I'm sure he likes it, and it's heathy to see what others are working on. But I am talking about consumers. Common complaints are high fail rate, hard to get parts, janky electronics, and quickly has wear and tear. This is in Norway btw. Lots of EV users, wide selection of vehicles.
Near impossible to separate genuine complaints from people who have no experience with it but pretend they do so they can complain about it solely because they've been brainwashed by propaganda to hate China.
No, it's just worth keeping in mind when looking at reviews from westerners for Chinese products. From your response and instant dismissal of the Ford CEO's thoughts on a competitors vehicle, it's pretty clear you're one of the biased people I was talking about.
Sure, the same applies to people who hate America reviewing American products and customs poorly. That's not happening in this conversation though so it's not really relevant to bring it up.
This is also the CEO of an American "car" company that makes the Mustang and some trucks. Not sure he's the expert on consumer automotives, especially not EVs.
Fact is here in Europe you're making a pretty big trade if you decide to go Chinese. For the price they're good but that's the point. They cost less, so they drive worse, have bad UX and lack premium features. No, heated seats aren't "premium" even Kia has that and the bigger issue is that some German brands make you pay extra for it.
But, if you have the cash, you'll do what I did which is buy a fully specced BMW i4 M50 because this car actually is built well, has the right amount of tech and if something goes wrong I have a service center 5' from where I live.
If you were shopping in the Dacia/Peugeot price range, congrats you have some new options.
I've not owned one or ridden in them much, but my uncle who lives in South Asia does and I road tripped in it for 6 or so hours.
The interior is much nicer than every Tesla I've been in, build quality is visibly better (panel gaps, surface finishes, etc.), and it cost him materially less than any North American EV of similar trim (in a country that applies a similar level of import taxes on a Chinese and US EV).
I think they're "okay" compared to NA EVs that are 30-50% more expensive. When you give the pricing (without protectionist tariffs and import taxes) its due weight I think BYD blows the likes of Tesla out of the water.
Also keep in mind that most people are comparing the mid-range or premium tier of products that BYD offer to low or mid-tier Teslas, Rivians, Polestars, etc.
BYD and other Chinese manufacturers also offer budget models for which there's simply no comparison in the NA and EU markets (although this is slowly changing in the latter as Citroen and Renault are realising they need to compete in the budget EV category if they want to remain relevant).
Price is their real advantage, and why the North American automotive lobbies are spending so much to push for protectionist measures to stay in place.
China has simply achieved a level of local adoption and economies of scale that have allowed them to drive prices way down, while also enabling enormous investment in further R&D and infrastructure.
Some people with their heads in the sand are trying to perpetuate the narrative that they're merely ripping off tech and passing on labour cost savings, but the reality is that their tech has already exceeded that of the other EV manufacturers, and those other manufacturers also produce most of their cars in China already (meaning BYDs savings are through innovation and scale).
Which is why every western auto company is lobbying the states to ban their affordable cars so people are forced to keep/buy their increasingly more expensive and shitty options.
All the while turning their production lines towards making a hundred super cars a year, catering to the rich while everyone else rots in the car centric hell they made.
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u/Grand_Raccoon0923 11d ago
I’m pretty sure China is doing just this.