Isn’t China flooding Europe with cheap EVs? Not necessarily a bad thing but could have some unforeseen repercussions.

Also I’m not advocating that U.S. Automakers are any better, they are not.

I was at the local BYD dealership and it was a ghost town. More employees than potential customers by a large margin. Honestly, the cars they had on display were all way too big for the local market (France), so that is definitely a factor. But, really, people are concerned about the brand and its long-term prospects, and barely anyone is buying. I don’t think I have ever seen a BYD driven in town.

I do see some chinese brands on the road, but not many in comparison to other more established brands.

The thing keeping people away from chinese brands is the uncertainty of future repairs. The “flood” might come in a few years once people have more experience with how it’s handled. Currently, as people get their first EVs, they want to be able to take their VW to the VW shop, not take their BYD to the random no-name mechanic with a BYD sticker on their window.

Everyone is also waiting for the statistics from the EU inspections. Nobody wants a car that can’t pass the inspection in a few years time. Tesla has proven to be a huge failure in that regard, and I think that will scare people away from not only Tesla, but also the unknown chinese brands who yet have to prove themselves.

It also doesn’t help that these smaller brands pop up and go bankrupt in the same year as they scramble to find their markets.

EU brands might not be any better or cheaper, but at least they are better represented locally.

They are not all “smaller” brands. BYD SAIC CHERY etc are fucking giants.

Yeah BYD will survive, but smaller brands like hiphi, neta, nio, LI auto, etc. There are more than 160 different Chinese brands trying to enter the markets. Most of them will or have already failed in Europe, even if they are active in other countries.

Plenty of new European brands have also failed for the same reasons.

The European EV market is dominated by European carmakers. There are dozens of models, many of them affordable.

Lol what. EVs are fckn expensive, even the compact cars. Like the Renault E-Twingo for example, that one starts at 20k. That’s expensive af. I remember when back then u could get a regular Twingo for like 10k. And no, Inflation alone does not explain a 100% price increase. 20k for a new car ain’t cheap. We could have a much higher share of EVs if car manufacturers wouldn’t be so greedy.

Don’t be an idiot. Do math. You will save 2K a year in fuel. The Twingo in 93 was 8500 euro or €18300 today.

Europe is making several EVs for under $25K. The “flooding” is US media propaganda.

I think it’s less about US media propaganda and more that the EU put large tariffs on Chinese EV imports which stopped that. In Germany specifically thought, there is a lot of German brand loyalty as well, which is a factor. It’s more of the PHEVs that are Chinese imports because those have lower tariffs.

Xpeng is naking vehicles in Austria.