Thought i read somewhere that BYD or another manufacturer was looking to build manufacturing in Mexico to take advantage of the NAFTA agreement…. If that’s the case then it’s a question of them meeting US standards. I just remember the hilariously bad crash tests where that cars were the crumple zones.
I thought there were no standards for car manufacturing in the US (isn’t that the reason Muskrat is able to sell the trucks without crash-testinh them ?)
I also expect the ev batteries to be on par with any other rechargeable battery I’ve ever gotten that was chinese made. Not true to capacity, puts off more heat due to resistance already being higher than it should, and not lasting nearly as long before it goes bad.
I’d jump all over a Chinese made ev if did mostly city driving and I could get it for $15,000 and it passed safety standards. It would still be required to have the 100,000 mile or 8 year battery warranty.
For my current situation though, I still wouldn’t get the thing. I’d be out of warranty in 4 years, and no way would I want to risk keeping it past warranty. I’d probably lose like $7,000 selling it used at that point.
I work on my own shit and buy used vehicles. I’ll keep something for 5 years and have less than $10,000 in it, including the cost I pay for the vehicle, then still sell it for a little something when I’m done.
If the cost was in the 9k range I'd agree, as after amortizing out my current car which I paid 21k for 9 years ago is about right. I'd like to replace my truck, but I've had that for 15 years and I paid 10k so I suppose that is an unreasonable ask. (I need a truck about 2x/year and after looking at the fine print it turns out I cannot rent a truck - I can rent a truck shaped car, but as soon as I use it as a truck I violated the contract)
Well after 3 years you’ll still be able to sell it for some amount of money. Having spent 9k might be right on the mark. China is just turning cars into what they did with everything else. Making it disposable e-waste in waiting as soon as you get it.
Tariffs on Chinese vehicles in the US are 25+%, but even with that, this would be a bargain. I’m sure there’d be even more costs added bringing it over, but if it can stay under $30k, I think it’d sell a lot, especially if it’s closer to $25k or less.
Given the rough relationship between the US and China and the potential national security risks, I highly doubt this will ever make its way into the US. May make its way to Europe though.
I want an electric Subaru Outback or Forester. Something that can be driven off road to a campground, pull a trailer if needed, and has enough range to get me from Ann Arbor to the upper peninsula with minimal charging. Seats and trunk that I can hose out after a muddy dog park excursion would be great too.
It’s going to be a little while before we get realistic options for outdoorsy uses of BEVs. If you want the range to get there AND get back (or even just to a charger) then they’re too dang heavy for offroad use. If you want to pull a camper, then the range absolutely tanks.
Airstream is trying to address this by making a $120,000 (lol) camper that has its own battery and traction motors to assist the pulling vehicle. I think its a pretty good idea but of course they’re going to lock it down in patents for 20 years and prevent anyone from offering something affordable.
Maybe we’ll get lucky an a revolutionary battery technology like those frequently talked about glass batteries will come out and just outperform the status quo by every metric.
Do a search for “unexpected acceleration”, there are some serious surprises in the gas/hybrid vehicles in both drive and reverse.
Edit: This is not to imply all gas/hybrid cars are vulnerable, but it may be well-worth the time to check the vehicle brand/model/year of interest. A more specific search term is: brand model year “sudden unexpected acceleration”
Oh look, more cheap Chinese shit. Let’s stop manufacturing toilet paper and buy it from china anyway. Im sure it wont be carcinogen laced slave labour funded lowest quality crap,
It is now, but not when they started taking over back in the 1980’s. They started off by being cars that were cheaper. Their prices rose as they started to get a positive name for themselves.
I remember Kia coming into the US market with a somewhat similar playback, but they entered back when many other makers weren’t having poor quality/lifespan vehicles. Mid 90’s kias were cheap as snot so they got some sales. But it didn’t bode well for them as people started to notice they weren’t built to last very long, and then they started to go bankrupt (Korean financial crisis) and Hyundai bought them/bailed them out. Then they still stayed cheap as snot in the US, but gradually improved in quality. As they started getting a slightly better name for themselves they’d keep upping the price and keep upping the quality. Nowadays they aren’t much cheaper at all than a lot of manufacturers, but they also aren’t much behind in quality, either. Had they been able to enter the US market a decade sooner, they could have really had a leg up.
Toyota and Lexus is still one of the most reliable cars out there today. I’ve got multiple Toyota cars and trucks and all have over 200k miles now. Two of my supras have over 250k and the tundra and LC both have almost 300k miles on them.
I had the same experience with a 1992 Toyota pickup truck. The thing was a tank, and had over 300,000 miles on it, and it was still running perfectly fine when I sold it for cheap.
Top Gear even had an episode where they tried pretty hard to destroy a mid 80s Toyota Hilux pickup truck. So, I think that they were pretty reliable in the 80s and 90s, too. At the very least the trucks were.
I still see a lot of old corollas, 4runners, and Toyota pickup trucks on the road in my area, too.
Oh sure, I agree they are the most reliable. I’ve bought only Toyota or Lexus for almost 20 years now. The first car I personally bought was a Celica in 1985. (Replaced it with a Mustang after the Celica died at 8 years.) Toyota got back on track in the late 90’s and now they last 15 years.
I was only pointing out that the legendary Hilux was even more reliable in the 1970’s than the 80’s.
If I can get easy replacement parts access and a Hayne's manual for one of these, I'm all for it. I have both of those for my current car, along with a full toolbox for basic mechanic work.
Seeing EU and US auto maker get bent out of shape at the idea of having to compete on price... they want the state to step in to protect their captured market. clown capitalism for ya.
And before we start talking chinese state aid for their EV industry, let's not forget that we also provide state aid to our daddies of the industry and they still punk us on price 🤡🤡🤡
I'm buying up vhs-c and hi8 camcorders and so many end user manuals have fucking schematics, parts lists, circuit diagrams, pcb layouts, timing charts, ...
I'm old enough to remember owning things but never really to the extent you could build a whole new one from scratch and I don't think those days are coming back, especially with the voltages involved in EVs
The high voltage stuff can stay out of my reach until I'm ready, but I at least want to be able to do a TPMS relearn and brake pad/rotor maintenance without needing to plug anything into the OBDII port.
It would be considerably more expensive. Safety standards are much higher in Western countries. Also, they still need to build up a sales and maintenance organisation there, that takes a lot of capital. It’ll be interesting to see where they land in their price points, though.
I did some very quick searching, according to this carnewschina.com/…/new-2023-byd-dolphin-launched-… the Dolphin launched in China for ~AUD$25,400 and you can currently buy it in Australia from AUD$38,890.
So it’s obviously more but they have their government discounts. Depending on the state here you can get rebates too.
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