BYD is kicking off a price war with gas-powered cars as new lower-priced electric vehicles begin rolling out. After launching the new Qin Plus EV Honor Edition on Monday, BYD said it’s “officially opening a new era of electricity is lower than oil.”

  • fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    We still don’t like Korean cars that much in the US. Kyundai were making some really good progress at establishing themselves as a real brand. Then the sand issues came out, followed up by the stealing, sprinkle in some bad choices all around and I’d say they’ve set themselves back a good 5-10 years.

    The Japanese really stuck around by making quality cars. Mitsubishi barely exists in the US, Isuzu couldn’t make it (outside of trucks), and I can’t believe Suzuki made it until 2012. They rode on the coat tails of Toyota, Honda, and Nissan (who’s currently having a bit of a crisis). These cheap Chinese cars are not quality. I’ve been in a number of them in Costa Rica and they all start out nice, but rapidly fall apart. Some of them are even rusting away, in Costa fucking Rica. You’ll still see 1950s land cruisers casually driving around down there. But I don’t think any of these Chinese cars will make it that long.

    Maybe with their luxury brands they’ll make something lasting. But from my limited experience with them, I can’t imagine Americans buying them, let alone not laughing at them.

    • AA5B@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      We laughed at the first wave of Japanese imports too, but people bought them for the price. Now many of us prefer them for the quality even at a higher price.

      Yugo went the other way. We laughed at them but a few people bought them for the price. However they soon found out just how bad the product was and no one was willing to see if they’d improve.

      Which way will Chinese manufacturers go? It’s all a guess since it hasn’t happened yet but I know Chinese companies can make reliable stuff with decent quality. I think their chances are pretty good against legacy manufacturers unwilling to risk change in the face of their pre-existinG product lines