BYD is coming on fierce. Other car makers ought to be very afraid right now. $15K is cheaper than most gas vehicles. That’s … compelling to say the least.

It really is compelling and maybe it’s because in the US we’re not getting much in the budget EV segment but I’m really hoping the Aptera goes through without a hitch.

We’re just not getting any of the chinese EVs. Many of them are only so cheap because of how much their government is subsidizing them so they can build market share.

The car only has 75 miles of range which just won’t fly at all in the US. Anything sub 200 is considered unusable here.

There was a lot of talk about how nobody would buy chinese cars in Australia too… they are everywhere.

People can get a chinese diesel dual cab 4x4 pickup for $37k Australian, the CHEAPEST Ford Raptor starts at $87k.

I was gonna say, I’m the past people bitched about Korean cats, not Hyundai and Kia are everywhere. Even further back they bitched about Japanese cars.

Xenophobes gonna xenophobe.

About half right. The other half is that a developing nation basically has to start at low end manufacturing like textiles, then work their way into things like cheap toys, and slowly build their technical expertise and abilities along the way. While they’re making cheap, low-quality products they develop a reputation for cheap, low-quality products, which biases people against anything made in that country. But, if everything goes right, they start to produce medium and then high quality products and shed their old reputation.

Korean products used to be the cheap junk, but now they’re well-made. A lot of Chinese companies are starting to put out high quality stuff, and you can see that reflected in the pride they’re starting to take in their products. I’m seeing more and more Chinese companies making no effort to hide the fact that they’re Chinese, something that was quite rare even a decade ago.