China
The new battery tech is set to launch in Europe by the end of 2026.
315 mile range.
I doubt it will be priced at $15k in Europe.
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The batteries, yes. But a Chinese car? Nope. Iâll wait till the Germans or Japanese come out with something. I hold no hope for the US doing it. Based on advertising I see every day, they think we only want monster super-duty trucks. I canât remember the last time I saw an ad for a US-made sedan.
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Yea, so they can drive them around when the streets flood. What goes on in the thought process when they buy one of these things? You need an extension ladder to get into one. What do you do with the wife? Leave her behind?
Why not? They are already all over North America. Only place they are not on the road is here.
They were 19% of all light vehicle sales in Mexico last year. China sells twice as many light vehicles worldwide than we do.
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I knew a 5â lady in my dojo. She drove a truck so big she had to use a built-in step, and still had to grab the plastic handle on the door frame to pull herself up. And she was NOT a contractor. I can see contractors getting those big trucks. She was an office worker of some sort.
I think I commented elsewhere that just driving around I almost never see American sedans. I see German, Japanese, and Korean sedans. And SUVs. Though there are large American SUVs, plus some Jeeps (the newer Wranglers are bigger than our '98 Cherokee). The few US sedans I see are almost always electric (Tesla, Lucid, etc).
They would have to prove their quality to me. And, even then, China is an enemy that we will likely have a war with in the next 10 years. Iâm not going to direct any monies to them if I can help it.
Iâm old enough to remember when âMade in Japanâ was a joke. Their stuff was rubbish. Until it wasnât. China is in that situation now, IMO. Theyâre a joke, but if they emphasize quality, they could overcome their current stigma. Doesnât address the whole going to war thing, though.
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The new BYD Seagull comes with roof mounted Lidar, and is priced (in China) at $13,000. For what itâs worth, Ford CEO Farley called BYD âthe best in the business regarding supply chain, manufacturing, and cost.â TopGear, Wired, and InsideEVs have all reviewed BYD cars and find them comparable to, if not superior to US, Japanese, and German cars.
I don ât know where youâve been, but that era ended at least 10 years ago. China manufactures the iPhone, TCL/HiSense/Xiaomi/Haeir and other top selling flat screen TVs, solar power panels and cells, battery cells, robotics, aeronautics, biopharmaceuticals, and more. If youâre buying a GE appliance, itâs made in China, on the same assembly lines as Haier, which bought the company a few years ago.
China has well developed consumer industries including Nike, Apple, Dell, Ford, GM, Levi, Gap, Tesla, Buick, Mattel, Black & Decker, Craftsman, and Milwaukee Tools. There are many brands you wouldnât recognize because they are sold only domestically, but they are equally good as the US brands they manufacture under license and import back here.
They are slightly behind in AI and chip manufacturing, perhaps two generations; that said they are fielding competitive AI agents using software tricks to get more out of the last generation so itâs not as though theyâre laying around doing nothing.
China is coming. In some respects they have already passed the US in certain categories.
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How would you know if you never drive one?
How many things do you own right now that are made in China - but are not rubbish?
iPhones of course, Nike, Craftsman tools, bicycles, blue jeans, Dell computers, etc.
Again, China sells 2x as many vehicles worldwide. If they were rubbish, that would not be the case.
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I freely admit I may be out of date. In which case, perhaps they have passed the âuntil they werenâtâ. There are no Chinese cars I can drive, because they arenât in this country. Though, just because they sell 2x as many vehicles doesnât mean they are good, necessarily. Perhaps they just undercut the price of a VW or Ford because they cut corners on quality. For many people, price wins out over quality because thatâs all they can afford.
As for your other question, I -unfortunately- own a lot of stuff that is made in China that is flimsy (i.e. rubbish). But I have no choice, because the world has outsourced most of the production of many items to China. My phone is made in Vietnam, for the record. But daily items like kitchen strainers or mandolins or skillets made in China are flimsy and break easily. We own no Chinese clothes (yes, I look at the labels before I buy). I had one pair of shoes made in China several years ago, and the inner support collapsed after a very short time. If you spend any time in an Asian market (we do), and you read the labels, youâll observe that thereâs a huge difference between noodles made in China vs noodles made in Korea, for example. (The Chinese noodles are almost poison.) The âhousewaresâ aisle is full of cheap crap. Etc.
OhâŚmy Ridgid tools were made in the USA. And my Craftsman tools are old enough they also were made in the USA (donât know about new Craftsman tools, so Iâll take your word for it). But, yes, I do have a Dell monitor which was probably made in China.
And, again, thereâs the looming war thingâŚ
Your phone (and most like other tools) was not made in Vietname or US, but assembled there from the parts that were made in China unfortunately.
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Nope. I looked it up. My phoneâs maker transitioned almost all of their operations to Vietnam. Didnât delve into why. But itâs Vietnam. They used to be in China, but they left. Apparently they also do a little in India, but not my particular model.
That seems unlikely. Vietnam has not had enough time to build the kind of infrastructure that is required for all the various functions of a phone: processors, chips, cameras, cases, screens, etc.
Hereâs what AI says (I acknowledge it could be wrong, but in this case I donât think so)
Yes, phones assembled in Vietnamâincluding major brands like Samsung, Google, and Apple partners (Foxconn, Luxshare)ârely heavily on components imported from China. While final assembly, testing, and packaging happen in Vietnam, the components (screens, batteries, circuit boards) often come from Chinese suppliers.
- Supply Chain Dependence: In 2023, China was the top exporter of parts to Vietnam, with over 90% of the total value of imported âtelephones and partsâ coming from China.
- The âMade in Vietnamâ Distinction: âMade in Vietnamâ signifies that the final product was assembled there, often to take advantage of lower labor costs compared to China, but it does not mean the raw components were produced there
Vietnam is doing âassemblingâ, but not actual production/manufacturing. Big difference.
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China is making your phone in Vietnam.
Vietnam has emerged as one of the most compelling destinations for diversification. The movement of manufacturing from China to Vietnam is no longer a marginal trend; it is becoming a defining feature of regional investment flows in Asia. In 2025, this transition continues to accelerate, reshaping foreign direct investment patterns and offering Vietnam both immense opportunities and significant challenges.
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I wonder how the US 1968 department of war would view this outcome?
Did they contain communism?
Hey 1PG, I thought you might appreciate this vid. Gives you an idea on the level of FSD tech (as well as some other integrated tech) currently available in China:
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Thanks for the video. The only question he didnât answer was reliability for the vehicle. The tech seems very impressive, and they seem to have good batteries (did he ever quote a range per charge for a vehicle?). How many miles between repairs, for example? We would need someone like CR to compile stats over time.
It does seem the Chinese have caught up. Once Americans embrace EVs more (for some odd reason we seem to like smoke-belching, noisy, machines), China is ready to crush âDetroitâ (put in quotes because US auto manufacturing isnât exclusively in Detroit anymore). Similar to what the Japanese did to them in the 1970s.
I think range was mentioned for at least one of the new batteries ~ something like 900 miles IIRC.
As far as problems with the vehicles, not much on that but it stands to reason that if they have the best battery tech, the rest of their tech may not be too far behind - and when it is, they probably buy American (like the Michelin tires).
Another one you may enjoy. Still slim details on reliability (and this is of course new). This car sells for 35-50k, which is insane for what you get.
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Ironically, Vietnam is also communism.
Not really. It is single party rule, market socialism. It is not communist, even if that was the flag being waved by Ho Chi Minh. Fun fact, Ho Chi Minh wanted to be like the USA. His famous speech had many parallels to our Constitution. But some idiots from D.C. didnât want to upset our French allies, whom considered âFrench Indochinaâ one of their colonies, so Ho was rebuffed by us. As I recall, we named an airport after the moron largely responsible for that debacle (Dulles).
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