Let’s start with BYD, the world leader in plugin vehicle sales. The company:
Reached more than 500,000 sales last month, approximately equal to one great quarter of Tesla sales. No other automaker is anywhere close to 500,000 plugin vehicle sales.
Just reached 10 million cumulative plugin vehicle sales, the first company to do so. Tesla is the closest to this total and will reach 7 million cumulative sales this quarter.
Is entering new markets almost every week, from Ethiopia to Paraguay.
Just grew its production capacity by about the same amount as Tesla’s total production capacity in just one quarter! (While Tesla production and sales has been basically flat.)
Just launched this stunning new model for $49,000. (Includes two refrigerators; seats with built-in heating, cooling, massaging features in the front and back; rear reclining seats with extending footrest; HUD; camera mirrors; and much more.)
Already above 20,000 sales a month, or at an annualized rate of approximately 250,000 sales a year, how long will it take to reach Tesla’s current annual target of 2 million cars a year?
Unfortunately for the world’s major carmakers, they aren’t facing one issue but an agglomeration of several significant interconnected challenges at once. Add to that an ultracompetitive business with high overhead costs and low profit margins, and things quickly get very difficult.
When market dynamics, regulatory requirements, and financial costs shift dramatically in a relatively short period of time, the results can be dire. That’s what we’re seeing play out.
With great fanfare, VW announced their MEB EV platform, a few years ago. Ford licensed MEB, rather than develop their own.
Recently, VW partnered with a Chinese EV company. Came across a piece on youtube last night: in China, VW is abandoning MEB, and switching to the Chinese partner’s platform, because it is vastly more cost efficient to build. I will give VW an “atta-boy” for not being stuck in “not invented here” syndrome. Meanwhile, here in the US, VW is investing Billions in Rivian, because VW’s own EV software zux. The only question is can Rivian stay afloat long enough for VW to adopt the Rivian software to their cars?
Yup. One of those Chinese companies that, some say, will never outcompete Tesla, and never take share away from Tesla.
And here is a piece about VW’s embrace of Rivian. For the first time, in quite a while, I am thinking VW might survive, due to their willingness to say “our stuff zux. who does it better? what do we need to do to obtain these better solutions?”
Of course, none of this matters here, because the US is going even more retrograde.
Are EVs made in China such as BYD vehicles clearly cheaper to make? Or are they subsidized somehow? Great engineering? Much improved design? Bare bones w few features? Small light weight? Low labor costs?
Tesla manufactures in China. Can they compete on cost/price/margin?
