630
In China, It’s Already Cheaper to Buy EVs Than Gasoline Cars
(www.washingtonpost.com)
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
China is subsidizing EV companies crazy hard. They brought musk in with Tesla to steal all his tech and train their workers to do it too. So bonus points for exploiting Elons hubris and ego. He was going to be first American company to be a leader in the Chinese market without them stealing all his tech. Crazy it didn't work out.
The timeline doesn't add up. Chinese EV makers, including BYD, were building crazy momentum long before Musk set up shop in Shanghai (which was in 2018). It's only come to the attention of the outside world in the last couple of years when their EVs started to get exported at scale, but before they've been brewing this industry for a long time. BYD shipped its first compact EV domestically in 2009.
Yes, because there's no way 5 years is enough time to steal technology and manufacturing techniques and distribute them throughout an industry with a web of government industrial spies. They never do this type of thing so it would take 20 years. I'm sure BYD is making cars exactly like they were 5 years ago. Technology moves so slowly.
Oh, a quick search shows of BYD cars shows me their cars up until around that time looked like a cheap kia from the early 2000s and now the new models look weirdly like a Tesla. I'm sure that's complete coincidence though. China with it's super strict IP laws and parents should never steal anything.
Imagine thinking a "theft" of the idea of a trash can looking like a futuristic car dreamed of by kids in the 90s is something to cry over.
They were very far ahead in many technical areas until recently. Revisionist history is silly.