this post was submitted on 03 Sep 2024
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China has positioned itself as the main car supplier in Mexico, with exports reaching $4.6 billion in 2023, according to data from Mexico's Secretariat of Economy.

The Chinese automaker BYD surpassed Honda and Nissan to position itself as the seventh largest automaker in the world by number of units sold during the April to June quarter. This growth was driven by increased demand for its affordable electric vehicles, according to data from automakers and research firm MarkLines.

The company's new vehicle sales rose 40 percent year over year to 980,000 units in the quarter—the same quarter wherein most major automakers, including Toyota and Volkswagen, experienced a decline in sales. Much of BYD's growth is attributed to its overseas sales, which nearly tripled in the past year to 105,000 units. Now BYD is considering locating its new auto plant in three Mexican states: Durango, Jalisco, and Nuevo Leon.

Foreign investment would be an economic boost for Mexico. The company has claimed that a plant there would create about 10,000 jobs. A Tesla competitor, BYD markets its Dolphin Mini model in Mexico for about 398,800 pesos—about $21,300 dollars—a little more than half the price of the cheapest Tesla model.

...

That tariff-free access is part of the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (T-MEC), an updated version of the North American Free Trade Agreement that, as of 2018, eliminated tariffs on many products traded between the North American countries. Under the treaty, if a foreign automotive company that manufactures vehicles in Canada or Mexico can demonstrate that the materials used are locally sourced, its products can be exported to the United States virtually duty-free.

MAGA strikes again

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 2 weeks ago (54 children)

The main problem with BYD cars is that they are heavily subsidizing by the Chinese government.

If you remove those subsidies then those cars aren’t going to be very competitive. But the problem would be that by the time the Chinese government stopped subsidies, there wouldn’t be any competition left.

Our best ways to counteract this would either be through heavy tariffs or by subsidizing our own companies in the west.

MAGA wants to do the tariffs route which is basically a bandaid solution that would prevent the Chinese companies from owning the US market but it wouldn’t do anything outside of that. Plus it doesn’t solve is being competitive, it’s just covering its ears and “lalala”’ing the issue for later generations to deal with it. Which honestly, that tracks for basically their whole platform.

If you do the subsidies route though, we’d have to make sure we’re not just constantly lining Musk’s pockets but Tesla is the company has the biggest head start. And Musk is a PoS but the devil’s credit is that our EV market wouldn’t exist without Tesla.

IMO, we need to diversify our EV makers and help provide the capital to bootstrap it. And while that’s happening we need to not let cheap Chinese cars flood the market to undercut any chance we have. So basically we need a combination of both solutions.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 weeks ago (29 children)

I would say that all tracks but american car companies are refusing to even attempt to make an affordable electric vehicle, so how can you say its just a gap in research that subsidies would fix.

Subsidies would be drained the same way the profits were, why wouldnt they. American car companies refuse to listen to demand, and this is what they get for it.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago (27 children)

They could build and sell a basic car (combustion) for under $15k if enough people bought them but most people don't want stripped down compact cars. There's just not enough of a market to justify cheap cars in the US.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I think you are right, and I hate that it is a fact.

What I want right now is a small electric kei truck or utility van for use as an in city daily driver. Just make the cargo area large enough to put 4'x8' sheets of plywood in it and close without any fuss and I am sold, but I don't think that's going to happen here anytime soon.

Ford discontinued selling their small Transit Connect van here recently so that isn't even an option anymore.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago

Thr problem is there is not a good deal in america period. Even the cheaper cars have horrible privacy and data collection issues. The fact is that every car company in America is predatory and greedy. Not a single one of them is trying to make a good car. The american way is some engineers come up with a great efficient car, and then money people manipulate it into a monster that just has the illusion of being a good car.

Ask an engineer who's worked with the big three what they think of them and they will talk for hours about essentially how immoral they are.

Also maybe ask yourselves why foreign car companies make cars here, and its not just tariffs. A lot of countries, including Asian ones, have better protections for their citizens and its actually cheaper to hire dumb Americans from flyover state.

Some companies specifically target low income areas for the cheap replaceable labour.

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