Chinese electric vehicles don’t just pose a market threat to Tesla. They could also be a weapon of war.
When the history of the early 21st century is written, it will surely focus on the war for global supremacy between two great nations: China and the United States.
It’s a war playing out in countless arenas, and all the signs point to America falling behind. China is hoarding rare earth minerals, building batteries, dominating drones (the ones deciding the fate of Ukraine), controlling critical supply chains, and stealing intellectual property. Oh, and it’s also coming for America’s electric cars.
Tesla, Elon Musk’s electric vehicle company, was once a potent symbol of America’s technological supremacy: a reminder that this country has the best ideas—and the will to make them happen. But, in a sign of the times, America’s EV pioneer now faces a growing threat from Chinese companies that have studied American inventions, replicated them, and arguably surpassed them, selling them—at scarily cheap prices—around the world.
Last year, China’s leading EV company, BYD—it claims the initials stand for Build Your Dreams—sold 4.3 million vehicles, overtaking reigning EV champion Tesla as the world’s largest EV maker. In Germany, China has over 40 percent of the EV market. In Mexico, it’s 70 percent. In Brazil, it’s an astonishing 89 percent, the vast majority of which are BYD autos.
“It’s the most humbling thing I’ve ever seen,” Jim Farley, the CEO of Ford, told Musk’s biographer Walter Isaacson. “We are in a global competition with China,” he went on. “And if we lose this we do not have a future at Ford.”
Why? Because, as the world shifts from fossil fuels toward the cheaper electricity-powered technologies, every car company will need to sell electric vehicles. Those that don’t will fail. Indeed, just this past Monday, Ford announced a $2 billion retooling of a 70-year-old manufacturing facility in Louisville, Kentucky—to produce EVs, which the company says will be affordable and profitable. Just like BYD’s autos.
Farley has been outspoken about his fears about China’s EV industry.
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Author: Ruth King
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