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Baffled: Japanese take apart BYD electric car and wonder: 'How can it be produced at such a low cost?' (en.clickpetroleoegas.com.br)

submitted 3 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Despite what the world thinks, it's just a case of the world moving forwards. I see people always mentioning Chinese government subsidies like the American government hasn't been subsidising the American Auto industry for years. The difference is that the Chinese government is demanding a return on investment whereas the American investment is just funnelled into executive pockets. Maybe in a few years the same will be the case in china,but for now, they're making the same giant strides that Tesla made which enabled them to become a household name.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 days ago (2 children)

That's not why these are cheap and others cost more...they use slave labor basically for their workers. If you don't have to pay your workers much then you can drop the price that much more.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago

One answer to this conundrum lies in BYD’s ability to manufacture most of its components in-house. This allows the company to significantly reduce production costs and better control quality and the supply chain

Another important aspect is BYD’s ability to integrate complex components into simplified modules. A clear example of this is the E-Axle 8 in 1, which combines motor, inverter and reducer into a single unit

People also forget BYD Thailand factory is already operational and not all its cars are made in China.

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/chinas-byd-opens-ev-factory-thailand-first-southeast-asia-2024-07-04/

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 days ago (2 children)

America uses slave labour too. At every opportunity they've paid minimum wage and when workers started unionising, they started outsourcing to places they could get away with employing people for less than minimum wage. This is all well documented, just for some reason it's fine when America does it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

or assemble massive parts of the vehicle in mexico then ship it to the US for it to be finished.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Exporting our labor to another country with a lower COL is not the same as using actual slave labor of their own people. Let's not try and equate the two please. One is shitty, the other is a massive humanitarian rights issue.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

American companies literally use the same Chinese slave labour. Example: workers jump off the roof of Apple's Foxconn plant. Sorry, I guess Apple is technically an Irish company?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I mean, we do the latter, too. That's what prison labor is.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 days ago

Not anywhere near the level that china is using it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

Mate, it's America, humanitarian rights issues is what the nation excels at.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 days ago

It's not executive pockets, it's the owner class that benefits the most. Executives of automotive companies after just employees. The ones benefitting from the stock buybacks are hidden behind several layers of shell companies, hedge funds and private equity.