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Comment by tromp | Hacker News Reader

> BYD, China’s biggest EV maker, famously sells the Seagull hatchback for under $10,000 domestically. It costs around $26,000 in Europe, where it recently debuted.

BYD started a price war in China by selling these cars near or even below cost. Then why do they cost 160% more in Europe?

BYD does pay a 27% tariff on BEVs it sells in the EU, and EU prices are usually inclusive of sales tax of 20% or so and there's the cost of compliance and shipping the cars to EU, but that doesn't explain even half of the difference?!

If they can make more profit from a car sold in the EU, doesn't it make more sense to grab more market share there?

I'm personally quite enamored by the Xpeng MONA M03 (with aerodynamics superior to a Lucid Air Pure), which costs about $18K in China. I hope they can sell them in EU with less than a 100% markup...

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They already face accusations of dumping from selling cheaper. Going to price war levels abroad would be a bad move, even if it could boost market share in their favor it would draw way too much aggro to use MMO terms.

The EU market is a lucrative one but one where they need to proceed with caution in due to politics and consumer optics.

> It costs around $26,000 in Europe, where it recently debuted.

I wonder how it compares to the Nissan Leaf. The 2025 models are heavily discounted right now in the U.S., where you can get the S Trim (40 kWh battery) for around $19,000, and the SV+ (60 kWh) for ~$24,000.

There are two reasons:

1. The Seagull sold in Europe is not the same as the Seagull sold in China.

2. The EV market is much less competitive in the EU than in China. BYD can sell its cars at a much higher price in the EU, so it does.

Point 2 undermines the EU's claims about Chinese dumping. If Chinese companies were dumping EVs in Europe, they would be charging a lower price in Europe, not a higher price.

Could be also non existent service network which must be build by BYD from scratch + people there paid. Lot of Chinese manufacturers in the past spawned in Europe, sold cars for a year and then disappeared.

I believe this is due to fact that Chinese manufacturers in general are completely ignoring (or trying and failing) aftermarket - spare parts availability, translated manuals, software updates, diagnostic tools. Using a throwaway phone for 150EUR is acceptable to people in general. Idea of using a throwaway car for 25000EUR is not going to fly.

Because the EU asked BYD to raise its minimum selling price. Maybe you should ask the EU to be nicer to its own people.

Is your question why BYD started a price war there and not here?

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