China’s Auto Takeover: BYD Vs. Tesla And The Battle For EV Supremacy | CNBC Marathon

CNBC examines China’s rapidly growing automotive industry, focusing on its technological advancements, increasing exports, and a lack of interest in American car brands.

BYD, backed by Warren Buffett and recognized as China’s leading car brand, overtook Tesla in Q4 2023 as the world’s top electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer, selling more battery-powered vehicles than its U.S. rival. The company is aggressively expanding globally, exporting over 240,000 cars to 70 countries last year. During Tesla's Q4 earnings call, Elon Musk warned that Chinese automakers could "demolish most other car companies in the world" unless regulators intervene.

Detroit automakers like General Motors reaped huge profits selling cars to Chinese consumers after China opened its auto market to foreign firms in the 1980s. However, those lucrative days appear to be over. Chinese firms have caught up with, and in some cases surpassed, the foreign companies that once taught them the automotive trade. Jeep’s joint venture has already gone bankrupt, and one industry analyst predicts that Ford, GM, and others—such as Hyundai, Kia, and Nissan—could withdraw from the Chinese market within the next five years.

Today, China has the manufacturing capacity to supply half the world’s cars and is setting its sights on the U.S. market. While Chinese-owned brands like Volvo, Polestar, and Lotus are already present in the U.S., no purely Chinese brands have entered the market yet. In May 2024, President Biden imposed steep tariffs on Chinese automakers, doubling the price of imported EVs. However, some insiders believe tariffs might be ineffective in the long term and could cause more harm than good.

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
00:51 How Chinese EV Giant BYD Is Taking On Tesla (Published March 2024)
17:17 Why American Automakers Are Failing In China (Published May 2024)
33:48 Why EV Tariffs Won't Stop Chinese Cars (Published June 2024)

Produced by: Andrew Evers, Robert Ferris
Edited by: Andrew Evers, Darren Geeter
Supervising Producer: Jeniece Pettitt, Tala Hadavi
Animation: Christina Locopo, Jason Reginato
Narration: Robert Ferris
Additional Footage: Getty Images, BYD, Polestar, Hyundai Motors, Volvo, Geely, Tesla, Toyota, Honda
Additional Sources: FactSet, Tesla, General Motors, Kiel Institute
Additional Editing: Emily Rabbideau

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Why China’s Car Market Is Skyrocketing | CNBC Marathon

[flowertowerrr]

When a chinese company does well, it'sa threat. When a usa company does well its a global success. Thx bloomberg

[Melohalo]

"Instead of producing better cars and providing the American consumer with higher value for their dollar let's just spend that money on lobbying lawmakers into preventing competition from entering our market". Free market my ass.

[ocean]

Putting a 100% on Chinese EVs implies US lost the EV battle.

[rkgsd]

When you're a big country like America which was known for being a world leader in industry and technology and the only way you feel you can compete with Chinese companies is to double their prices with tariffs, you are essentially saying you're afraid and can't compete...essentially waiving the white flag. How the mighty have fallen!

[Mrnovanova]

Tesla promised us a sub 30k electric vehicle years ago. What did we get instead? The Cybertruck! 🙄

[clorox]

I am in Mexico here. What battle ? Tesla is nowhere near as good as BYD.

Tesla is done, there is no reason to buy an expensive subpar car anymore, unless you are an American

[ALROD]

I'm from Brazil and BYD is a pretty common brand I see. I can say the same is happening in Uruguay the last time I visited the country last December.

[bigmantrue]

I dislike that American politicians don't allow affordable, quality Chinese electric vehicles in the US.

[stelp]

I own a BYD Seal. fantastic car, good value even with the inflated price we pay here in Australia. Legacy auto got caught sleeping, and now they're crapping their pants, tugging at governments aprons, hence the tariffs, and accusations of "government subsidies" of Chinese auto, while they themselves gobble up taxpayer money.

[godzillamothra]

The US talked as if they didn't enjoy the Chinese subsidy themselves. For decades, GM, Ford, Toyota etc enjoyed subsidies from Chinese government in term of free usage of lands for their factories and low taxes. Tesla not only enjoyed the free land for its Gigafactory, it even enjoyed the EV subsidy launched by the Chinese gov to promote EV. We are not even talking about the subsidy they enjoyed in their homeland, the USA, courtesy of the US federal and states government.

China also didn't push them out of the Chinese market, they are losing market share due to their own incompetence. For years the Chinese government has been promoting EVs. When the world largest auto market, and your largest customer, said they want EV, you should have listened. Instead they rest on their laurels, thinking the Chinese can never catch up with their ICE cars tech, and that EV will never take off. They are right that the Chinese didn't catch up with their ICE cars, the Chinese never tried to, the Chinese just leaped ahead with EVs. Few years back, when the Chinese government wanted to set up the time table to ban ICE cars, the foreigners beg the Chinese government to give them more time. Years later, they still couldn't catch up, and climate change wait for no one. The foreign automakers performed so bad that even their Chinese partners are worried about them.

The overcapacity is also another BS concocted by the losers in the west. the Chinese only exported about 15% of their cars, while the Germans exported about 70% and the Japanese exported about 50% of their production. Who is the one with overcapacity problem?

[yaoypl]

Communist China is capitalism on steroids. The cut-throat competition of China seems to make the capitalist USA look like the Soviet Union. 🤣

[russbarrows]

My wife and I were really impressed with the BYD cars used as taxis in Bangkok. Quality of build was evident. That, and the ride were remarkable.

[enzhus]

China auto production is 30.16 million and auto sales is 30.09 million, it looks a little over capacity.
On contract, Korea auto production number is over 4.2 million but sales is only 1.89 millions, Japan auto production number is over 9.9 millions and sales is only 4.78 millions. Don't you see Korea and Japan are so much over capacity than China? Why don't US penalize them for their over capacity? If China should get 100% import tax, shouldn't Korea and Japan get 1000%?

[XRenimages]

China: Working on EV for 30 years..
America: Oh No, we never saw that coming!

[eddiehumphreys]

I checked out the BYD Seal in Mexico and it is very underrated. I can see why people are scared of China 🇨🇳 😱 😂

[TJMartinek]

I feel like we didn't pay enough attention to the person who said US automakers aren't using the latest chip. If I'm buying a 50K car it better be at least as responsive as a $50 Raspberry Pi. And I'm tired of fighting for CarPlay, just include it. I don't trust carmakers to do literally anything.

[wesleypulkka]

US government subsidies to oil companies is 100 billion dollars every five years! Subsidies for EVs and solar is close to one billion per year! How about tariffs on corporate political donations to congress, judicial and the executive branch?

[nicholasl]

They did not tell audience that BYD's success root in pure technology investment and they bet all their resources in new technology and finally paid off . their Plug in Hydrid EV made a major break in technology and turn around all situation .

[Chris-trjd]

If I was in the market for an EV I would choose a BYD over a Tesla and I’m American, they need to start selling their EVs in the USA

[firstcall]

Tesla can’t compete with BYD, the vast array of models, low costs, Tesla’s answer … the Cybertruck.