A Chinese electric hatchback car has ignited fears among American automakers and politicians as it makes itself more marketable to Americans while it carves a path through the global automotive industry.
In 2023, Chinese electric car manufacturing giant BYD launched Seagull, a budget-friendly electric hatchback or city car billed as performing and having craftsmanship comparable to American-made electric vehicles that have triple the price.
The Seagull is priced at a modest $12,000 in the Chinese market. This EV can travel 252 miles on a single charge and weighs about 2,734 pounds – roughly 900 pounds lighter than the slightly larger Chevrolet Bolt EV. It has a shorter-range version sold for under $10,000.
According to Terry Woychowski, the president of Caresoft Global, who conducted a meticulous disassembly of the Seagull, this EV is an "exercise in efficiency" given that its design and manufacturing are fundamentally different from traditional American methods. (Related: Low-cost China-made Volvo EV to be sold in the U.S. this summer, threatening Tesla and other EV makers.)
"Things will have to change in some radical ways in order to be able to compete," he said. "You're going to have to come and be extremely serious about this, and you better park your paradigms at the door. Because you’re going to have to do things differently."
For now, tariffs prevent the Seagull from reaching American shores, but industry experts and politicians predict its inevitable entry into the U.S. market.
"Any car company that’s not paying attention to them as a competitor is going to be lost when they hit their market," said Sam Fiorani, the vice president at AutoForecast Solutions. "BYD’s entry into the U.S. market isn’t an if. It's a when."
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Meanwhile, the Alliance for American Manufacturing stated in a report that government-subsidized Chinese EVs "could end up being an extinction-level event for the U.S. auto sector."
In response to industry fears, the administration of President Joe Biden is expected to announce 100 percent tariffs on EVs imported from China due to its potential threat to U.S. jobs and national security.
Cost-effective and efficient Chinese EV designs gain an edge in the American EV market
According to several reports, Chinese automakers possess several advantages in the U.S. market, especially with the lower cost of their vehicles compared to American brands.
For instance, BYD specializes in lithium iron phosphate batteries, which are cheaper and sufficient for shorter ranges than the more common lithium-ion batteries used in many American EVs. Additionally, BYD produces many of its own parts, including electric motors, dashboards, bodies and even headlights, while meticulously eliminating unnecessary components, such as using only one windshield wiper to save on weight, cost and labor. This minimalist design extends to the entire vehicle, from streamlined hoses to integrated electronic motors and dashboards.
All this, without compromising the quality of the Seagull, which in turn, led to the selling of three million EVs worldwide in 2023.
On the other hand, U.S. automakers often have to deal with higher engineering costs by adhering to traditional design requirements that are a lot of the time unnecessary for EVs. This difference in design and manufacturing practices results in the Seagull being significantly lighter and more efficient than comparable U.S. models, such as the Chevrolet Bolt. Besides, the U.S. is still developing cheaper battery production methods, with Ford building a factory using technology from Chinese battery maker CATL.
In turn, Woychowski suggests that Detroit needs to quickly learn a lot of design and engineering while shedding practices from a century of building vehicles to determine which procedures to keep or not for safety and quality. Or if not, they could just let China dominate the American EV market even without selling a single car.
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