Comment by embedding-shape
1 day ago
> They utterly dominate globally outside of EU/NA where they face extreme tariffs.
Even inside of EU, seemingly BYD have reasonable prices, especially compared to their EU competitors. I'm an current Audi owner in Spain, who is currently very close of getting a BYD DM-i Touring, and compared to what I would get from Audi for the same price, BYD still offers a lot more in everything except "nice steering feeling", at least from what I've gathered from my test drives.
Even inside of EU, seemingly BYD have reasonable prices, especially compared to their EU competitors.
This will usually be the case, because domestic manufacturers raise prices once tariffs (import taxes) on foreign manufacturers are imposed.
This is also why import taxes are so hard to eliminate once they're introduced: domestic manufacturers get used to the gratuitous revenue cushion, and the government gets used to the gratuitous tax cushion. Meanwhile consumers wonder why everything has gotten so expensive.
That's because the car lobby only cared about electric vehicle tariffs, the petrol cars from China are tax free
(There's also anti-dumping tariffs on electric bikes from China, I wonder if it's the same lobby...)
> offers a lot more in everything except "nice steering feeling"
Isn’t it wise to prefer a nice steering feeling? Your body is, after all, going to be feeling it every time you drive.
There are lots of choices that go into choosing a car, not just feeling of the steering, although it's very important (for me at least). Not to mention I'm not the only person in the car, and the passenger experience is important too. Almost more importantly, the BYD I'm looking at have AC inside of the seat, which if I want to have a new Audi with that, it's a big price change, and with BYD it's a smaller change. Same goes for many features between them, which makes it look like if you want the same amount of features in an Audi as I'd get with a BYD, you're looking at almost double the price.
As a long term BMW driver instead of Audi I have the same. I'm swapping one of my two BMWs for a Model Y Premium. Also tried the BYD 7 but the Model Y felt nicer to drive and with more space.
The BMW iX1 is disappointing in range, interior luxury and power. It's below an older 6 series (that I'm switching from), and much less powerful than a Model Y AWD. No idea why BMW thinks they can price it like they do. The other option was the BMW i5 Touring but it's more expensive and feels "old" already.