The open secret is that China's EV subsidies are designed to keep sales within the country, because otherwise Chinese EV companies could make obscenely higher margins selling overseas.

The BYD Seagull ($9700 in China) is being sold as the BYD Dolphin Mini in Mexico... For $21000.

The BYD Seal U (€19400 in China) is being sold in Germany for €41990.

[–] naturalgasbad@lemmy.ca 13 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Every single Chinese EV manufacturer wants to go make sales abroad because the price war in China makes profits barely attainable, but government policy and subsidies keep sales within the country.

[–] Crikeste@lemm.ee 8 points 4 months ago (2 children)

It’s so fucked dude. This trade war bullshit is keeping me from having an affordable eco friendly whip.

Let. China. Grow.

[–] naturalgasbad@lemmy.ca 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Well, the trade war is also a factor, but what I'm saying is that Chinese government policy is what's keeping EV manufacturers from selling abroad. The EV supply chain has gotten so robust and cost-efficient in China that the government has to bribe manufacturers to focus their efforts on the domestic market instead of just eating the cake of everyone else.

[–] WalnutLum@lemmy.ml 3 points 4 months ago

Those cost efficiencies are also at the expense of the Chinese government. The massive investment is all part of their green revolution policy package.

It's why Solar cells are also incredibly cheap to produce in China, and why they're also mostly sold in China.

[–] eldavi@lemmy.ml 1 points 4 months ago

my car is 16 years old and it's american made so i'm certain that's it's going to fail catastrophically very soon, so i need a new car and i want one of these; but i'll have to wait atleast another 5 years for the 100% tariffs to abate. even then, there's a good chance that there'll be new tariffs.

i've already canceled this summer road trip because of the precariousness of my car's functioning and i'll have the cancel the rest from now on and it's maddening considering how much money people can throw away on car trip helping turn this turd of an economy around; but we won't do it simply because someone other than the united states or its puppets are profiting from it.

[–] TwinTusks@bitforged.space 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Isnt it the norm for imported item to be much more expensive than what they are in their own country? Not just cars, but ... everything.

[–] good_hunter@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

Imported chinese EVs are still undercutting the European manufacturers, as much they have been lobbying to have increased import fees on the cheaper non EU EVs. The narrative is that they are heavily subsidised to the extend they cannot compete anymore, in so crippling overal in-continent EV development. Resulting in a dependence to the East.

If I am not mistaken such import fee has just passed in Brussel, in order to protect the European market.

In a weird way, humanity has been longing for greener automobile solutions, and now that it’s there, Europe wants to slow it down.