alt Hacker NewsI don’t mean to pick on this particular comment, but broadly the EV enthusiast community is severely underestimating what would happen to the sticker price of a BYD that could actually be sold in the United States in alignment with a real market strategy, even if the company only faced German-level tariffs.
BYD currently has no dealer network in the US. $0 marketing spend. $0 on regulatory compliance. These things are all very expensive, especially in the United States for a new entrant. Even moreso for one that has to overcome concerns about Made in China.
Add even 25% for tariffs, and BYD’s vehicles would have to be sold for significantly more than they’re sold today in (say) Sydney, let alone what they sell for in Shanghai.
Not that they couldn’t grow into a competitive player. The Koreans did, they’re kicking ass in the US these days. But it took a long time and a ton of investment.
This only matters if you were to assume they are undercapitalized to execute this strategy, I would assume the opposite in this thought exercise. EV enthusiasts are going to be the first adopters at any price, BYD has a lot of hype.
Dealer network is pretty easy these days, DTC. Service, probably just create a network like Slate. Regulatory, yep cost of business but again should be able to do it without changing the vehicle much if they've already been focusing on our standards (IDK if that's true exactly, but it could be). Marketing, choose your adventure, there's tons of ways to go cheap (of course it's all relative and still a lot compared to how you'd open a taco stand) if they wanted to go grassroots, influencer first, etc to get it out there. If the product is good, people will talk and it will grow. In this industry, I don't think anyone expects a new car brand to come close to dominating the market within the first decade or even two but they could become fixtures on the fastest growing list. If not them, who?
I'm not sure how all the economics would flush out, but I do know US vehicles are getting super expensive and if they could just pack in more luxury per dollar, people would take a chance on it.
https://www.slate.auto/en/certified