BYD vs Huawei: Trash talking by China’s EV giants highlights pressures at heart of world’s biggest car market
CNN
As profit margins get squeezed, temperatures are rising in the world’s biggest car market.
As profit margins get squeezed, temperatures are rising in the world’s biggest car market. A tense exchange between two major Chinese electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers in recent days highlights the pressures they face as a price war in the industry intensifies. It all started on Saturday, when Yu Chengdong, the chairman of Huawei’s smart car unit, implied that rival EV maker BYD is racing ahead because of low prices rather than the quality of its cars. “Currently, BYD is … number one in the rat race, because it has extremely low costs,” he said at a public forum in Shenzhen. BYD, a carmaker Elon Musk once laughed at, overtook his Tesla (TSLA) at the end of last year as the biggest seller of electric vehicles on the planet. (Tesla regained its position in the first quarter of this year, but they’re neck and neck.) “We are not good at competing with ultra-low prices. Rather, we are good at competing with value, intelligence, luxury, comfort, safety, high quality, excellent and comfortable user experience,” Yu added.
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