https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/08/opinion/byd-china-car-ev.html
BYD, which stands for “Build Your Dreams,” is essentially banned from American roads by
tariffs imposed to protect U.S. automakers that double the price of imported Chinese plug-ins. Erecting tariff walls may buy the domestic auto industry some time, but it ultimately won't insulate American manufacturers from BYD or the bigger threat that it represents.
The company embodies a Chinese industrial model that is leaving America in the dust. This model, which combines government financial support, methodical long-term planning and aggressive innovation, has already enabled China to achieve
global dominance in a range of high-tech industries, from batteries to robotics to drones. Losing those markets to Chinese companies was bad enough. If the same happens in auto manufacturing, the impact would be far worse for America, due to the industry’s size and its economic, political and strategic importance.
The success of BYD and
several other upstart Chinese car brands should be a warning for U.S. auto manufacturing and our industrial sector as a whole. We need the courage to recognize how badly we are falling behind, shake off complacency and adopt an urgent government-led effort — think of a “Manhattan Project,” but for cars — to restore U.S. competitiveness....
It’s also not the only reason for BYD’s success. It can build cars so inexpensively thanks to what’s known as vertical integration. While most major carmakers source many important parts from outside suppliers, BYD
makes almost all of its key components in-house, including batteries, semiconductors, motors and tablet screens, which saves costs and enhances quality control. It developed its cars’ operating software, has stakes in
mines and
mining companies that produce the minerals for its batteries and transports its vehicles around the world aboard
its fleet of specially designed car-carrier ships.
BYD is also rapidly innovating. Earlier this year it unveiled an autonomous driving system that may be
as good as Tesla’s, if not better, as well as technology that BYD says can charge cars
in just five minutes — as quickly as filling a gas tank. Its top-end models include the YangWang U8, a luxury S.U.V. that can rotate 360 degrees in place and operate in water like a boat over short distances.
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