Is it? At this point I’ve driven electric Audis and BMWs, VWs, Kia’s and also BYDs.
While the BYDs are certainly cars and are also relatively affordable compared to other options (of course it’s impossible to compare a BYD car to a BMW), it is not a very nice car in my experience.
Wether or not that is enough of a difference to sway consumer sentiment remains to be seen, but I don’t think it is as over as you make it out to be.
I also enjoy being comfortable while doing so. Meaning sitting nice, good climate control, no bad smells, good sound isolation, ... being able to use the trunk.
Also a "nice" car also drives nice. If I like driving a car, it means I can handle it better - which is critical in critical situations - to not get hurt.
You drive less than 30 kilometers every day so who gives a shit really?
what constitute "nice"? from all of the reviews i've seen, they're well built. The common misconception that chinese electronics products are made cheap and poorly is no longer true today (hasn't been true for the past decade).
I think the biggest advantage from cars not from china are, that they are not from china.
No Huawei risk. No dead car in a major escalation.
Cars have gotten too smart and too connected for me to feel safe with a direct control line to Peking. (I also don't feel safe with a control line to Musk's HQ)
The real problem is that legacy car makers’ EVs are all high-mid/luxury cars.
People just want a Honda Civic that takes them from point A to point B.
We could considered the Chinese cars as cheap, but we are than comparing the cost of a price-dumped car from China, to a slightly overpriced car from Germany.
The outlier here is considering a 10k€ car something normal. 10 years ago I would have argued yes, but after the inflation wave of the last few years, that is no longer a reality.
The problem for many consumers, and France is a good example of this, is that the salaries haven't followed. The second problem for France is that a large part of the population is stuck in minimum-wage or close to minimum-wage salaries, putting those goods out of reach as their prices increase with inflation. (Leaving the debate about whether the price increase is the cause or the consequence of inflation aside)
Only if these cars are only intended for the affluent. Then sure. It's totally the right place for them. But I thought the point of EVs was saving our environment. What's the point if only a small fraction of any given population can afford one?
The Renault Megane E Tech is a also a pretty cool vehicle hitting the same pricepoint (haven't driven that one yet tho). Citroen is also hitting very accessible pricepoints with their E3 starting at 23k MSRP
In addition to the spark EV, Fiat 500 EV, etc these are all no longer sold here. You might be able to pick one up used.
It's a repeat of the emergence of Japanese car manufacturers in the eighties. The same dynamics are at play here: the Chinese products are simply better and cheaper. And contrary to the popular believe that's not just subsidies. Those foreign factories in Turkey, Mexico, and elsewhere will be producing low cost vehicles. The cost difference is the competitive advantage Chinese companies now have. They might have gotten there via subsidies but now that they have this cost advantage, it's there to stay. To compete, other companies will have to address their cost issues and their R&D deficit. There's no way around it. Producing more costly vehicles is just going to continue to price them out of the market.
Delay tactics don't work. Tariffs don't work. Delaying investments, doesn't work either. That about sums up the current attitude of a lot of the legacy companies. Dragging their feet, reducing investments, and lobbying for tariffs to protect their businesses. To survive, they would need to reverse their strategy and shift all effort towards producing low cost EVs. There's plenty of demand. But not for overpriced products.
They’re also extremely slow to react, and can’t fathom that people don’t really want what they’ve been selling the last couple of decades, they just didn’t have an alternative. Now they do.
The loss of the USA as a market would would be harmful, but is it assumed that all western countries would follow?
BYD is already in Japan, but it's quite limited. China has shadow-banned Korean automaker Hyundai/Kia since 2017 (THAAD) and battery makers LG, Samsung, SK since 2016 -- not sure if China would be warmly received there.
south americans, the african continent, just to name a few.
> it's difficult to find infrastructure to support EVs.
sure, but it doesn't mean it won't get built. What if china goes all in, and do the belt-and-road initiative v2, and build out those countries' infrastructure (and conveniently eliminate the soft power that the US would have there, such as financial power)?
China has no real "defense" against financial power of the US (vis a vi sanctions), but they're surely doing something about it. And given the CCP's long term planning (for which they can, since they're authoritarian and don't need to cater for an election every few years), they can press for policies that play out long term.
EV infra and is a lot easier to realize than importing/refining oil. Electricity can be generated in a variety of ways and, oh, hey, China is exporting that also.
Or they build local.
eg:
Mitch McConnell, senior United States senator from Kentucky since 1985, the longest serving senator in his state's history. McConnell has been the leader of the Senate Republican Conference since 2007, including as majority leader from 2015 to 2021, making him the longest serving Senate party leader in U.S. history.
Even for POTUS it's a two term, under ten year total limit, doesn't have to be consectutive terms.
Until every WalMart, Target, 7-11, and government agency have charging stations on 1/3 of their parking lot, public EV vehicles are a pipe dream.
Detroit is, sadly, calling this 100% correctly. There is no point in doing heavy public EV rollouts until there is a demonstrated political will to roll out the charging infrastructure.
For example, Musk pledged his commitment to China's core socialist values: https://www.mediaite.com/news/elon-musk-signs-letter-pledgin...
Musk advocates for Taiwan's submission to China: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/oct/08/elon-musk...
Musk decried California's covid measures as "fascist": https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/29/21242102/elon-musk-corona...
But praised China because "Shanghai's COVID-19 measures helped lay the foundation for the city's future development" even though they were stricter than California's: https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/tesla-...
And there's also what he doesn't do.
Musk is very keen on criticizing the US and other governments. But can you find for me a single criticism of the Chinese government from Musk? I'd like to see one.
There's no point trying to be a mind reader. It doesn't matter what he claims to care about. What matters is what he does.
They don't have to, they choose to. Oligarchs usually submit to authoritarians because profit comes before principle. They get their short term gain and others will have to pay the long term cost.
Tesla was importing CATL's LFP prior to the tariff, but recently dropped it altogether after the tariff became effective.
when a push comes to a shove, the goal of electrification of cars can be merely postponed. climate change is a far-off future problem, where as geopolitical rivalry and such are close-by problems.