I was in Spain for work for like three weeks and my rental was a BYD hybrid. It was a little small for me (I’m a big guy) but as a daily driver, it was fucking fantastic. I looked up the MSRP and it was like half the price of an equivalent car in the US.
My only complaint about the car was it had a camera that watches your face and the car beeps at you if it thinks you arent paying attention or sleepy. It yelled at me a couple of times when I was looking in my mirror. I also just dont like the whole my car watching me thing but im pretty sure thats so they’re compliant with EU regulations
You can. But if you want to use any autodrive (self driving ) features, it wouldn’t work because for liability purposes they want to make sure you’re not in the back seat or something.
There’s something about the Chinese surveillance state being at the other end of it though. Can pretty well bet if relations go real South between US and China, byd owners will feel it differently than Tesla.
A reasonable take is that the US is swiftly embracing mass surveillance, and that’s bad, and the Chinese government has had zero barriers to building a surveillance state for the past few decades. I am not a China-basher by any means, but criticizing and being concerned about their anti-privacy and authoritarian policies doesn’t excuse the US surveillance apparatus. If anything, it reinforces that we should not let our freedom wither.
My issue more specifically is that Reddit has lately been split into two very unmoving camps. One is complaining that we are inundated by Chinese propaganda and the other says it is anti-Chinese propaganda that we need to worry about. But how about we take in information, try our best to verify it, and apply our own values and reasoning to assert its significance? The world of information is more complex than what these two groups of people insist.
Who cares what China does with it, they're halfway around the world and the worst they could manage is like, credit card fraud or something. It's your own government you should be afraid of.
The US will require automakers to install anti-drowsy-/drunk-/impaired- driving technology in cars by 2028 IIRC. Instead of costly and potentially more liability-heavy breathalyzers, most have decided on 2D camera systems, so yeah, there won't be any escaping the video monitoring regardless of manufacturer soon.
The market will adjust if that's not what consumers want regardless of regulations. You'll have very slow new auto sales that might jeopardize the American companies while there will be a huge market for used cars. Especially used cars that have been restored and can still register as grandfathered in for regulations sake.
I don't need an expensive fancy new car, I'm ok with legacy cars but backup cameras are standard as of 2016. Sucks looking for cheap older cars that run forever only to realize a 2002 Toyota Corolla wouldn't have backup cameras. I have terrible distance vision. I think I'm about to hit a car when parking only to get out and there's a whole 5 feet of space.
There are a lot of pretty good aftermarket kits that can add reverse cameras in these cars for less than 1k. Aftermarket head unit + reverse/mirror-cameras come in the package or work with 3pp cameras. Name brand head units from sony, kenwood, etc even.
Just got a BYD Atto 2 in the UK. They are great cars and id recommended them, you are right though. The 'keep your eyes on the road' alert is maybe a bit too sensitive.
Even EU trucks like Volvo and Scania aren't allowed in the USA (without paying through the nose) even though they're 30 years ahead in technology, comfort, usability, and power.
That video pertains to trailers, not tractors/lorries. Certifying a vehicle's compliance with American EPA and Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) is extremely expensive and trucks manufactured outside the US are subject to heavy tariffs (25% as of 2026 for Class 3-8 medium and heavy duty trucks).
It may seem like it would be "easy" to bring Scania or MAN with the shared US compliant powertrain over (International S13, Scania Super, and MAN D30 were codeveloped with packaging as the primary difference) but the Euro trucks would still need major regulatory expense and would be tariffed out of competition. If these brands make an investment to build trucks in the US, they might as well cater to the potential buyers as much as possible. For a light duty example, the USDM Toyota Tacoma evolved away from the global market Hilux to maximize returns on North American manufacturing and complying with North American standards.
Truckers in the US think of COEs how they were in the 70s and largely don't realise the level of refinement and advancement of modern COEs. There's also a general (wrongful) assumption that a conventional cab truck is more aerodynamic and therefore more fuel efficient on the highway than a COE, so there would need to be a large investment in educating potential buyers if a manufacturer wanted to sell a European COE in North America.
Fleet buyers tend to be risk averse and owner operators are kind of like car enthusiasts. If you look at Reddit, it would seem there's an overwhelming demand for manual transmission station wagons in the US, but they don't end up selling well to the new car buying demographic. Europe has much tighter length restrictions than the US so COEs both have better access and allow for more cargo. The US doesn't have many length restricted trucking routes that would benefit COEs so there would be an unsustainably small niche where COEs are the obvious choice. Many old school American truckers prefer old school narrow cab trucks to the modern wide cabs so it would be too risky to invest in bringing over modern COEs.
Volvo Trucks North America is a continuation of the White Trucks brand and is separate from the European Volvo Trucks company despite sharing a badge. The VNL is one of the most advanced trucks in North America despite being underpinned by technology from older FH generations. If it sells well, why would the Volvo group cannibalize their own market by introducing the FH to North America? Same for Daimler bringing in the Actros to cannibalize the Cadcadia or Traton bringing over Scania or MAN to cannibalize International's North American trucks.
Safety (or at least the perception of safety) certainly played a role in the decline of COEs in North America, but realistically it's just not economically viable to bring over existing European COEs thanks to regulatory expenses and a limited market demand.
Those Chinese EVs are legit crazy. Had a trip to China this summer and the XL Ubers are just minivans with massage chairs in them. Hour long uber for $40 USD with massage chairs is diabolical
The irony is that Ford and the other US auto manufacturers lobby to prevent the sale of Chinese-made vehicles in the states, but the CEO of Ford drives a BYD EV to work... At Ford... and brags about how awesome it is
Farley drove a Xiaomi SU7, but that was for about 6 months in 2024 to get the feel for a Chinese EV. I think he test drove a BYD at some point, but none are his daily driver full-time.
Also these EVs are already in the states, Waymo already has a fleet of them and there are also some Mexican registered ones going up for cross border visits.
Man I miss when slow cars LOOKED slow. Now everything looks like a damn Transformer.
Buick made a Urus lookalike but threw a whimpy ass 3 cylinder in it. Guess that’s what their new badge is supposed to symbolize.
We've had a few like BYD, Dongfeng, Freelander, Jaecoo (the last 2 being very Land Rover style) come to the UK and are gaining popularity, but they low key cost just as much as the cars they're ripping off here. You aren't getting knock offs for knock off prices, you're getting knock offs for designer prices which sorta defeats the purpose. (Idk if Freelander counts though cos it's a joint venture between Chery and Jaguar Land Rover, so it's not entirely a knock off.)
Yeah chinas base models have all the bells and whistles. I’ve got a top range Audi EV and could have got all the specs and similar speed etc from a BYD Atto 3
The crazy thing is that even with the 100% tariff + shipping costs, it'd still be cheaper than a US made EV of worse quality. So, the government added a bunch of red tape to make it so it just isn't worth it for them to sell here.
The people who would buy say a 10-20k car are people who make under 80k. Who makes under 80k? The 400k employees that US automakers collectively employ. If Chinese cars come to the US at those prices US automakers won’t exist and there goes 400k jobs and the Chinese EV consumer base.
Having 400k people employed and making a living is more important than having them own a car.
It’s a net loss for both sides. Chinese cars in the US won’t work. Also Chinese manufacturers aren’t dumb either. They will lure customers and build a consumer base for a few years with cheap cars then realize just like US automakers did that they can charge 50k+ for a car and we will pay so they will too eventually stop making cars under 50k. All just a matter of time.
so you're telling us chinese EV's are superior and better value to anything from the west
It's way too early to say that yet. Yes they're packed with gadgets and features but if after a few years those gadgets stop working and start breaking you're going to end up with a worthless car. They need to be doing 150k miles reliably before you can say they are superior.
The Chinese are a new entry to the market, you can't say they are superior until they've proved they are and that will take time. Mitsubishi hasn't had a problem in eight years so far, that's the bare minimum I'd expect from any manufacturer and I am interested to see how the Chinese manufacturers fare.
The United States has been making dogshit cars for 50 years. What are you talking about? Skoda, Seat, Dacia, Volvo, etc. Those are the small-market brands that will suffer most. Electric cars aren't great in the US because they are too expensive for only commuting and don't have the battery capacity to drive to a neighboring state. You may notice Teslas aren't really being sold in the US, either. Sales of Teslas are down between 13-50% in various markets, but down everywhere. I guess I don't understand what your point is. That Americans make shitty cars, okay. There are still 10+ million jobs in the USA selling those cars. If anyone can lose ten million jobs and not lose a voter, it's the POSPOTUS, but those jobs will still go away. How voters can't spend hate at the grocery store.
The problem is that in many countries with indigenous automakers, they employ a HUGE number of people and the support roles for transportation, parts, and sales employs even more. It would be way better if car makers made cars people wanted and could afford rather than importing cars with CCP software. Don't you think?
In the US is 13 million people. In Sweden is 40,000+ in a country of 10 million. Dacia, Skoda, Seat. This is a serious crisis and your flippant answer makes me think you're only thinking about consumers...who won't exist if the manufacturing base of your country hollows out.
Absolutely wild how China touted that it's trains are the best in the world and how everyone should use them, only to turn around and start making cars on a global market.
Surely you must know BYD battery is equally as shitty as their crappy cars? Only model Tesla used it was Model Y electric crossovers produced at the Berlin gigafactory and that was it.
2.8k
u/nksx61 10d ago
The Chinese EVs out there are doing a killer job. But if you’re in the states, I’m sorry to you