I went to a BYD dealer, and found out why Japanese reject EVs.

We are in Yokohama, the second-largest city in Japan, hoping to find out what the EV market is like and how Chinese electric vehicles are doing here.

Here in MAD EV, we offer you interesting hands-on reviews on the latest electric vehicles and in-depth analyses of the Chinese EV market and industry.

#byd #byddolphin #bydatto3 #japan #electriccar

[Expedition_Tranquilo]

The answer should be staring you in the face. Look at what are the most popular brands in Japan in any tech segment, be it TVs, laptops, appliances, motorcycles... or cars. They top 5 in each segment are Japanese. The only company that has managed to break through is Apple in mobile phones.

Not only are Japanese economically patriotic, preferring for their money to be spent on Japanese products, they have a strong belief in the superiority of their technology.

And BYD and Kia? The Japanese don't like either the Chinese or the Koreans (and vice versa), so it's hardly surprising neither of these brands have been successful in Japan.

[staphzhang]

The thing is that EV shines on commuting with overnight charging. However most Japanese do not have their own garage that offers 200V electricity, nor do they have to drive a car to commute.

The only time I drive is for road trips - long distance with no overnight charging is one of the specific use cases where current EVs perform terribly.

[raymonddon]

i live in brazil and BYD chinese are everywhere here in brazil. we love BYD... from your good friends in brazil

[InVader]

EVs are for city commutes, but good public transport infrastructure is always better than EVs. Cars are for outside the city and that's the one aspect where EVs fail currently.

[kenyup]

From Chinese perspective, reason is simple, their Toyota honda japanese vehicles is good enough for their own, that's why our EVs doesn't have any market in their country

[terradrive]

1) japan has been having energy crisis for decades, fukushima incident and other nuclear power plans being scaled down make the issues more serious.
2) lack of garage and charging at home especially in the city. They use 120v default which has more than 15% ac to dc conversion loss when charging
3) those tiny kei cars are very cheap and efficient, they can get nearly 50 mpg us.
4) they prefer pushing for hydrogen since they have deposits on their shores that they can mine for hydrogen in the future if needed

[malcolmar]

I can't argue with how the Japanese view and make cars. I live in the US and I have a Toyota and Honda that I bought brand new 5 years ago. Both are amazing cars are are very fuel efficient especially when you consider the horsepower they produce. They are not hybrids and are not electric. They have given me zero problems and next month is my last payment for my Toyota and I will be done paying off my Honda soon after that. Because of this it will be like an automatic raise from my job because I will no longer have a car payment and both cars run better than the day I bought them. I am looking forward to owning them many more years trouble free years to come.

My Honda Civic is so special to me I am never selling that car and will give it to my children. One problem with EVs is that many will not outlast the payments making them a bad financial investment for the buyer. Both my Toyota and Honda still hold their value today with my Honda being worth more money than when I bought it so if I absolutely needed cash right now I could get good money from both of my cars. You just can't say that about a used EV.

[manwingchi]

Japanese choice Japan car. Chinese choice China car. America choice US car. This seem very fair to me. 😂😂😂

[chateytung]

Japanese work 14 hours per day and 6 days a week, they don't want to waste time charging their car

[gluttonousmaximus]

Ultimately it's easier to promote a car-free lifestyle there than an EV-centric lifestyle.

[kkkk]

Japanese here.
In short EVs can’t meet standards most people here have.

Here is my take:
1) Japanese people don’t “reject” EVs. They are just not competitive enough to win buyers, because:
2) The first priority here is cost effectiveness. EVs are simply expensive to buy.
You need to double your budget compared to similar cars with an engine. This is a dealbreaker for most people.
Also the value declines very fast due to battery degradation. Few buy EVs second hand and it is considered as a stupid choice.
3) So many compromises compared to car with ICE. You need to wait half an hour to fully recharge. You need to install a charger (it is so expensive you can buy another used car!) if you want to avoid the infrastructure problem. You need to deal with battery degradation, and swapping batteries is expensive.
4) Poor protection against accidents made EVs unpopular. Many Japanese people fear battery explosion when EVs crash. (This is somewhat irrational because no one questioned the same to HVs…)
5) There are still doubts for the quality of Chinese or Korean products quality.
So many Japanese people don’t trust them, especially when accidents easily become fatal.
6) Not a few people doubt how ecological EV is. Zero emission is considered as a fancy “lie” (too much energy consumption to produce batteries).

[DannChewie]

Without suitable charging infrastructure EV's will never work in any area

[IanHobday]

4.4mil yen? For a Chinese car? Yeah, that's not really going to sell in Japan. Maybe if it was 2mil JPY it would attract more customers. Even Korean cars really don't exist in Japan, I've seen 2 or 3 Hyundai in total in my 30 years here, and at least one of them was a South Korean diplomatic car.

[cabbys]

It was a massive change from horse and buggies to ICE cars 100 years ago. We’re going through a similar transformation now.

[sleepyjoe]

The saying goes: Japan is living in the future

The problem is, that future is the year 2000, and this saying has been around since the 1990s.

In other words, Japan has been stuck in a time-bubble for the past 20+ years. Forget about the "lost decade". We need to add a S to decades.

[Hoa]

Japan is right to refuse Chinese electric cars. They have enough qualifications to develop their own cars. I agree with Japan.

[paolocruz]

Our generation is just broke. We can't afford any vehicle. Kei cars sell well because it's the cheapest in the market. Even then it's still a hard sell.

[ah]

BYD is not the leading EV brand in Japan. Why didn’t you visit Tesla instead?

[delta]

They reject EVs because they have to no battery manufacturing on the scale for EVs. Japanese would rather get battery tech from local companies like Panasonic and use their current technology than to buy large battery packs from companies like BYD. They want EVs, it's just that they know they will end up killing their own peers from other Japanese companies faster. So they are delaying the inevitable and hope things will turn around but I think EVs will be the future. They are also buying time so that Panasonic and other battery manufacturers of Japan can get their tech up to car level battery packs and compete with China battery manufacturers

[philbookallil]

Just back from Japan today where I spent a lot of time spotting EVs. About a dozen spotted over a 2 week period. Manly Tesla 3, Ys. 2x BYD (Atto3 and Dolphin) and a Porsche Taycan.

I went to a Toyota dealership and asked them if I could see a BZ4, they did not know what it was. They did not have any and said they don't sell EVs. They had a Miro (Hydrogen) car out the front.

Japan is very different to Australia. There is not much space. They really need to have an on street charging system to make it viable. Very rare to see a garage that you could charge in. To there credit their electric subway system with millions using it everyday trumps our EV efforts in terms of pollution reduction.

I also noticed that there is a huge solar uptake in Japan so soon the penny will drop that all the excess can go into transport.