Hacker News Reader

Comment by thelastgallon | Hacker News Reader

[flagged]

I would say it is more likely to do with the fact that:

* BYD is new in Japan (since 2023) compared to other automakers which have built up trust over many decades.

* There are only 55 BYD dealerships in Japan vs 5,000 Toyota dealerships, 2,200 Nissan dealerships, 2,200 Honda dealerships, 1,500 Suzuki dealerships, etc.

* BYD offers a limited range of models in Japan - 6 in total. No minivan, for example, where minivans make up 6 of the 10 best selling (non-kei) car models in Japan

* Japan is very slow to adopt EVs in general. Charging infrastructure is poor

* BYD EVs and PHEVs qualify for a much smaller CEV rebate [1] than Japanese models, Teslas, etc. This eats away at much of the cost benefits

* BYD only just introduced their first kei model to Japan last month. It has been well reviewed, but even BYD isn’t expecting to sell a ton of them in their first year, let alone first month, due to the aforementioned circumstances.

Or we could just say it’s because Japanese are racist and won’t buy Chinese things - despite the fact that 22% of all Japan’s imports currently come from China. Because that feels correct, I guess?

To be clear I do recognize that are tensions between Japan and China. And there are plenty of Japanese people who would prefer to buy Japanese-made goods, or prefer to avoid Chinese-made goods (to the extent that's even possible). But there are plenty of Americans, Europeans, etc who feel similarly - and they aren't typically called racist for having the same preferences. There are valid reasons like wanting to support domestic businesses, or not relying on geopolitical rivals for manufacturing, that have nothing to do with racism. Canadians are boycotting US goods right now, for example. Is that because Canadians are especially racist?

And Japanese consumers are just as price sensitive as anyone else. As the end of the day, if they can get more car for less money buying Chinese cars (and if the cars and sales and support process can be sufficiently tailored to Japanese preferences), then Chinese automakers can be successful in Japan.

[1] https://www.cev-pc.or.jp/hojo/pdf/R7ho/R7ho_meigaragotojouge...

Thanks for the correct explanation with details!

Isn’t saying Japanese are known to be racists a bit racist?

Japanese atrocities during WW2 are documented. The comment was about Chinese vehicle sales in Japan. But Chinese vehicles are selling like gangbusters everywhere else. It is important to understand the context. There is animosity between these countries going back quite some time.

Do you think South Koreans would buy a North Korean made car, even if were better? Would Israeli's buy a car made by Iran? Would Indians buy a Pakistani made car?

Also, Japan's #1 export is automobiles. They have the future of their country tied to the automobile industry which is dying (China overtakes Japan in auto exports with boost from EVs :https://asia.nikkei.com/business/automobiles/china-overtakes...). Japanese wouldn't be super interested in buying Chinese cars and destroying their domestic market as well.

How the massacre still haunts China-Japan relations: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp89ed9j5ygo

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanjing_Massacre

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Japanese_war_crimes_i...

Saying an entire nation is racist and that there are political tensions between countries are very different things.

btw: if your theory was true the entire EU shouldn’t exist.

> Do you think South Koreans would buy a North Korean made car, even if were better?

This is pure fantasy. South Koreans are not buying Japanese cars due to national pride and trade tensions. They prefer domestic cars or European luxury brands (Mercedes Benz, BMW). By the same metric, Japanese are not buying Chinese made cars. Their market share is under 1% total and under 10% for EVs.

When you're pointed out that BYD products aren't competitive and you were immediately pulling the Nanjing Massacre card on that one...

So you're realizing that Toyota is more like, Google or Microsoft, and Nokia is more like Ford or Kia, aren't you.

Money is money mate -- plenty of Toyotas in China. It's the politicians stopping it with taxes and tariffs. Everyone has a price, how much is history worth at a 5k discount? 10k?

Americans didn’t mind buying German and Japanese cars pretty soon after the war.

But they had won the war.

Not familiar with the gaijin concept?

IMO: every countries and localities have the concept of "but where are you FROM", to varying degrees. People just don't expect Japan to be a big enough place that could have such a thing, thinking it's like a tiny dying village at the end of a small branch near the tail end of road to Rome, distracted by its Westernized facades and microscopic presence in the world. It doesn't register as a nation with population size of France and Germany combined. So there's often a bit of divergence between perception and reality coming from there.

freetime2 has a better explanation (sibling comment): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49841283

Reply on news.ycombinator.com