When China’s BYD recently overtook Elon Musk’s Tesla as the global leader in sales of electric vehicles, casual observers of the auto industry might have been surprised.

But what’s caught other carmakers around the world off-guard is something else about BYD, which is backed by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway: its low prices.

“No one can match BYD on price. Period,” Michael Dunne, CEO of Asia-focused car consultancy Dunne Insights, told the Financial Times. “Boardrooms in America, Europe, Korea and Japan are in a state of shock.”

BYD can keeps its costs low in part because it owns the entire supply chain of its EV batteries, from the raw materials to the finished battery packs. That matters because a battery accounts for about 40% of a new electric vehicle’s price.

    • Squizzy@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      27
      ·
      1 year ago

      No not the airbags, the safety standards being “obscene”, cost prohibitive and not yield good results.

      So if American standards are preventing additional competition it should be because they have a very high standard which should bare out in terms of road and pedestrian deaths and injuries. It does not. Therefore the “obscene” standards are another example of poor results to cost.

          • ieatpillowtags@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            5
            ·
            1 year ago

            Not really conclusive as there have been increases in speeding and drunk driving that cause total accident numbers to go up. A more relevant stat would be fatality or injury rates per accident.

            • Squizzy@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              4
              arrow-down
              5
              ·
              1 year ago

              You’ve changed your tune from it being silly to needing more granular data.

              Pedestrian deaths are on the rise and decent safety regulations could impact speeding and drunk driving.

              • ieatpillowtags@lemm.ee
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                5
                arrow-down
                1
                ·
                1 year ago

                I said you were silly because it was more polite than calling you stupid, and in neither case is it referring to the issue of traffic deaths.

                And now you’ve changed your tune talking about pedestrians which has nothing to do with the topic.

                • Squizzy@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  2
                  arrow-down
                  1
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  Car safety regs have nothing to do with pedestrian deaths? So cars with poor visibility due to design choices are in no way related to car safety or pedestrian deaths?

                  Cars having impact ready bumpers and lowered engine blocks that have a direct correlation with lower chances of death or serious injury in the event of a collision with a pedestrian or cyclist are completely unrelated to safety regulations?

          • ThisIsNotHim@sopuli.xyz
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            1 year ago

            Per capita probably isn’t a good way to measure this.

            Car deaths should probably be by miles driven.

      • Shard@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        8
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        Sounds like what the Oceangate CEO said about industry safety requirements for submersibles.

        • Squizzy@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          arrow-down
          6
          ·
          1 year ago

          I’m saying they’re not fit for purpose, America has a shit ton of road and pedestrian deaths. The safety regulations don’t do enough.

          • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            1 year ago

            Hey since you seem to be ignorant of old car safety hazards ive got a '78 Ford pinto to sell you.

            But seriously modern American cars (or atleast the post 80s ones) are a shitton safer than their old counterparts. And this is coming from someone who loves old piece of shit cars (Id drive the Homer).

            Modern American safety features to a point were paid in blood. Tuna canning in small cars is isnt nearly as common as it once was, and the pealing the smashed in head of the drive off of the stearing wheel isnt all that common anymore.

            There are certainly some so called safety features that are laregly pointless IMO but my hatred of back up cams aside, survivability of car crashes have skyrocketed.