Hacker News Reader

Comment by wordofx | Hacker News Reader

This is not true at all. Quality of cars in China is abysmal compared to what they ship to EU/AU/NZ. If you try driving a BYD in China vs say Australia. It’s like 2 completely different cars. What they ship internationally meets standards. But in China they don’t live up to those and standards.

View on HN

So you are saying that they adapt to the local market but are perfectly capable of selling perfectly good vehicles abroad when they want to? This doesn't match what I know of the market. It also doesn't make much sense. Basically most of the BYD market is China but it's a hyper competitive market where there's a price war going on. I'd say there's very little room for chronic under performers in that market. As there are literally dozens of companies eager to step up and do better. From what I've seen if you want to get a glimpse of the future of road transport, you need to go to China.

I don't know if the claim itself is correct, but I am confused why you say it "doesn't make much sense"?

Surely the Chinese market being hyper competitive and in a price war would imply bosses selling to this market needing to cut costs even when doing so comes with the consequence of reduced long-term quality?

That's not my experience, I was in China, drove the cars and also tried them in the EU.

Donno about your experience but mine was in China the BYD I drove looked fancier and had more features but the build quality wasn’t there. It felt cheaply put together. It didn’t feel like there was weight to the car. If I hit something would I survive? There was no weight to the door. Things felt loose. In Australia my friends BYD is great. Feels safe. Feels solid. Drive smoothly. Makes me want to replace my Toyota with one.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com