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I'm currently residing in a major oil exporter and I still see BYD cars daily, the Seal is gorgeous. I think EVs have about 3% of the market here, and Lucid has a factory not too far from where I live.
If I were to buy an EV it will probably be the Bestune Pony. For some reason it costs 2x as much as it does in its home country -not tariffs, there's barely any, and VAT is 15% on all products imported or domestic- but that still makes it the cheapest car on sale here, EV or otherwise.
That legitimately looks as bare-bones as possible in this day and age - and I’m all for it.
In terms of the cost difference - I would assume the source nation has a local subsidy that doesn’t apply to exports, in addition to the logistics, warehousing costs of shipping a vehicle overseas.
Personally, we’ve got our eyes on the BYD ATTO 2 as a local run-around for outer suburbia here in Australia. Even our shortest trips are 10-15 minutes each one way (and no public transport options), and most commutes are ~45 minutes.
I'm saying this without knowing much but I sure wish these vehicles were available in the US.
even if they were, its unlikely many would want to get them sadly. at least in the current state of things
Especially considering the current congress bipartisan support for an eventual 150$ annual registration fee tacked onto the yearly registration costs as an apparent attempt to combat the lack of the fuel tax.
Or at least thats what it's being claimed it's for. I personally see it to be a dissuasion tactic from EV's as if you compare it to the standard fuel tax which is 18¢ per gallon so you would need an insane amount of miles in order to break even with a standard ICE vehicle. (a little more than 722 gallons of fuel to save anyone some math. If you would like to see it with your vehicle you can take your average MPG and times it by 722.22 and you would get how many miles at the theoretical max it would take to break even with this fee. mine is EPA certified at 29 mpg which would be 20,944.44 miles a year to break even)
Zoom out. BYD models are $10k cheaper than comparable models, you're saving maybe $1k+ annually on gas, and you're throwing in the towel on $150 tax? They are not available in US because of anti-competition and "national security" concerns, but if they were, the US manufacturers would be getting murked. As it is, we're just going to massively lose global market share.
I do have to say, electricity is much cheaper than gas which was why I was thinking about it(but I wouldn't actually break even as I don't drive constantly), being said people keep giving the huge price differences on the models, but when I look into them I never seem to see the price actually hold up. Like for example the BYD website gives price ranges of what they think the difference is converted to USD (although I question how accurate that conversion is because their estimates don't seem to follow conversion rate). When doing my research on US ev's I usually see vehicles in the 28-45k range which I agree is a large range but the cost range is sporadic on models. I have not seen any vehicles significantly cheaper than that on the market anywhere
That being said, I'm against blocks in the first place, If they do end up coming in, and they do end up being 10k less than the rest of the competition, I would be super happy for that and jump on it so fast, realistically even if they were allowed in I don't think we are seeing those prices level prices. Like even looking at the cost of said vehicles in other countries and converting the value to USD and trying to account for taxes, I don't see anything mindblowingly different.
I hope you end up being right though, it would be nice for the market to get blindsided. I know the last time i did my calculations on it it would take close to 6 years for me to break even after needing to install a charging station and the increase in price from the ICE to the EV.
Being said, I also noticed that companies in the US are starting to phase EV's into their normal lineup more, which im also happy with. my current chevy model was discontinued for an EV. So EV's are going to be the future regardless, so eventually I will have to join
100% the cheapest, most green choice is keep driving what you already have. But when I did my own math on my projected ownership of 10+ years, going electric was a no brainer on deciding between ICE and electric, and I'm betting that math will only get more in favor for electric on the basis that manufacturing petroleum products is dependent on a limited resource while green electricity is only getting bigger and cheaper. Especially if you're able to get your own solar power generation.