this post was submitted on 25 Apr 2025
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[โ€“] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Did this not happen before? Or was it just a few countries I remember reading about? I don't see how BYD won't surpass both in the next 10 years with the way investment has gone for China vs VW.

[โ€“] wewbull@feddit.uk 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I think there a big brand trust gap with the Chinese brands that will take a while to close.

[โ€“] huppakee@lemm.ee 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

There is also a big price gap, that gives people a big reason to care less about trust.

[โ€“] wewbull@feddit.uk 9 points 1 day ago (2 children)

According to What Car the price you can expect to pay in the UK is...

[โ€“] luisgutz@feddit.uk 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

BYD sell the dolphin for about 10k in China. So they could lower the price a lot more, and the current price reflects more strategy and marketing than production and import duties

[โ€“] wewbull@feddit.uk 2 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

They can't because a lot of that difference is down to import duties

[โ€“] luisgutz@feddit.uk 1 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Mhhh, I can't find what the actual import duties are. The closest I found was this article https://www.whatcar.com/news/chinese-car-tariffs-will-not-go-ahead-uk-government-confirms/n27198 that suggest there is none (unlike in the EU, where the rate is 35%).

[โ€“] wewbull@feddit.uk 1 points 9 hours ago

Honestly, I knew there were European ones and assumed the UK had the same.

[โ€“] huppakee@lemm.ee 1 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Glad for UK then, but this price is artificial in the sense that the UK gov asks for import duties etc to be sure BYD doesn't under cut European brands. If BYD manage to sell more dolphins than VW sells ID3's, than BYD is building a better car or has better marketing; that's good.

[โ€“] wewbull@feddit.uk 2 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

If BYD manage to sell more dolphins than VW sells ID3's, than BYD...

My point is I don't think they're going to get very far.

UK & EU place tariffs on Chinese cars to level the economic playing field between European and Chinese brands (a responsible use of tariffs in my eyes). So the economic incentive isn't there to choose BYD. Now it will come down to brand trust and car quality.

Even with dieselgate VW never lost it's image of building high quality cars.

[โ€“] huppakee@lemm.ee 1 points 19 hours ago

We'll see how this plays out, they both are sure trying to sell their cars.

[โ€“] PonyOfWar@pawb.social 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The original cheap price is just as artificial though, as the Chinese government puts massive subsidies into its EV industry.

[โ€“] huppakee@lemm.ee 1 points 1 day ago

That's true, I'm not saying it's unfair to artificially up the price with import duties, just wanted to point out price is also an important factor in people's decisions.

[โ€“] PonyOfWar@pawb.social 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

VW will always have the advantage of being from Europe. Tesla's decline has shown how much politics can influence people's purchase decisions. I know many people wouldn't consider buying a Chinese car, myself included, even while acknowledging that they're pretty good from a technical perspective.

[โ€“] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 day ago (2 children)

So what's your reason for not buying one? In the U.S. I'm told because they'll all explode on command, or maybe that's just what my mother born in 61 thinks. I don't think she understands how money making works

[โ€“] PonyOfWar@pawb.social 10 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I'd like to buy from democratic countries if possible, especially with such a large purchase. Not a huge fan of my money funding China's regime.

As for exploding on command, that's highly unlikely. Although it wouldn't be outside the realm of possibility for China to push a little OTA update that just turns all the cars off if we ever went to war against China.

[โ€“] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

China doesn't allow firmware/software on their in country products. It's all reviewed by them. No reason why the EU, country or etc wouldn't review the same. No software/firmware update gets pulled without approval on the countries/ISP approval

[โ€“] PonyOfWar@pawb.social 6 points 1 day ago

Of course it wouldn't arrive via an official approved update channel, but a backdoor. Easy to implement and hide when you write the software. Even VW put manipulated software in their cars before to fake lower emissions. Regulators didn't notice for a decade. That's even though it was being actively used, unlike a killswitch that would lie dormant until it's too late.

[โ€“] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 day ago

Have people not learned a lesson from what happened since the 80s? The middle class disappeared in big part because manufacturing jobs were sent to Asia. Want to see US and European carmakers close their doors as well to add more shit to the shit pile the neo liberals built?

[โ€“] its_freg@feddit.org 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Byd dealerships are just starting to pop out of the ground. They are not in full swing in Germany, yet. Will be interesting when they fully ramp up their sales.

[โ€“] huppakee@lemm.ee 3 points 1 day ago

In The Netherlands too, they run big billboard ads and tv commercial like all established companies do.

[โ€“] Eat_Your_Paisley@lemm.ee 1 points 1 day ago

Cars are a funny thing, they tend not to be logical purchases