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> In 2009 the car sold in 96 units, and only seven cars were sold in the full 2010 fiscal year. Production has now ceased. In all, the car sold in only 103 units

This is like saying we should ignore Tesla because the only car they sold in 2009 was a rip-off Lotus.

Speaking as an American, I'd love to see what the presence of low-end (say, $10k range) autos would do to traffic laws and city planning.

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> This is like saying we should ignore Tesla because the only car they sold in 2009 was a rip-off Lotus.

No it's not like saying that. Lotus had a deal with Tesla.

https://www.tesla.com/blog/lotus-position

That’s right, I didn’t mean to imply theft of any kind. I’m mostly pointing out that both companies sort of outsourced the body design (BYD in a more questionable way) as they figured out how to grow. Both companies were quite small production-wise in 2009 and are very different today.

BYD also had a deal with Mercedes, for a brand called Denza, in the following year.

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