China's BYD nears deal to supply London's electric double decker buses

cityam.com

12 points·ironyman··3 comments

BYD seems to in London from 2015

[2015] There is no capital cost for London's first five pure-electric double deck buses on route 98 as these are being introduced as part of a lease agreement with the manufacturer BYD.

https://www.london.gov.uk/who-we-are/what-london-assembly-do...

'Speaking to the Sunday Times, former conservative party leader Sir Ian Duncan Smith, said: "We’ve yet again gone to China to build buses. What is the matter with our domestic production? These are iconic, British London buses. Why is it that we simply do not look for a contractor based, if not in the UK, then certainly in Europe."'

I'm not sure if he's being deliberately disingenuous with that question, but if each bus is £100,000 cheaper then they're saving £10m when buying 100 of them. Of course there are other considerations here, but that's why.

I think it is rhetorical question, more to the point of domestic production itself.

Consider that manufacture something in a foreign country, transport it 21,000 km by sea and it is still cheaper than doing it in-house. This may sound awesome.

But digging deeper, a nation that favors import before domestic production, drawn to its extremes, can put itself at economic and geopolitical risk.

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