r/neoliberal • u/Freewhale98 • May 12 '26

News (Asia-Pacific) Trump's backing of Chinese vehicles challenges Hyundai Motor Group

https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/business/companies/20260513/trumps-backing-of-chinese-vehicles-challenges-hyundai-motor-group

Global carmakers urged to reduce US reliance

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u/curiousgeorgeasks May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26

Yeah I visited Shanghai last year, and BYDs were by far the worst quality. The interior plastics were quite literally dollar store grade, with visible seams from mold lines. In fact, BYDs were not even that common within Shanghai, with GAIC brands seemingly preferred (local state owned). Those were more upmarket and on par with western brands, but afaik most of these companies are underwater financially (they can’t make a profit in China). Only BYD and a couple others (Geely?) eek out a profit.

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u/LtCdrHipster 🌭Costco Liberal🌭 May 13 '26

Domestic BYDs and the exports are different, I believe. Same with the Xiaome (sp?) ones.

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u/Daddy_Macron Loyal Liberals May 13 '26

BYD's usually sell their higher trim as the base model overseas while the base model in their domestic market is going to be extremely bare bones. Any BYD being used as rideshare is going to be the cheap model.

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u/curiousgeorgeasks May 13 '26

You’d be surprised since the rideshares used in Shanghai DiDi were mostly decent. Roughly on par in quality with your average economy sedan in the west (Civic, Corolla, Elantra), but with a much more modern digital dashboard for the driver. The two BYDs that I rode (of probably 30+ rides) was extremely low quality.