Led by the automaker BYD, China has established itself as the main car supplier in Mexico. The US worries China could use Mexico as a “back door” to sidestep tariffs and gain footing in the US market.
China has positioned itself as the main car supplier in Mexico, with exports reaching $4.6 billion in 2023, according to data from Mexico's Secretariat of Economy.
The Chinese automaker BYD surpassed Honda and Nissan to position itself as the seventh largest automaker in the world by number of units sold during the April to June quarter. This growth was driven by increased demand for its affordable electric vehicles, according to data from automakers and research firm MarkLines.
The company's new vehicle sales rose 40 percent year over year to 980,000 units in the quarter—the same quarter wherein most major automakers, including Toyota and Volkswagen, experienced a decline in sales. Much of BYD's growth is attributed to its overseas sales, which nearly tripled in the past year to 105,000 units. Now BYD is considering locating its new auto plant in three Mexican states: Durango, Jalisco, and Nuevo Leon.
Foreign investment would be an economic boost for Mexico. The company has claimed that a plant there would create about 10,000 jobs. A Tesla competitor, BYD markets its Dolphin Mini model in Mexico for about 398,800 pesos—about $21,300 dollars—a little more than half the price of the cheapest Tesla model.
...
That tariff-free access is part of the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (T-MEC), an updated version of the North American Free Trade Agreement that, as of 2018, eliminated tariffs on many products traded between the North American countries. Under the treaty, if a foreign automotive company that manufactures vehicles in Canada or Mexico can demonstrate that the materials used are locally sourced, its products can be exported to the United States virtually duty-free.
MAGA strikes again
i cant wait to fuck american automakers over by buying a cheap, higher quality chinese ev. i dont care how much it costs, it will be worth it to thumb my nose at that shitty fucking industry.
Outside of Tesla, the EV market in the US is already comprised of mostly foreign brands. These concerns aren't about protecting the few American automakers (GM, Ford, Tesla) left, it's about protecting the market for everyone, protecting all those union jobs, and preventing a bunch of companies going out of business because they can't compete against unsustainable Chinese subsidies.
We could match the subsidies. Wow shocker, an amazing idea!
Its ridiculous watching Americans actively argue against their own benefit.
The subsidies they're paying are completely unsustainable and is just a race to the bottom for both countries.
Why are China's subsidies bad and Americas good?
Because China's only apply to Chinese vehicles while the US's apply to everyone in the industry including foreign brands. This increases competition. China's goal is to reduce competition by putting competitors out of business so that they can recoup their investment by jacking up the prices once there is nobody left to stand in their way.
Did you consider they are subsidizing it to reduce pollution? Would be great if the greatest country in the west started solving problems again instead of coming up with elaborate scams and grifts.
That's a hilarious take as they're the largest polluter in the world and have terrible environmental regulations. They're doing it to capture and control the market. How does dumping a bunch of cheap, disposable cars that they've shipped halfway across the world after building reduce pollution exactly?
https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2023-china-ev-graveyards/
America is a huge polluter too. Noones getting it right entirely. If you look at Chinas policy over the past ten years it appears they have been putting a big focus on it from the top down.
I could link you a bunch of american car graveyards too. America is hard to beat when it comes to greed, almost every other nation won't allow their citizens to be treated so poorly, including China.
Of course if you are wealthy in america things are great, so theres that.
The main problem with BYD cars is that they are heavily subsidizing by the Chinese government.
If you remove those subsidies then those cars aren’t going to be very competitive. But the problem would be that by the time the Chinese government stopped subsidies, there wouldn’t be any competition left.
Our best ways to counteract this would either be through heavy tariffs or by subsidizing our own companies in the west.
MAGA wants to do the tariffs route which is basically a bandaid solution that would prevent the Chinese companies from owning the US market but it wouldn’t do anything outside of that. Plus it doesn’t solve is being competitive, it’s just covering its ears and “lalala”’ing the issue for later generations to deal with it. Which honestly, that tracks for basically their whole platform.
If you do the subsidies route though, we’d have to make sure we’re not just constantly lining Musk’s pockets but Tesla is the company has the biggest head start. And Musk is a PoS but the devil’s credit is that our EV market wouldn’t exist without Tesla.
IMO, we need to diversify our EV makers and help provide the capital to bootstrap it. And while that’s happening we need to not let cheap Chinese cars flood the market to undercut any chance we have. So basically we need a combination of both solutions.
I would say that all tracks but american car companies are refusing to even attempt to make an affordable electric vehicle, so how can you say its just a gap in research that subsidies would fix.
Subsidies would be drained the same way the profits were, why wouldnt they. American car companies refuse to listen to demand, and this is what they get for it.
They could build and sell a basic car (combustion) for under $15k if enough people bought them but most people don't want stripped down compact cars. There's just not enough of a market to justify cheap cars in the US.
I disagree but I don't really have any data or anything.
In my opinion most people want the least car they need. Its a tool and the simpler and more efficient the better. We won't know because there just isnt a line of cars like that.
I have a 2017 Mitsubishi mirage manual thats very simple and efficient, not a bad example.
Mitsubishi sold 87,000 vehicles in 2023 only 13,000 were mirages. Kia sold 782,000, 27,000 were rios. Nissian sold 235,000, 4,000 were versas.
In Europe the dacia sold 493,000, 200,000 were sanderos. Those are the numbers needed to make cheap compact cars.
Its an example of the type of car I think would sell well if an american car company made it.
There is no comparison vehicle by american brands at the moment.
Renault could import the Dacia Sandero and have its msrp be $1000 less than the versa after terrifs. With that kind of price advantage you'd think they would but there's been no effort on their part. The US market for cheap vehicles is too small.
I don't have an issue myself but I think. the average american wants to buy from one of the american brands, even the one thats not american anymore.
I don't think Americans trust dirt cheap foreign goods just yet. Harder to find the right person to yell at you know, or whatever.
The Mazda 3s in the 2010s were cheap and were competitive with the focus sales wise. Kia has sold tons of vehicles and they are piles of cheap garbage yet Americans keep buying their larger vehicles.
So do we have demand for cheap cars or not then? I thought you were arguing the demand wasnt there.
Besides you confirmed by opinion that its common to not trust "piles of cheap garbage".
In my opinion the ford focus was just as much a pile of cheap garbage as the rest but people think Ford is more reliable or at least wouldnt try to kill its own citizens.
The demand isn't there for small cheap vehicles, my point was Americans have no problems buying cheap "foreign" cars.
My opnion of does not reflect the opnion of the American population, kias and Hyundai sell well here.
Our opinions on vehicles are not the issue. Americans don't want cheap domestic small cars which is why they don't sell well here. Americans don't want cheap small foreign cars not because they don't trust cheap foreign vehicles but because they don't want cheap small cars.
Then why do people want a cheap small electric? It being electric changes the whole equation?
I know a ton of people that won't buy new cars to begin with too, you don't think the used car crowd loves cheap small cars?
Is it possible instead of the demand not being there at all, its being diverted to used automobiles and so new car sales are skewed to more expensive cars and luxury cars?
The working class does not buy new cars on the regular as far as I know. The median wage in america is what like 50-55k a year?