Media Is Lying About Chinese EVs—And Here's the Proof

[MaximumMini]

China can make any quality of good, but matching quality=matching prices. If a chinese EV is priced the same as a US made Tesla and has the same quality, which do you buy?

I'm not sure that is accurate.
Do Chinese manufacturers pay their employees wages comparable to wages paid to American Union wages (adjusted for differences in their economy vs Americas)?
Aren't labor costs significantly lower in China?

I've used proxies to set up accounts in CCP friendly countries and even though I couldn't get the items shipped (since I'm actually in the USofa), IIRC I've seen some major pricing differences in the same items sold to USA customers vs CCP friendly countries?

 

[SC Maintenance]

China can make any quality of good, but matching quality=matching prices. If a chinese EV is priced the same as a US made Tesla and has the same quality, which do you buy?

Not necessarily. Manufacturing in China is cheaper. They also have the world’s largest robot installed base. By a long shot.

I used to be 100% pro American manufacturing. Until a few months ago they all lined up at the trough for waivers. Since they don’t seem to care about on-shoring I don’t anymore either.

 

[MaximumMini]

If China was allowed to sell their EV's in the US at prices dictated by China, Americans would buy every Chinese EV offered and all the others would fold. Need we say that China would sell them at ridiculously low prices?

How about a 2026 luxury / loaded EV for $8,995 ?

 

[jghall00]

Uhh - China fought the axis when invaded. Unfortunately at the time they had little more than pitch forks.

Then you understand what I said.

 

[SC Maintenance]

Then you understand what I said.

Nope. Lost?

You don’t want German or Japanese EV’s? If that’s it - this thread has nothing to do with them.

Was also 80 years ago so?

 

[alarmguy]

I do think there is a perpetual myth though about China and quality. Sure China does make a lot of cheap goods that we purchase at Target/Walmart among practically every other store in the country. But let's not also forget that the Apple CEO said they have their phones made in China due to the overwhelming manufacturing capabilities. Even high-end things we purchase here are often made in China. So what is stopping them from being able to make a quality product?

"Quantity of skill, type of skill and precision."

Vocational expertise is very deep in China.

Very true. I remember as a kid, parents would make fun of Japanese products. Now sort after for quality.

Next up like you said, most products are made in not only China, but the Asia rim even if they’re American corporations. Most likely a bit of China in every device that everyone in this forum is using right now.

The largest selling routers in the world is a Chinese company called Tp Link … spun off to have an American corporate presence to avoid import restrictions.

Huawei and Honor cell phones, which is sold all over the place, except banned here are stunningly beautiful in their higher end offerings.

One of the highest rated camera phones in the world, again, not sold in the United States, but all over the rest of the world happens to be the manufacturer of one of the best well-known electric vehicles from China as well - Xiaomi and yet Apple failed at the same thing trying to develop an electric car.

“Despite the hefty price tag, which is even higher than last year, the Xiaomi 17 Ultra is one of the best flagship cameraphones you can get right now”
Source - https://m.gsmarena.com/best_camera_phones_buyers_guide-review-2030.php

Hey, I’m very pro American but we can’t move forward by hiding our head in the sand. The Japanese devastated our automobile industry, China. Our enemy has already conquered many of our companies.
So I agree let’s not be fooled by calling Chinese cars trash

 

[OVERKILL]

So what is stopping them from being able to make a quality product?

Not to put too fine a point on it, but culture. Companies that have successfully moved production there (Apple, Cisco...etc.) learned quite quickly that you needed an extremely robust QC check system in place because there is this drive to cut corners with substitutions and you have to employ mechanisms to catch, and block this. There's of course also the cloning and theft of IP that happens, but that's a separate problem.

 

[robbobster]

China isn’t the lowest-cost manufacturing country they once were. Increasingly, that role is being filled by Mexico, India and Vietnam.

 

[4wd]

The Chinese will try to use their massive industrial capability and low costs to undermine our auto industry with low-cost, supposedly high tech decently styled EV's.

They dominate almost every market by undercutting and they monopolizing manufacturing.

I don't think this will work with cars though, they sure will try.

A vehicle is the 1st or 2nd largest/most important investment to many people. Rolling the dice on a Chinese product of this magnitude, with said stigma, is likely a no go with many people.

Just Say No !

 

[4wd]

China isn’t the lowest-cost manufacturing country they once were. Increasingly, that role is being filled by Mexico, India and Vietnam.

Make NAFTA great again !

 

[tcp71]

I'm not sure that is accurate.
Do Chinese manufacturers pay their employees wages comparable to wages paid to American Union wages (adjusted for differences in their economy vs Americas)?
Aren't labor costs significantly lower in China?

I've used proxies to set up accounts in CCP friendly countries and even though I couldn't get the items shipped (since I'm actually in the USofa), IIRC I've seen some major pricing differences in the same items sold to USA customers vs CCP friendly countries?

This was a number of years ago: I was pricing parts for seismic geophones. I had a local supplier who was slinging Chinese manufacturing and products. He had a range of prices and qualities from very cheap to priced very much like North American made parts. The cheap parts were...dirt cheap and had commensurate quality. The "high end" parts were probably 10% cheaper than what I could buy from North American suppliers with the same quality. That being said, the 10% difference meant there weren't any in stock, warranty was more complex, QA was on me, etc. It ended up being easier to buy from a local manufacturer. We were buying 10s of thousands of them.

 

[alarmguy]

The Chinese will try to use their massive industrial capability and low costs to undermine our auto industry with low-cost, supposedly high tech decently styled EV's.

…

There really is not much of our auto industry left.
General Motors, long time survivor so far.

Other than that, the majority of cars on the road came from a foreign corporation.

Yeah, we got Ford and Tesla, but they pretty much focus on a niche part of the market

Many decades ago, the Japanese did it to our auto industry and it hasn’t recovered since.

If China ever makes it to our coast you can bet the same will happen with one exception this time. Since China is a communist country maybe they will have a rough time. I just don’t know

 

[MaximumMini]

There really is not much of our auto industry left.
General Motors, long time survivor so far.

Other than that, the majority of cars on the road came from a foreign corporation.

Yeah, we got Ford and Tesla, but they pretty much focus on a niche part of the market

Many decades ago, the Japanese did it to our auto industry and it hasn’t recovered since.

If China ever makes it to our coast you can bet the same will happen with one exception this time. Since China is a communist country maybe they will have a rough time. I just don’t know

Here's what know for sure.....
Americans LOVE a low price, even if it means lower quality (not everyone of course, but remember American $$$ built China).
So, if Chinese cars were ever allowed without massive tariffs Americans would buy them all week long and twice on Sunday.

 

[JoeDirt41]

You’re likely right.

However the Ford family owns only 2% of the shares but 40% of the voting rights. So any potential CEO must lick Ford family boots.

Hence Ford will likely never have a real CEO. So there doomed IMHO.

You gotta remember though, the business ideology can change a lot from generation to generation too. Farley might be okay by the generation of Fords who are currently in charge, but the next generation might not like him or a CEO like him. Remember, Henry and Edsel were polar opposites when it came to their business ideas.

 

[JoeDirt41]

Fixed:
Ford CEO is a moron.

At least he isn’t Carlos Tavares…

 

[Torrid]

China can make any quality of good, but matching quality=matching prices. If a chinese EV is priced the same as a US made Tesla and has the same quality, which do you buy?

I support American manufacturing first. That's my answer.

 

[SammyChevelleTypeS3]

Wait, I thought Chinese EVs were amazing and way ahead of everything else at a cheaper price. Could all these raving reviews been faked and/or paid for? I’m shock I tell you, shocked!!!

There is very little to NOTHING I would believe that comes out of China or Russia , or even North Korea about anything.

 

[CKN]

You guys need to spend a little time on the business forums-instead of spewing things just to see what hangs on the wall. BYD's growth in global sales are incredible. And people that buy them are not idiotic-unlike some of the comments in this thread.

 

[nthach]

China can make any quality of good, but matching quality=matching prices. If a chinese EV is priced the same as a US made Tesla and has the same quality, which do you buy?

I wouldn’t give Elon a red cent. I’ll have to pinch my nose closed and consider Chinese. The Chinese can make nice things… but QC and IP is another thing.

We already have Chinese EVs on the road in the US. It’s a BYD bus. They’re all over LA(LA Metro and Long Beach Transit have the biggest deployment of them in the US), there’s a few in the Bay Area and elsewhere. They’re just assembled in the US(Lancaster, CA) using Chinese bodies to meet Buy America requirements.

 

[nthach]

China isn’t the lowest-cost manufacturing country they once were. Increasingly, that role is being filled by Mexico, India and Vietnam.

A lot of electronics and even computers are assembled in Vietnam. Clothes, too. Sailun recently spun up a factory in Cambodia making tires(Advanta and Zenna tires are made at that plant, too). LingLong has a plant in Thailand making mostly US-market tires.

Midea bought out Kuka, a long-time robotics supplier to the Germans.