SATISH SHARMA - not just Rotigraphy.: CBS Sunday Morning went to a London auto showroom and interviewed British car owners, traditional dealers and industry experts about the rise of Chinese EVs in Europe. What they found quietly destroys a lot of American mythology.

https://x.com/OopsGuess/status/2085702219111010507

CBS Sunday Morning went to a London auto showroom and interviewed British car owners, traditional dealers and industry experts about the rise of Chinese EVs in Europe.

What they found quietly destroys a lot of American mythology.

British car owner Justin Watson is replacing his Lexus with a BYD. He described the ride as “like sitting on a throne” and said its technology, comfort and handling surpassed anything he had driven before.

His conclusion was blunt:

The era of “cheap Chinese cars don’t last” is over.

A London dealer with more than 50 years in the business, long associated with Volkswagen, said he never imagined he would one day sell Chinese cars. Then he saw the quality, the technology and the sales growth.

He changed his mind.

Ben Nelmes of New Automotive explained why.

Chinese EV makers now hold major advantages across batteries, supply chains and manufacturing integration. BYD started with batteries and built upward, controlling far more of its own production chain and allowing it to make cars at least 25% cheaper than Western competitors.

And the technology is no longer “cheap imitation.”

Chinese EVs are producing the things Western social media keeps going viral over:

360-degree tank turns.
Emergency floating capability.
Ultra-long range.
Charging from 10% to 70% in minutes.

The old stereotype of “Made in China = cheap and inferior” is collapsing in real time.

Then comes the American part.

The Biden administration imposed a 100% tariff on Chinese EVs. Trump kept the wall in place.

In practical terms, Chinese EVs are shut out of the U.S. market.

When CBS asked whether that protects American jobs, Nelmes gave the more uncomfortable answer:

protectionism may protect jobs in the short term, but over time it kills competition, slows innovation, weakens consumer choice and leaves domestic automakers sheltered from the very future they are supposed to compete in.

If the future of cars is electric, then blocking the world’s strongest EV competitors does not prepare American automakers for that future.

It protects them from it.

The irony gets worse.

Before the segment ended, the British owner laughed that he had relatives in New Jersey who were “absolutely jealous” that he could drive such a good Chinese car.

And here is the fact protectionists cannot explain away:

BYD is effectively shut out of the U.S. market behind a 100% tariff wall, while Tesla is allowed to sell normally in China.

And BYD still became the world’s top-selling battery-electric vehicle maker.

China did not need to ban Tesla to compete with it.

It let Tesla enter.
Build locally.
Sell freely.
Fight for Chinese consumers.

The United States looked at BYD and chose a wall.

Yet even without access to the American market, BYD still outsold Tesla globally.

That says more about competitiveness than a thousand speeches about “fair competition.”

If your company needs its biggest rival excluded from your home market while that rival beats you everywhere else, you are not defending competitiveness.

You are hiding from it.