Let the conspiracies startâŚ
Who doesnât love a good story?
OK, since you askedâŚBerkshire owns Geico. Berkshire owns a big piece of BYD. Berkshire wants BYD to have less competition. Therefore, Geico makes Teslas impossible to insure.
Steve
Steve that was a masterpiece.
WEB does not turn away business. BYD is not selling in this country. Not much as far as I know.
It was certainly a piece.
BYD is the largest maker of battery electric transit buses in the US, operating a factory in Lancaster, California.
Of course, BYD would face challenges selling electric cars in the US, as the government has imposed a 100% tariff on imported Chinese EVs, and is considering a complete ban on Chinese âconnected carâ software and systemsâŚbecause GM and Ford donât want to compete with BYD.
Steve
According to recently released data from the Federal Transit Administration, in 2022 there were 1,873 active electric buses on the roads, up from 1,548 in 2021 . The active all-electric buses make up approximately 3 percent of the 60,995 public transit commuter, municipal and trolley buses in the nation.
That is a rush to the exits.
lesseeâŚapparently the biggest US transit bus maker, now, is Gillig, which apparently has about 628 employees, so about the same size as BYD. GM exited the transit bus sector in 1987. Flxible closed in 1996. New Flyer is based in Canada, with some production in the US. New Flyerâs US employment appears to be about 990.
Steve
I thought Tesla has a captive automobile insurer? At some price point, someone will be willing to insure a CyberTruck.
intercst
Apples and oranges. Gillig has other options as well as electric.
Start by knowing what GEICOâs underwriting guidelines are. Itâs all about Warren Buffettâs investing style!
Buffett loves âfloat,â other peopleâs money that they cannot easily ask for back. Sources includes prepaid services and insurance. Buffett likes GEICOâs low risk approach to insurance because float is more useful and less risky than insurance profits in his investing paradigm.
Cybertruck does not yet have sufficient data to be deemed a safe insurance risk, hence it âdoesnât meet our underwriting guidelines.â
No conspiracies needed!
The Captain
Then they wouldnât have insured it in the first place.
CT has proven expensive to repair and causes a lot of damage to people and other vehicles when it crashes. No conspiracies needed.
That was covered in several paragraphs in the linked article. Thanks for pointing it out.
This is accurate. Geico has been underperforming for several years. I attended the BRK annual meeting and this question came up. Progressive has been outcompeting it. Ajit Jain has become very risk averse and cautious in his insurance and wants to increase automation. He is well respected in the industry.
In MA, Geico jacked up the premiums last year by quite a bit. I moved to Progressive.
Besides offering electric, and hybrid, and diesel, Gillig and New Flyer have been selling busses for a century or more. BYD has been in the US for 10 years. From the fragmentary information I saw last night, New Flyer is the US market leader. Gillig is second, with a 31% market share. Judging by the employment numbers, (I saw numbers for New Flyer ranging from under 1,000, to over 8,000, but unclear which operations and which countries were included) there is not a lot of daylight between the three companyâs market share. BYD competes aggressively, as every newcomer to a market does. Clear to see why GM and Ford have been spreading âprotected free speechâ around the government they hate, to be protected from BYD.
Steve
GM is the company to watch.
It must be the high salary for that little green lizard
Mike
Possible translation: âthe trial balloon that we had floated via a third party, to maintain our plausible deniability, was shot down, so we are not going to do that, at the present timeâ.
SteveâŚwell, you asked for conspiracy theories. :^)