Elon Musk’s Chinese rival toppled Tesla – now it’s coming for Britain
By Paul Homewood
Bye bye, UK motor industry!
BYD’s rising popularity raises fresh fears over China’s carmaking dominance
Mayfair’s Berkeley Street is a mecca for luxury car gazers, dotted with showrooms displaying Ferraris, Bentleys and McLarens behind giant windows. Halfway down, across the road from the Rolls Royce boutique, sits a lesser-known name.
Last year the Chinese car company BYD opened its own glitzy showroom on the site formerly occupied by Jaguar Land Rover.
BYD’s cars cost a fraction of the others on Berkeley Street, but its presence among the world’s most desirable vehicles sends a message: it believes it can compete.
This week, it had the proof. BYD revealed that it had sold 526,409 electric vehicles in the last three months of 2023, overtaking Tesla and ending the Elon Musk-run company’s eight-year reign as the world’s best-selling electric vehicle manufacturer.
It was a milestone moment. After BYD surpassed Tesla, clips circulated online of a 2011 interview in which Musk mocked the Chinese company, chuckling dismissively when asked if they could compete (Tesla’s chief has now acknowledged them as a serious rival).
But as far as BYD’s billionaire founder Wang Chuanfu is concerned, it is just the start. The company, China’s dominant carmaker, is now plotting to take on the rest of the world, seeking to become one of only a handful of Chinese consumer companies to become a recognised global leader.
In August, Wang said the company would help “demolish the old [Western] legends and achieve new, world-class brands”. Its aggressively priced electric vehicles are gradually appearing on British and European streets.
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NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
Judging by the number to be seen all over social media carrying out suicide by self-immolation, BYD are an ev market leader in more ways than one. At least Tesla have some verifiable quality control in place.
Quality control reliable??
These days, very reliable.
Just look at all the Chinese electronics out in the world.
The BYD Seal is an excellent car and the BYD Seagull looks like it will be a good value entry level EV. Tesla and the Koreans can compete but the Germans are in trouble.
There’s no such thing as a good value EV. What’s the second-hand value of a cheap Chinese battery that’s been charged hundreds of times because its range is limited?
BYD are world leaders in battery manufacture and the car batteries come with an 8 year 125,000 warranty. A credible and serious threat to European car manufacturers.
OK, we get it. You love Chinese BYD.
I can’t wait for the BYD Shitehawk to be released. It will, no doubt, be a wonder.
Let’s be in no doubt, the Chinese can produce some very good products, now. It isn’t sensible to poo-poo their products just because they come ftom China, any more than in the 1950s when Japanese goods were rubbished. Until someone noticed that everyone couldn’t buy Japanese cameras, motorbikes etc. fast enough.
Me, I will stick with Japanese or German cars. Preferably diesels.
Where did I say I love BYD?
I am simply recognising the reality of the threat to European manufacturing which is the main point of the article.
Artyjoke
You want to know “where did I say I love BYD?”
Well, you’ve now popped up here three times commenting on BYD, your first comment being:-
“The BYD Seal is an excellent car and the BYD Seagull looks like it will be a good value entry level EV.”
OK, maybe you don’t “love” them but you certainly don’t feel negatively about them, or you have an very odd way of expressing yourself.
I feel confident that, if you are a sufficiently idiotic virtue-signaller who cares not a fig about the Congolese child slaves, the danger to other road and carpark users, the need for a huge increase in electricity generation and in upgrading cabling across the country, the destruction of Western manufacturing producing sensible, reliable and economic cars and other vehicles, if cou are content that the CCP can and will track your every move – if, indeed you would accept an EV of any make as a gift without trying to sell it on immediately, if indeed you are just such a person, then BYD may be right up your street.
Or maybe you have some other and more profitable interest in their vehicles. Only you can say.
I am simply recognising the reality of the threat to European manufacturing which is the main point of the article.
It is not for me to accuse you of being simple, but so far as “the reality of the threat to European manufacturing” is concerned, that threat is:-
“This is the first time in the history of mankind that we are setting ourselves the task of intentionally, within a defined period of time, to change the economic development model that has been reigning for the, at least, 150 years, since the industrial revolution.”
“I am the daughter of a revolutionary and I feel very comfortable with revolutions,”
(Christina Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC, at the COP17 in Durban, South Africa.)
Also:- “China, the top emitter of greenhouse gases, is also the country that’s “doing it right” when it comes to addressing global warming,” [… and] “China is also able to implement policies because its political system avoids some of the legislative hurdles seen in countries including the U.S.” (Also Figueres.)
Or, if you prefer, “One has to free oneself from the illusion that international climate policy is environmental policy. Instead, climate change policy is about how we redistribute de facto the world’s wealth” (Ottmar Edenhofer, one of the co-chairs of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group III “Mitigation of Climate Change”).
Many other quotes.
In this context, BYD’s “threat” is the equivalent of the fleabite on a bull elephant’s flabby bum. An inevitable consequence of the ignorance and treachery of our Beloved Leaders for the last 20 years.
Communism is not love.
Communism is a hammer which we use to crush the enemy.
Do they all have names that start with Sea? Seacock? Seamen?
I believe that BYD are employing a nautical theme.
However, their advertising to date has not featured either Master Bates or Roger the Cabin Boy.
Well, if I have to gave an EV, I want a cheap one. Let’s see how long Germany puts up with its economy being destroyed by this – its not just cars themselves but huge component manufacturers like Bosch under threat.
I ran an electrical factory in China for 2 years and then was a consultant advising competitors on transferring production to China. Believe me the present plans to force BEVs on us will be the death of the European car industry, both ICE and BEV, as well as second and third tier suppliers.
There is a great article here on the futility of BEVs.
Meanwhile, UK manufacturing continues to contract.
https://oilprice.com/Finance/the-Economy/UK-Manufacturing-Sector-Plunges-Deeper-Into-Crisis.html
https://www.automotivemanufacturingsolutions.com/evs/byd-to-establish-passenger-car-production-in-europe/45056.article?gator_td=u5pcZPCr5WpUqYd9Vjl1uE28l2ac8Mt8kda9dHSxIv0DPqciguM%2bn06ysCUilh%2fLeR1gwjG3sDsptFusxOQt94uY2QsmiClEOX7hAFTvYzqBYosmkFnz929G0u88EyDdibxVMHaaF5MIV5IAlmxWYcY0WISuQaZzI0qS3qOqVdb1UWCAJiI8Mz0xL4TA%2frMGc0x0K%2bhEsbYkwKXisr7MbXWkXNVdjNAQiLhgzmUoaFg%3d TaDa !
Great location for BYD. Wages are 40% those in the UK and 1/3 those in Germany.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_European_countries_by_average_wage
Additionally, power prices are only 25% as high as the UK and Germany.
https://www.euronews.com/next/2023/03/29/energy-crisis-in-europe-which-countries-have-the-cheapest-and-most-expensive-electricity-a
The Chinese are very good at minimizing production costs.
“on the site formerly occupied by Jaguar Land Rover…” just about sums up OUR aka “great britain – sarc ) attitude to our own industries …. but there again, ‘our uk’ industry has had an attitude against us too …. if the cap fits ..
I /We are no longer buying “modern” hi-tech rubbish from anywhere – chip goes wrong or forever needing updates, going the way of my windows OS – back to paper. and BASICS.
I’m sure Elon is skeert.
Opening a store signifies nothing.
‘BYD revealed that it had sold 526,409 electric vehicles in the last three months of 2023, overtaking Tesla’
Oh, you can trust numbers from China.
The Grauniad ran the story yesterday but pointed out that BYD’s figures included 1.4m hybrids so Tesla still led in BEVs. More worrying for the UK is BYD said that it had not even made it into the top ten list of possible locations for their factory. UK industrial sector is in terminal decline, already only 20% of the economy.
It doesn’t matter how ‘cheap’, how good a BEV brand is, they don’t run without electricity.
Even if ‘enough’ chargers are available throughout the Realm, whither the electricity and how will it get to the chargers?
Debating BEVs and heat pumps, or nuclear as the ‘only’ option, is like debating what music the band on the Titanic should be playing and what wines should be served with dinner.
Agreed. An exercise in futility.
With the increase in home deliveries , there is something like 5 to 6 million vans / light commercials in the UK now . Most of these will need charging up every night .
With the push for EVs , this will mean an increase in generation capacity of about 50% , just to keep the grid working through most winter nights , and that is without private cars as well .
So there is no way this insanity can work .
At the moment there are power cuts in different areas of the country just about every winter day , and any increase in EVs will mean far more cuts which will become more obvious to people that the whole idea will not work .
Are they likely to compete in the ICE vehicle markets once the EV nonsense has ended?
‘Sold? (So many cars) Or just put them into stock on a large field in China – and adjusted the (Chinese) accounts accordingly?
If people are worried about Chinese companies spying on us through the 5G network, how much more worried should they be about China knowing everywhere that you drive, and maybe rendering the vehicle inoperable?
And no doubt recording all your calls if you link your phone and even just recording conversation in the car as it seems that Subaras do and by buying the car you agreed to it all.
A number of this brand have electrocuted owners, in NZ.
Were they killed?
Arnold Clark calls itself ‘Europe’s largest independent car retailer’ and is now offering BYD test drives. Soon BYD will be on sale all over the UK.
https://www.arnoldclark.com/new-cars/byd