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Comment by Gualdrapo | Hacker News Reader

It was announced a few days ago some models of Tesla are coming to Colombia at cheaper prices than BYD and the like and people here seems to be crazy about Tesla now. Time will tell how reliable they are on our poor roads.

And that's one thing about EVs here in general - they are coming with no spare tire but a flat tire repair kit, which it's fine for small issues but may not be enough for the problems said tough roads can give to your tires.

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I'm in Medellin Colombia, and frequently see BYD cars on the road. I recently had an Uber which drove a BYD car - I was seriously impressed. For those who don't know, Medellin is extremely hilly, and somewhat of a mountainous bowl. I live pretty high up, and can feel the gasoline-powered taxis seriously strain & struggle. Meanwhile, in the BYD electric vehicle, it ascended the hill so easily. Truly felt effortless.

Recently saw a Tesla setup in the mall - so it does seem like they are kicking off a marketing campaign.

> And that's one thing about EVs here in general - they are coming with no spare tire but a flat tire repair kit

That seems to be the standard for all new cars, both ICE and EV; sometimes a spare is available as a paid option.

Which seems insane. But it is what it is.

Yep. My Lightning is the first vehicle I've had with a spare in a number of years. Even donut spares are getting much less common, not just on EVs.

> It was announced a few days ago some models of Tesla are coming to Colombia at cheaper prices than BYD

How could that be?

At least Renault's low cost models (like the Dacia Spring, sold as Kwid in Latin America) are sold for cheap in various markets, and are competitive to BYD pricing in the EU and Latin America (enough that they're seeing serious growth there). Tesla doesn't have anything close, price wise, so how could they be competing on price with BYD?

Colombians are asking that question too. My guess is that Tesla is selling them at a loss to compete against BYD. They may be sending unsold inventory from the US/Mexico market as well.

Does that mean there's an arbitrage to be made by re-importing them?

Wouldn't import tax make that nonviable?

They're made in the USA.

Do you not pay to reimport the (e.g.) Colombian market cars back into the USA?

Are they? Pretty sure they are coming from China.

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