2024 JULY ISSUE
REVOLUTION
OF
AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY
Written by Andrew Sia
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From the Desk of the Publisher
BYD, the world’s largest EV manufacturer, who just took over the position from Tesla in the last quarter of 2023. Soon afterwards it declared its Seagull EV, a small hatchback starting price is ultra-affordable at $9,700 which is cheaper than the previous model. Its battery has options of 190 miles or 252 miles. This has sent the shockwave to all EV manufacturers in the world.
Tesla is going to launch its Model 2 later this year with some details that they are going to announce. It is already promising that it will be very affordable.
The American Big Three automakers are caught by surprise, especially they have just enjoyed their best year for 2023, although they have all missed their goals for electric vehicle sales. In the beginning of the year they were all forecasting a great year in 2024.
We were told that there are 200 electric vehicle manufacturers in China and it has been predicted that after the price war there would only be a handful left.
There is no way to rationalize with China if they don’t join the world’s order and become driven by market economy instead of being a state-planned economy. This time it is going to be difficult for them to accept as their “old trio” of clothing, furniture and appliances are no longer doing well, they have to switch to “new trio” for solar panels, electric vehicles and lithium batteries and compete in the world market.
We can see that the automobile industry is going through the industrial revolution from combustion engine to battery-powered vehicle. But we have never expected to see its selling prices have erode so quickly even before it was being widely accepted by the customers. There is not much for us to do except to hold our breath.
