Back in November I wrote about BYD and how it was winning the global car race. “BYD stands for capitalism. Wang Chuanfu is the scientist who started this company way back in the 1990s. It started as a battery company and then in 2003 he moved to making cars. I had heard of BYD briefly as Berkshire Hathaway was an early investor and I started to poke around wondering why. I remember listening to the late Charlie Munger say that Wang Chuanfu is who Elon Musk thinks he is. I remember thinking, wow, that’s bold.
Gabrielle Coppola and Danny Lee recently wrote a great article for Bloomberg about the company and how they are progressing, “After increasing its annual sales in China 15 times over, to 3 million cars in only three years, BYD is now exporting to roughly 95 markets, including 20 new ones this year. The company is building, has recently opened or has announced plans for assembly plants outside China in 10 countries on three continents. The speed and scope of this expansion have caught the global auto industry off guard and triggered protectionist tariffs in the US and EU, where policymakers fear Chinese players such as BYD will, in the words of Elon Musk, “demolish” their domestic automakers.”
Demolish is right. The EU is putting up tariffs and Elon and Trump can’t wait to put up tariffs here. Here is why, because BYD will break Tesla tomorrow and Ford and GM before you finish listening to this otherwise. It’s a better product than anything they have, and its cheaper. It is literally a capitalist’s dream unless you happen to own a car company or be a politician in a country where seeing one of your biggest industries disappear before dessert and coffee is served is a problem. If GM was too big to fail 15 years ago, what are Ford, GM, Tesla, and Stellantis now? They need bailouts and their bailouts are tariffs. We no longer make the best cars and we are taking our ball and going home.”
That was then, since the election we have had a slew of tariff talk and most of it was surrounding steel, aluminum and our neighbors Canada and Mexico. What do these all have in common? Cars. Cars use the raw materials obviously, but they also have lots of manufacturing done right across the borders of each country as the major auto companies were forced by expensive labor unions to search for cheaper labor. It was cheaper to move abroad an extension of the textile industry and shoe industry a generation before it. Now we are trying to play defense on an industry that will soon be dead. The American EV automakers aren’t just in deep trouble, they are on life support. Their only hope is to give up the rest of the world and build a big beautiful wall around the US and not let any other cars in. Those other cars would be Chinese or some luxury from Asia and Europe. BYD’s star Stella Li is out there selling and expanding and gaining market share by the day and the night. Secondary markets for American autos are disappearing due to unaffordability.
Two months ago, Deep Seek rocked the AI world with the model that was as good or better than ChatGPT and 10-20 times cheaper. American exceptionalism was thrown in doubt. Now it is Chinese tech equities that are bouncing while American tech is selling off. Speaking of selling off, BYD’s largest global competitor is getting crushed and looks like it will no longer be a competitor at all. This from Fred Lambert at Electrek, “A survey of over 100,000 Germans revealed that 94% won’t buy a Tesla vehicle. It doesn’t bode well for the automaker, whose sales had already been falling off a cliff in the important European market.
In 2024, Tesla saw a 41% reduction in sales in Germany compared to 2023 despite EV sales surging 27% during the year. This has already raised red flags about Tesla’s future in Germany, but it is nothing compared to Tesla’s performance so far in 2025. Tesla’s sales were down 70% in the first two months of 2025, and again, that’s compared to its already poor performance in 2024.
There are many factors at play, including increased EV competition and the Model Y changeover, but in recent months, industry experts have attributed Tesla’s decline in the country to Germans being upset with Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s meddling in local elections and promoting the far-right AfD party.
Musk is currently under probe in Europe for his political meddling, and his reputation has crashed in Germany after a couple of Seig Heil salutes at Trump’s inauguration and several questionable posts promoting fascist and Nazi ideologies, like this one yesterday: from his tweeter Stalin, Mao and Hitler didn’t murder millions of people. Their public sector workers did.”
Oh Elon. While technically correct, the head of the snake Elon, the head of the snake. Hitler didn’t kill Jews, gas and starvation did. Is that your argument? Who ordered that Elon? Sasha, the census taker? You are in enough hot water, this isn’t the time to be getting caught in the minutiae after your Nazi salute. But unfortunately, he wants to get that smoke so he keeps tweeting and doing what he is doing in the public eye. Meanwhile, Ariel Zilber writes this for the New York Post, “Tesla has reportedly paused deliveries of its futuristic Cybertrucks after several owners reported that the trims of the supposedly bulletproof vehicle were coming unglued.
Several people who purchased the stainless steel, all-electric pickup took to an online buyers forum and revealed that they were informed by the company that there was a delay in deliveries, according to the EV-centric news site Electrek…Adding to the company’s financial woes were several video clips posted on Musk-owned X showing panels flying off the side of their Cybertrucks.” Oh boy, the wonder truck has its parts falling off. Perhaps your truck shouldn’t be glued together?
I think we can all see what is happening to Tesla and their future, but I want to focus on BYD. Chinese AI and now auto seems to be cutting edge because listen to what the true genius of our time Wang Chuanfu has done now. This from Sam Meredith at CNBC, “BYD’s Hong Kong-listed shares jumped more than 6% shortly after the open, notching a new a 52-week high. The stock, which was last seen trading around 4.2% higher, is up over 50% year-to-date…
It comes shortly after BYD unveiled a new “Super e-Platform” technology, which it says will be capable of peak charging speeds of 1,000 kilowatts. The EV giant and Tesla rival says this will allow cars that use the technology to achieve 400 kilometers (roughly 249 miles) of range with just 5 minutes of charging…“The ultimate solution is to make charging as quick as refueling a gasoline car,” Wang Chuanfu, chairman and president of BYD, said at the launch event, according to a press release.
The breakthrough appears to cut to the core of range anxiety, one of the major sticking points preventing consumers from switching to an EV. Range anxiety refers to fears that an electric car battery will run out of charge before the passenger reaches the destination.
Xing Lei, an independent China autos analyst, described the technological advancements of BYD’s new battery platform as “out of this world” and a “heartbreaking” development for its foreign competitors.”
I have long watched in curiosity as I look over at the gang of tech bros sit in their Tesla playing on their phones while they stop to charge their cars. I fill up with gas and I leave still wondering how little they have going on in their lives to take a 45 min fuel up break. This completely solves a huge dissatisfier for the industry. BYD has solved the price dilemma, the quick charging dilemma, and now there is simply an infrastructure dilemma which faces the entire world if EV cars are truly going to be the future of automobiles.
They already are the future in the rest of the world and only Biden and Trump’s tariffs are keeping them out of the US. This from the group at Bloomberg, “Donald Trump wants to keep Chinese carmakers out of the US, but that won’t stop them from taking over the rest of the world. They already are.
From Bangkok to Johannesburg to Sao Paulo, the streets are increasingly jammed with inexpensive compacts, crossovers and SUVs made by companies like Great Wall Motor Co., BYD Co., Chery Automobile Co. and SAIC Motor Corp.
While the Trump administration is expected to shield the US’s Big Three from Chinese rivals at home, and Canada and the European Union have placed tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles, buyers in emerging markets have welcomed Chinese cars and trucks with open arms — posing a new threat to growth-hungry global automakers…
Chinese brands got a toehold in Brazil in 2015, when the government made electric vehicles and hybrids exempt from a 35% import tax. To get around reinstatement of those duties, BYD and Great Wall are now building plants in Brazil — on sites where Ford and Daimler once ran facilities.
“The Chinese found a great opportunity to transform Brazil into a hub for the westernization of their vehicles,” said Ricardo Roa, partner-leader of the automotive sector at KPMG Brazil. “From Brazil, it’s easier to reach other South American markets: Argentina, Chile, Colombia and even Peru.”
This takeover has happened faster than most in the west expected, but innovation always does. They make a better car and its cheaper. That is supposed to win and though it might come out of a communist country the product and expansion is decidedly capitalistic. I don’t know if there will be an extinction event for gas powered cars or even hybrids, but for the mass market, the daily driver, I think the EV from China will be the new model T. I think the developing world will embrace the quality and the cost. I think Americans will try to preserve its antiquated voting bloc for verily relevant swing states like Michigan and the rest of the country will be forced to buy an inferior more expensive made in America product. This is exactly what tariffs are designed to do. The American consumer has less money to spend on something else because our government has decreed that politics are more important than free trade. That is a decision. It comes with its goods like jobs at home, vital war making plants like Ford and GM that could be converted to munitions building at a moment’s notice, and it takes away a big market from China. Is it any wonder why the only tariffs to really and truly stick are with China?
We have talked about how many tax credits Musk and Tesla have garnered over the years so to put tariffs on China because they are subsidized is quite peculiar. America literally bailed out GM during the great financial crisis. The real reason isn’t always what they say it is. It is vital to have an auto industry for national security and America will have one and damn its citizen’s wishes.
BYD has gone from laughed at to sprinting toward the world leaders in auto production. It has been truly stunning the speed of their ascent. It makes me curious if there isn’t another new, innovative company that is lurking out there and preparing to do the same thing to BYD. If I had to take one guess though, I would say it would be coming out of China.
Sincerely Yours,
C Thomas Printer
Also born on this date… American legend Wyatt Earp.
Thank you for listening today and you can find all of our articles and more on our website cthomasprinter.com.