The American Manufacturing Alliance warns that the introduction of Chinese cars will bring disaster to the industry

According to the latest data disclosed by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, in April of this year, the sales volume of passenger cars in China was 20010000, with a year-on-year growth of 10.5%. Among them, the sales volume of new energy vehicles was 950000, with a year-on-year growth of 33.5%, far exceeding the growth rate of overall vehicle sales. At the same time, China's automobile exports 504000, with a year-on-year growth of 34%, and the growth rate of exports has exceeded that of domestic sales. It is worth noting that, With the improvement of China's automobile manufacturing technology and the acceptance and favor of new energy vehicles by consumers in more and more countries, the export destination of China's new energy vehicles has extended from developing countries to developed countries, which has attracted great attention from relevant institutions in many countries, including the United States.

At the beginning of this year, the Alliance for American Manufacturing issued a warning in a report: "The introduction of Chinese cars into the U.S. market may eventually cause disaster to the U.S. auto industry." More specifically, what they mean by "Chinese cars" is Chinese electric vehicles represented by BYD.

Earlier, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, said on the financial report conference call with analysts: "China's electric vehicles are very good. Without trade barriers, they will almost destroy most other automobile companies in the world."

To be sure, whether it's the Alliance for American Manufacturing's China auto industry threat theory or Musk's praise, its deep meaning is the gap between the two countries, or even other countries, and China in electric vehicle manufacturing. What's more, it is to manufacture electric vehicles at low cost under the premise of strict quality control.

For this problem, Bill Russo, the founder and CEO of Mobility Ltd., pointed out the crux of the problem, He said: "The western market regards electric vehicles as a kind of technology upgrading, and blindly makes electric vehicles become high-end, which limits the scale of the market. China has been committed to the popularization of electric vehicles from the beginning, which will eventually lead Chinese enterprises to succeed in going global."

The dismantling of BYD Seagull (picture | configuration | inquiry) reported by the Associated Press earlier also explained this problem again.

An American automobile data company named Caresoft Global disassembled a BYD Seagull by buying it at its own expense. With the development of the disassembly, they found that BYD excels in manufacturing cost control and process level. The first is to optimize the structure of parts. Take the wiper as an example. BYD uses the design and application of a single wiper, It replaces the traditional style, which means that Seagull only needs one wiper arm, one wiper motor and one wiper blade, directly reducing costs. In addition, BYD can effectively control costs through vertically integrated production process and self-developed production of parts, ranging from interior panels to blade batteries, which has become the key point that foreign brands can not reach.

The staff involved in the disassembly lamented that the overall manufacturing level of this car in China, which costs about 12000 US dollars, is about the same as that of the US, but the price in the US is three times that of the car. What's more, there is a shorter range version with a lower price, which costs only about 10000 US dollars.

Based on the above, the United States used the usual means——

On May 14, the United States announced that it would increase tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles and other products from 25% to 100%, hoping to curb the rapid import of Chinese electric vehicles into the American market. So, will the promulgation of this policy pose a threat to Chinese auto companies, including BYD?

In short: No. Why?

Because tariff increase is a common means for the United States to impose restrictions on other countries, domestic large auto companies, including BYD, have been prepared for it. As early as the beginning of this year, against the background of relevant rumors, BYD has gradually increased its auto exports to South America to actively respond. Therefore, before the announcement of tariff increase policy, BYD has accumulated a certain stock in South America.

Secondly, compared with the sales volume in the U.S. market, BYD's largest overseas market is Europe and Asia. Therefore, the U.S. simply regards BYD as an imaginary enemy to impact its own automobile industry. Compared with the large market shares in Europe and Asia, the US market is only a small part of BYD's global business landscape that can be almost ignored.

In addition, on the basis of automobile exports, BYD has further accelerated the pace of building factories around the world, and pressed the fast forward button for cars to go to sea. In February this year, Li Ke, president of BYD North America Branch, publicly said that BYD will determine the location of its Mexican factory by the end of this year, with an estimated annual output of 150000 cars. At the same time, BYD Seagull, King DM-i, BYD SHARK and others have landed in overseas markets. In April this year alone, BYD exported 41011 vehicles, up 176.6% year on year.

Therefore, will the imposition of tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles by the United States have an impact on BYD?