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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: October 19th, 2023

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  • Why is it so expensive in Germany? In the US the ID.4 tops out around 55k USD for fully loaded AWD Pro S Plus, and I’d say the refresh will only add 1000-2000 to the list price at most. The version to get in my opinion is a well equipped RWD which would be just under 50k USD here in the states. With some light haggling with the dealer and taking the 7500 lease EV credit which VWoA passes along to the customer, you could get it for a net price of just under 40k which is fairly competitive.





  • Article is mix and matching different stats from different trims of the RD6. The base mode has a single 200 kW rear motor, and only 410 km of CLTC (not even WLTP) range from its relatively small 63 kWh LFP pack. That’s probably the one that weighs 1660 kg. It is ridiculously cheap though, at least in China, for the equivalent of just 21k USD.

    Higher trim models with dual motors and the largest 100 kWh battery pack will obviously be much heavier and more expensive, although even maxed out it is still at 40k USD in the Chinese market, which isn’t bad. If it was available in the US, I’d instantly buy a mid trim big battery RWD model.




  • Model 3 starting price in China: 35.8k USD

    Direct BYD competitors to the Model 3 in China: Seal 27.5k USD, Han BEV 30.4k USD

    Model Y price in China: 36.5k to 49.9k USD

    Direct BYD competitors to the Model Y in China: Sea Lion 07 27.8k USD, Song L 30.7k USD, Denza N7 40k USD

    Indirect BYD competitors to the Model Y in China: Frigate PHEV 29k USD, Tang BEV 34.3k USD, FCB Bao 5 EREV SUV 39.8k USD, Denza N8 PHEV 44.6k USD

    Model S and X sales in China are miniscule so it is pointless to make comparisons for those models, but BYD already has started to sell the U8 luxury SUV, which is more expensive than any Tesla on the market, and also sells the Denza D9 luxury MPV, which starts at 57.5k USD for the BEV version. Presumably sometimes in the next 12 months FCB and Denza will also be releasing new models that will compete with the Model Y and Model S, respectively.

    And these are just the direct Model 3/Y competitors from BYD. You can make a similar (if smaller) list for a dozen other Chinese automakers who also offer direct competitors to the 3 and Y in the Chinese market, which is why Tesla’s EV market share in China hovers around 10%.

    Luckily for Tesla, it’s home US market will be largely insulated against Chinese competition, and it also has a head start exporting cars to many western/developing markets, but BYD et al are starting to export too in earnest starting from last year, so there will be competition to the 3 and Y coming to many parts of the world shortly.



  • So Tesla separately designs and builds a less safe Model 3 and Y for the Chinese market? And VW separately designs and builds a less safe ID3/4/6/7 for the Chinese market? And Kia separately designs and builds a less safe EV5 for the Chinese market? And Toyota separately designs and builds a less safe bZ4X for the Chinese market… and so on and so forth? Because ALL of those models cost significantly less in the Chinese market compared to western markets.

    The same BYD factory pumps out a bunch of Seals which start at the equivalent of $27k USD for the ones sold in China, $32k USD for the ones sold in Australia, $36k USD for the ones sold in Thailand, and $48k USD for the ones sold in Germany, which means the Chinese Seals are the least safe, Australian Seals are slightly more safe, but not as safe as the Thailand Seals, and only the German bound Seals get all the safety features?



  • You should care because the US market is only a small slice of the global car market. Even on ICE sales, GM and Ford global sales have been trending downwards for a good decade or more now. And with the scale and head start BYD is building in the EV field, it can render GM and Ford into second tier regional automakers without selling a single car in the US.

    BYD’s new Brazil factory used to be a Ford factory, for instance, and BYD if starting to expand production elsewhere in the world such as Thailand and Hungary while GM and Ford keeps shutting plants left and right. Australia used to be dominated by Ford and GM but then first the Japanese, then the Koreans, and now GWM and BYD are coming in and taking over that market.

    This is happening all over the world and at this rate pretty soon GM and Ford may be relegated to just selling their cars in US and Canada.