Yet another Hacker News

BYD doubles its Brazil market share to 9.7% a year after opening its local plant

63 points dvaplima 1 hour ago 38 comments

tortela 1 hour ago | parent

who would have thought people would flock to less costly alternatives (I'm brazilian and have tons of friends that have bought BYD models recently)

hmokiguess 52 minutes ago | parent

what are the high cost ones?

spwa4 22 minutes ago | parent

German and American cars who aren't getting subsidized by the government, in fact they actually have to pay taxes. In addition to the fact that China is letting companies destroy it's environment.

mywittyname 50 minutes ago | parent

How are they being received generally in Brazil?

What kind of vehicles are people replacing with BYDs? I always assumed Brazilians drove mostly "legacy" VW or Nissans, but I looked at VW's Brazilian website and you all seem to have most of the same vehicles that are available in Europe and North America, including the ID.4!

nsoam 48 minutes ago | parent

Which doesn't mean most people can afford them - I live in Europe and I've yet to see an ID.4 myself.

mywittyname 10 minutes ago | parent

Hence my surprise to even see it for sale in Brazil and the reason I brought it up. After looking at their lineup, it seem like VW has moved away from their historical approach of providing cheaper, older vehicles in the Brazilian market.

miguelxpn 30 minutes ago | parent

Not OP but also a brazilian with friends that bought BYDs, the ones I talked to about it really like it.

I'd say around 60% of the Ubers I get are BYDs and I'm glad when it's one because that means it's a newer car and it's very comfortable.

lucasoshiro 23 minutes ago | parent

> How are they being received generally in Brazil?

Very well. Not only BYD but also other brands like GWM and Geely.

> What kind of vehicles are people replacing with BYDs?

Combustion cars with the same price, they are not replacing other electrical vehicles because the Chinese brands are way cheaper yet they are good cars.

> I always assumed Brazilians drove mostly "legacy" VW or Nissans

Nowadays we have many models from different brands.

In the past the fleet was basically VW, Ford, Chevrolet and Fiat. In the late 90s and early 2000s the Japanesne (Honda, Toyota and Nissan) and French (Renault, Citroën, Peugeot) became popular, and then Hyundai also became a success here. Recently, the Chinese brands are becoming more popular, especially Chery and the ones that I mentioned before.

> including the ID.4

But I never saw it here, even though VW is a very popular brand here.

pontes 13 minutes ago | parent

A lot of Uber Black cars in São Paulo are BYD ones, so I think it is creating a brand of “good quality” cars around here

yieldcrv 43 minutes ago | parent

some models also charge much faster, and go further than Western alternatives

cheap, fast, good, its a rare moment to pick all three and the market is

most reservations about EVs are based on range anxiety, charging time and cost. only people with a certain level of advantage will pay to experience inconvenience, and that issue disintegrates at a certain threshold for a much broader population

unglaublich 40 minutes ago | parent

There are also a lot of inconveniences about petrol cars, like the volatility of oil prices, uncertain future emission regulations, higher mechanical complexity and hence maintenance costs, lower performance and more noise.

ortusdux 36 minutes ago | parent

For reference, the new BYD Dahan RWD model has a listed range of 626 miles and claims 'flash' charging of 10% to 97% in 9 minutes.

drop_star 24 minutes ago | parent

Are those chargers available in NA? Wouldn't they use higher line voltages than are currently permitted?

pornel 7 minutes ago | parent

Supply line voltage is irrelevant. The car and charger negotiate power and voltage dynamically.

Charging stations typically also have on-site battery storage to have peak charging power that exceeds grid supply (and also because energy arbitrage is profitable).

adrian_b 7 minutes ago | parent

Currently the fastest chargers use 1000 V (which requires silicon carbide MOSFETs or IGBTs with rated voltages of at least 1400 V).

There are international standards for 1000 V and 800 V charging, but I have no idea whether they are allowed in NA.

foobazgt 5 minutes ago | parent

To be clear, that's CLTC range, so closer to ~400'ish miles EPA. Still, very good. I think there are a variety of reasons why US manufacturers are sticking closer to 300mi (e.g. availability of battery materials), but it's improving and hopefully that'll continue.

I'm kind of torn myself. Although I'd like more range, 300 does get me where I'm going, and performance vehicles want less weight, not more.

haunter 10 minutes ago | parent

Funny because I live in Hungary, the country with the highest VAT in EU (27%), and BYD is not the cheapest at all. Neither in the EV and ICE (hybrid) category

Danox 54 minutes ago | parent

BYD taking over most of the world aside from the United States, Korea, Germany and Japan.

lenerdenator 42 minutes ago | parent

You mean the countries that still have native automotive industries and an understanding of the strategic value of heavy industry in both economic and martial terms?

ZeroGravitas 27 minutes ago | parent

How do Chinese owned industrial factories in Brazil differ, apart from being more efficient and able to pivot to new markets better? Which seems like useful properties in a war footing?

Do you want your war munition manufacturers to say "we'd have better short term bonuses if we didn't manufacture what you need but instead just kept manufacturing our old stuff with no regard for the nations future"?

unglaublich 42 minutes ago | parent

Exactly the countries where brand loyalty has a culture status. If you let go of that, there are only a few sensible economic options left, BYD high on that list.

darth_avocado 28 minutes ago | parent

You forgot India.

The thing all these countries have in common is their own Automobile sector which is a huge part of the economy that they need to protect.

newyankee 14 minutes ago | parent

Surprisingly I have seen imported BYD Atto at 100% tariffs or so and Olectra buses which are actually BYD buses , probably CKU imported into India. Auto sector employment in India is seriously important as is the need for capturing a fair value even of EVs locally while on the other hand Oil & Gas imports have always been the biggest import bill and Forex drain so there are good incentives to move. It is just they do it slowly and in their own ways and the handful of capital intensive companies who tried getting LFP manufacturing into India failed as China scale cannot be replicated in India due to differing political systems and cultures, even today

IncreasePosts 21 minutes ago | parent

Assuming the blue wave continues for 2 more years, I've been wondering if the Democrats are going to open up America to Chinese EVs as a way to punish Elon for his engagement with the GOP

petcat 17 minutes ago | parent

USA bans the onboard Chinese automotive software for national security reasons, effectively banning Chinese cars. This isn't a partisan political thing, Biden was the one that signed the Secure Equipment Act.

For all the talk about data and technology sovereignty in Europe, you would think they would take that more seriously too. Instead Europe is flooded with underpriced Chinese cars that they have no control over.

IncreasePosts 5 minutes ago | parent

There's also the 100% tariff to overcome. But I'm sure with a friendlier tax/tariff regime, Chinese companies wouldn't be opposed to bringing 98% complete vehicles from China to the US and then finishing them with American comms equipment.

nxm 5 minutes ago | parent

No they won’t as they have auto unions to protect

ivewonyoung 13 minutes ago | parent

US car makers can be cheaper too if they put workers in slave-like conditions, even aside the Chinese govt subsidies and investment.

One example from Brazil since that's the topic:

> Brazilian prosecutors have filed a lawsuit accusing electric carmaker BYD of human trafficking and keeping its workers in “slavery-like conditions” in its biggest market outside China.

> The investigation found the Chinese workers were brought to Brazil under false pretences and their visas did not match their jobs.

> Prosecutors said the workers were found working in “slavery-live conditions” and with "minimum comfort and hygiene”, calling them victims of international human trafficking

> The workers were forced to sleep on beds that did not have mattresses and as many as 30 people shared a bathroom, MPT alleged.

https://www.independent.co.uk/asia/china/byd-china-ev-sued-b...

ecshafer 6 minutes ago | parent

BYD in China shows off their factory towns for how wonderful the workers live. Its a modern day Hershey. It might be more of a Brazil issue than a BYD issue.

nxm 6 minutes ago | parent

Good ol’ propaganda?

nxm 6 minutes ago | parent

That’s what happens when the state intentionally heavily subsidized an industry to destroy existing competition

sach1 4 minutes ago | parent

Yes, but we're not talking about GM right now