When China’s BYD recently overtook Elon Musk’s Tesla as the global leader in sales of electric vehicles, casual observers of the auto industry might have been surprised.

But what’s caught other carmakers around the world off-guard is something else about BYD, which is backed by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway: its low prices.

“No one can match BYD on price. Period,” Michael Dunne, CEO of Asia-focused car consultancy Dunne Insights, told the Financial Times. “Boardrooms in America, Europe, Korea and Japan are in a state of shock.”

BYD can keeps its costs low in part because it owns the entire supply chain of its EV batteries, from the raw materials to the finished battery packs. That matters because a battery accounts for about 40% of a new electric vehicle’s price.

    • ieatpillowtags@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      6 months ago

      Not really conclusive as there have been increases in speeding and drunk driving that cause total accident numbers to go up. A more relevant stat would be fatality or injury rates per accident.

      • Squizzy@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        5
        ·
        6 months ago

        You’ve changed your tune from it being silly to needing more granular data.

        Pedestrian deaths are on the rise and decent safety regulations could impact speeding and drunk driving.

        • ieatpillowtags@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          6 months ago

          I said you were silly because it was more polite than calling you stupid, and in neither case is it referring to the issue of traffic deaths.

          And now you’ve changed your tune talking about pedestrians which has nothing to do with the topic.

          • Squizzy@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            6 months ago

            Car safety regs have nothing to do with pedestrian deaths? So cars with poor visibility due to design choices are in no way related to car safety or pedestrian deaths?

            Cars having impact ready bumpers and lowered engine blocks that have a direct correlation with lower chances of death or serious injury in the event of a collision with a pedestrian or cyclist are completely unrelated to safety regulations?

    • ThisIsNotHim@sopuli.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      6 months ago

      Per capita probably isn’t a good way to measure this.

      Car deaths should probably be by miles driven.