cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/38117429

Archived

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The reasons for the ultra-low prices of Chinese electric cars are complex. They are not limited to cheaper labor or generous state subsidies that violate the rules of fair competition. Often the cost of products is also reduced by ignoring labor standards, using forced labor, as well as monopoly control over key components, especially rare earth metals. China, as the largest supplier of these strategically important resources, is consciously using them as a geopolitical tool of influence.

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The economic aspect is only part of the problem. Concerns about security, data privacy and technological sovereignty are growing. Modern electric cars are equipped with dozens of sensors, are constantly connected to the Internet and have functions for remote software updates, transmission of telemetry or even control of certain vehicle functions in real time.

In the case of Chinese electric cars, these capabilities become potential tools for espionage, collection of sensitive data or, in extreme cases, remote sabotage. American intelligence agencies and European cybersecurity experts have repeatedly warned about the possibility of collecting personal information through Chinese-made “smart” cars, including GPS routes, camera and microphone recordings, user preferences, mobile device connections and even access to home Wi-Fi networks.

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The real shock comes from the fact that some Chinese electric cars are capable of receiving commands directly from servers located in China. This means that in the event of political tension or a hybrid attack, the car could theoretically be stopped or even cause an accident by changing its behavior. In a worst-case scenario, these cars could become remotely controlled weapons - without any input from the driver.

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Behind the cheapness of such cars are not only marketing and technology, but also a whole complex of risks - from ethical to strategic. Before buying the next “affordable” electric car, every consumer must ask themselves the question: am I willing to pay with my own safety for this “bargain” purchase?

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/37465853

Archived

• BYD has reportedly sued 37 influencers in China, claiming they have made defamatory comments.
• The manufacturer has a News Anti-Fraud department where people can send tips about possible defamation and get rewards.
• Companies suing influencers for potentially damaging their image is far more common in China than it is in the West.

The relationship between automakers and the people who create content with their vehicles can sometimes be tense. However, it seldom results in legal action taken against them, and requests to change or remove content are usually about as extreme as it gets.

But not if you’re covering the world’s fastest-growing automaker over the last few years, BYD, which is reportedly taking 37 influencers to court over things they said that it deems defamatory.

CarNewsChina says BYD has also added 126 content creators to an internal watch list, and they will be monitored in the future, potentially also facing legal action from the automaker if they say something that the company sees as damaging to its image. The carmaker created a “News Anti-Fraud Office” a few years ago and it’s encouraging people to send tips about potentially damaging content.

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To encourage tip-offs about potential smear campaigns, BYD is offering substantial bonuses—50,000 to 5 million yuan ($6,900 to $690,000)—for credible leads. The source lists several examples of why BYD sued influencers. In one instance, a person accused the company of manipulating content creators to say negative things about rival brands.

The court concluded that the influencer was required to make a public apology and pay a fine of 100,000 yuan (around $13,800). Another influencer was fined after making claims that BYD was financially unstable and on the verge of bankruptcy.

All of these fines pale in comparison to the August 2023 lawsuit launched by Nissan Dongfeng against an influencer who had posted over 50 videos on TikTok denigrating the automaker’s vehicles. He was asked to pay 5 million yuan in reparations to the manufacturer. In 2022, Tesla also took a Chinese influencer to court, demanding 5 million yuan in reparations, but eventually settled for a lot less.

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Archived

Carmakers and salespeople in Brazil are up in arms at the arrival of a giant cargo vessel carrying thousands of cheap Chinese electric vehicles.

The world’s largest car-carrying ship – one of a number deployed by BYD, China’s biggest carmaker – is said to carry the equivalent of 20 football fields of vehicles. It finished its maiden journey to dock at Brazil’s Itajai port late last month. But not everyone is happy about its arrival.

BYD, China’s top producer of EVs and plug-in hybrids, is offering Brazilian car shoppers relatively low-priced options in a market where the green-car movement is still in its infancy. But Brazilian auto-industry officials and labour leaders fear the vast influx of cars from BYD and other Chinese carmakers will set back domestic auto production and hurt jobs.

Calls for immediate 35% tariffs after flood of EVs

The late-May shipment was the fourth of the Chinese carmaker’s ships to dock in Brazil this year, totalling around 22,000 vehicles, according to Reuters calculations.

BYD, the world’s top producer of electric and plug-in hybrid cars, is the largest among several Chinese brands targeting Brazil for growth. China-built vehicle imports are expected to grow nearly 40% this year, to about 200,000, according to Brazil’s main auto association. That would account for roughly 8% of total light-vehicle registrations.

Industry and labour groups say China is taking advantage of Brazil’s temporarily low tariff barriers to ramp up its exports rather than investing to build Brazilian factories and create jobs.

They are lobbying Brazil’s government to accelerate by a year a plan to increase Brazil’s tariff on all EV imports to 35% from 10%, rather than gradually phasing in higher levies.

“Countries around the world started closing their doors to the Chinese, but Brazil didn’t,” said Aroaldo da Silva, a Mercedes-Benz production worker and president of IndustriALL Brasil, a confederation of unions across six industrial sectors. “China made use of that.”

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/37394400

Archived

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For all the Chinese government’s efforts to prevent price cuts by market leader BYD Co. from turning into a vicious spiral, analysts say a combination of weaker demand and extreme overcapacity will slice into profits at the strongest brands and force feebler competitors to fold. Even after the number of EV makers started shrinking for the first time last year, the [Chinese] industry is still using less than half its production capacity.

Chinese authorities are trying to minimize the fallout, chiding the sector for “rat race competition” and summoning heads of major brands to Beijing last week. Yet previous attempts to intervene have had little success. For the short term at least, investors are betting few automakers will escape unscathed: BYD, arguably the biggest winner from industry consolidation, has lost $21.5 billion in market value since its shares peaked in late May.

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Auto CEOs were told last week they must “self-regulate” and shouldn’t sell cars below cost or offer unreasonable price cuts, according to people familiar with the matter. The issue of zero-mileage cars also came up — where vehicles with no distance on their odometers are sold by dealers into the second-hand market, seen widely as a way for automakers to artificially inflate sales and clear inventory.

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The pricing turmoil is also unfolding against a backdrop of significant overcapacity. The average production utilization rate in China’s automotive industry was mere 49.5% in 2024, data compiled by Shanghai-based Gasgoo Automotive Research Institute show.

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The Chinese electric vehicle (EV) boom has turned into a dramatic shakeout with 400 Chinese EV companies ceasing operations between 2018 – 2025 [...] China’s EV startup explosion was fuelled by generous subsidies, tax breaks, and easy access to local production licenses between 2015 and 2019. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), this led to an overcrowded market of more than 500 ventures, many lacking core technology, supply chains, or scale.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/37005961

Archived

[Chinese EV manufacturer] BYD is facing growing challenges from an intensifying price war and a change in supplier payment regulations in China, raising market concerns about the company’s financial stability.

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BYD executive vice president Stella Li told Bloomberg in an interview on June 12 that the “very extreme, tough competition” in the Chinese EV market is unsustainable.

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Last October, the European Union imposed tariffs ranging from 17% to 35.3% on Chinese EVs (BYD: 17%, Geely: 18.8%, SAIC and others: 35.3%). China suggested setting minimum prices for the EVs it ships to the EU. Both sides are still negotiating the matter.

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/31994855

Archived

The Xiaomi SU7, which has been lauded for its safety features since its March 2024 market launch, has recorded its first widely reported fatal accident, resulting in the deaths of three female university students.

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Initial reports on Chinese social media claimed the vehicle caught fire after a collision, with allegations that the “doors could not be unlocked, preventing escape.” The incident quickly gained attention as the first publicly reported fatality involving Xiaomi’s flagship electric vehicle.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/19413486

TLDR:

• The New South Wales (NSW) Anti-Slavery Commissioner is reviewing the state government's deal to buy 319 electric buses from Australian-Chinese manufacturers.
• The Chinese company's CATL batteries used in the government's zero emission bus fleet are allegedly linked to Uyghur forced labour camps in the Xinjiang region.
• The Australian Uyghur Tangritagh Women's Association is calling on the government to rip up the contracts and strengthen procurement mandates.

New South Wales Anti-slavery Commissioner James Cockayne is reviewing the state government's procurement of hundreds of electric buses amid concerns that parts of the vehicles were manufactured using slave labour.

In December the state government announced that it had ordered 319 electric buses as part of its goal to get 1,700 of the vehicles onto Sydney roads by 2028.

The contracts were awarded to Australian-Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers Foton Mobility Distribution (FMD) and VDI Australia, which distributes Yutong buses.

The vehicles use batteries made by Chinese firm Contemporary Amperex Technology Company Limited (CATL).

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China processes 60 per cent of the world's lithium needed for EV batteries and the majority of the work is carried out in the Xinjiang region.

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/29379966

Archived

In the background of the EU’s potential mood shift toward China, President of the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association Ola Kallenius made a suggestion last month. Speaking to the Financial Times, he said the tariffs the EU imposed on China’s electric vehicles, or EVs, last October could be replaced by encouraging Chinese carmakers to open more plants inside the EU.

For anyone concerned about climate change, that might seem like good news, given the EU’s current stance nakedly prioritizes economic competitiveness over the fast rollout of vehicles that can reduce catastrophic carbon emissions.

But even if the idea came to fruition, there’s a catch. Around 85% of China’s total lithium reserves, which power both the batteries and the entertainment systems in the EVs, are thought to sit in Tibet. And even Chinese factories located in Europe would source their lithium from there — as BYD (比亞迪) and non-Chinese Tesla currently do.

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Mining lithium involves salt-rich brine being pumped to the Earth’s surface and allowed to evaporate. This process consumes large amounts of water, can make water undrinkable and can destroy traditional farmlands and nature reserves. In 2016, the Liqi River was contaminated, destroying the local water supply and killing livestock and fish. The process can also pollute sacred grasslands.

“Tibetans actually don’t benefit from the mining. They experience negative effects of mining including environmental degradation, loss of land and displacement,” renowned Tibet researcher Gabriel Lafitte told a recent Institute for Security and Development Policy online event.

“Mining is often very bad for local water resources,” Martin Mills, chair in anthropology and director of the Scottish Centre for Himalayan Research at the University of Aberdeen explained. “Mines involve the release of and use of a wide variety of very nasty chemicals that … often render areas infertile and create high cancer rates, poisoning rates. Animals can’t live there so that’s a local problem [too.]”

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The effects are not only localized, though. The Tibetan Plateau (sometimes known as the Earth’s “Third Pole”) is home to permafrost which stores vast amounts of carbon dioxide. Alongside existing climate change and increased solar radiation, which are the dominant factors, mining of the mountains around the permafrost, and damming of the Tibetan rivers, exacerbate the thawing of permafrost.

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“The world seems to have opted for the rather simplistic assumption that anything and everything that reduces our carbon emissions is the magical solution,” Gabriel Lafitte said.

“[A] lot of environmentalists actually argue that China is the key and maybe now that we have a President Trump they may even more strongly embrace China as the world’s great hope for a simplistic tech solution to the climate crisis … and so [they believe] if Tibet is to be sacrificed well you know that’s very unfortunate but it may be necessary.”

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Treating places like Tibet as places to grab resources and ignore the consequences.

“We’re moving into a political domain in which people understand you need to grab resources — food resources, mineral resources — and you need to create a hinterland and you need to control those hinterlands and Tibet is part of that,” Mills explained.

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“The truth of the matter is the shift to green technologies is going to damage the environment just as much as fossil fuels will do because the question is not what technology we’re using, it’s how much energy and resource we are consuming across the board,” Mills summarized.

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Canonical YouTube link

Complimentary ChargePoint Home Flex Level 2 charger + 600 installation credit = ~1,100 value

Good to see some attention to the smaller models

Looks like Tesla is BSing their max range.

Feels like the blazer is gonna be DOA given the stuff competition in the segment