well as pure electrics. They are also the best selling EV car in Brazil, though it is a modest number overall. They are in Europe. They are building a factory in Hungary. They aren’t in the US yet. They are cllearly gaining momentum and experience from the Chinese domestic market. Thus the warning from Musk.
BYD is backed by Warren Buffet, fwiw.
“...they will pretty much demolish most other car companies in the world...”
I have no problem with destroying the EV-crap market. I’ll be driving my ICE, happily.
Well I see there is a correlation between Jato and results.
The thing is the yearly totals Jato has, seem to be high.
One million to 1.3 million. With lots of countries represented in the total.
What totals are your numbers showing for the year?
Maybe the countries included are not the same.
Yes, sort of disappointing, that Buffet was so involved in BYD.
He decreased his ownership percentage regularly, but he definitely was/is on the wrong team, on this one. In my humble opinion.
He did well however.
No question.
That could be true if there were enough people that actually wanted an EV.
Well BYD didn’t build them so probably not. Those are Proterra busses.
Like Musk, Sandy Munro has a very high opinion of BYD engineering and build quality. He shares his expertise o. Youtube.
BYD has a plant near Los Angeles. Commercial vehicles rather than cars.
90% of everything you buy is poorly designed and built. Designed to sell and throw away. People still buy the junk, and no doubt they would buy a Chinese car that will be 1/3 price. The Chinese will be assembling cars in abandoned big three plants within 10 years
The Albuquerque ones were BYD.
I thought that I read recently that Buffet had sold his BYD shares many months ago and here you go from October
“”Berkshire Hathaway sells $25.8 million worth of shares in China’s BYD. Berkshire Hathaway, the investment company owned by Warren Buffett, has sold 820,500 Hong Kong-listed shares of electric vehicle maker BYD Co for HK$201.73 million ($25.78 million)””
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/berkshire-hathaway-sells-25-8-091804402.html
BYD now accounts for a large volume of new car sales in Russia and from what I have seen and read the Russians are not very happy with the quality or service, but who knows?
And Proterra is now bankrupt...... a few hundred million in guaranteed loans from Uncle Sugar down the drain.
“The Albuquerque ones were BYD.”
Apparently ABQ first purchased EV busses from BYD, and when those failed to work they bought others from Proterra. Which also didn’t work.
ABQ sued BYD and BYD agreed that ABQ owed them nothing.
https://www.krqe.com/news/albuquerque-and-former-art-electric-bus-company-reach-settlement/
Proterra delivered 5 busses before going bankrupt.
https://news.yahoo.com/company-manufactures-citys-electric-buses-030200334.html
BYD’s bus plant is probably the one just north of Los Angeles in Lancaster CA.
“And Proterra is now bankrupt...”
I had a few shares of Proterra but sold them the first time that a city reported having trouble with them. The frames weren’t steel. Some kind of composite that failed under load.
Sandy Munro gives BYD cars high marks for quality. Charlie Munger talked Warren Buffet into investing in them, although they have sold it. That may be more of a China problem than a BYD problem.
Seems to me it all boils down to installed battery quality and reliability, the charging system and whether the company is big enough to weather some HUGE liability lawsuit.
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