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Comment by Hamuko | Hacker News Reader

Volkswagen Golf starts at 32 706 € here. BYD Dolphin Surf, the cheapest car BYD offers, starts at 24 590 €.

You know the old joke - I don't have to outrun the bear, need to outrun you. China's companies goal is to keep their cars 10% cheaper than the locals.

BYD still has some work left to do then since the Volkswagen ID.Polo is 26 390 €. The ID.Polo is also considerably prettier than the Dolphin Surf, so it probably needs a bigger price cut to get customers.

Insane to think those are reasonable prices.

10 years ago, a new Renault Clio had a starting price under 14 000 €.

The Dolphin sells for about €6700-€8900 ($7500-$10.000) in China.

They see how the EU allows EU car companies to gouge their citizens and figured "eh, might as well join in on it. Pure profit."

Cars sold in China have 13% VAT. Cars sold in Germany have 19% VAT. Cars sold in the Nordics have ≥25% VAT. Even ignoring shipping, tariffs, local salaries, non-VAT car taxes, etc., there’s no way to price a car the same in China as in EU.

And further down the rung, the electric Twingo, Panda and such go toe for toe with the cheaper Chinese EVs.

You just have to wait 2 years to get an ID.Polo :P

oh I didn't know about the ID.Polo, i was looking into the ID.3 neo life

Meh, there is already a flood of used Tesla Model 3s that are cheaper with not that many miles and you are getting a Tesla.

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