I noticed that when I was there. I was pleasantly surprised to see as many BYD as I did.
That infact made me consider BYD even more seriously. Being able to see the car in person is far more impressive the a YouTube video.
I noticed that when I was there. I was pleasantly surprised to see as many BYD as I did.
That infact made me consider BYD even more seriously. Being able to see the car in person is far more impressive the a YouTube video.
I went there recently for a friends wedding, and about half the Uber's we took were driving Chinese EV's
BYD is taking over the world, one country at a time, Tesla is done worldwide just a matter of time.
BYD went from unheard of to number 2 in Australia in about 4 years. Chinese made Tesla are still holding onto 10th spot here but they have MG and Geely coming up behind them. BYD and GWM are now supported by local dealerships that have been in my town for decades and I see the cars in the local community unlike Tesla. I don't know where the Tesla sales are but they aren't around here.
I am still driving an ancient Nissan and although Electric is looking very compelling at the moment I distrust all the brands and products currently on the market regardless of nation of origin. I guess if they are all privacy nightmares then you might as well go for the cheapest.
Maybe that's why they've decided to stop producing cars and are switching their factories to robotics
If I was afraid of competition from China, I don't think robotics is a field I'd enter to try to escape it.
Maybe Tesla should expand into Mexican restaurants or something.
Fair point. But musk has a good sense for the next government boondoggle to heavily profit from before abandoning
Tesla is gaining share in Europe despite Chinese EVs, <https://www.kansas.com/news/business/article317450876.html> and benefited from Canada cutting import duty on Chinese EVs. <https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-01-19/tesla-vol...>
That is not what the first article says.
It says Tesla registrations increase and I believe this may be a trend accross all EV brands with the influence of the Iran/US conflict on the price of gas.
> It says Tesla registrations increase
You and I both know that registrations are a proxy for car purchases. (The article even says so.)
>and I believe this may be a trend accross all EV brands with the influence of the Iran/US conflict on the price of gas.
Again from the article:
>According to the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association, Tesla registrations across the European Union, Britain and the European Free Trade Association leaped 43.3% between January and August, outpacing the broader battery-electric vehicle market's 38.8% growth over the same period.
So tell me, again, what about my statement "Tesla is gaining share in Europe despite Chinese EVs" do you disagree with?
> what about my statement "Tesla is gaining share in Europe despite Chinese EVs" do you disagree with?
It's just missing the context that Tesla hemorrhaged European market share for 8 consecutive quarters.
From their current position, it would be genuinely difficult to find ways to piss off more of their customers.
>From their current position, it would be genuinely difficult to find ways to piss off more of their customers.
Tesla Model Y was the world's best-selling car in 2024 <https://www.focus2move.com/world-car-market-2024/> and 2025 <https://www.focus2move.com/world-car-market-2025/>, and has gained share in 2026 YTD. <https://www.focus2move.com/world-car-market/>
Yes, but that doesn't contradict my statement or support your original claim. Tesla would be challenged to polarize European customers any further than they have already.
Here in South Africa I’m seeing more and more BYDs all the time, the high fuel prices due to the Iran war is making their entry level EV pay for itself for people with any kind of commute.
I’ve been super happy with my Sealion 5 (PHEV) I bought in May, tank is still over half full since last filling it up mid July and having done about 4,500km since.
I have had two minor software issues. One time the one parking sensor warning indicator kind of got stuck on the centre screen (no noise though). The other was my wireless CarPlay refusing to connect. In both cases they self corrected once the car had been turned off (and unplugged) for a little while. A bit annoying at the time, especially as there seems to be no manual way to force a reset, but super isolated.
You're well over the 90 day mark where E10 is well into its degradation and standard unleaded is starting to sour. A nice problem to have in many respects, but just to be aware!
I drive a Mitsubishi PHEV. And it enforces this by not letting you drive on battery until you fill at least 20L of new fuel. So you're forced to use a portion of the tank at least every 90 days.
I appreciate the warning, will certainly do some homework here.
Apparently petrol here is almost never mixed with ethanol so at least I don’t have that to worry about.
I’ve already topped out the tank with 95 (as it apparently has a better shelf life than 93) and will be driving in HEV mode until it’s nearly empty, thereafter I plan on generally only filling up with 10l at a time unless I’m going to be doing a long distance trip.
Chery brands have 24% market share car sales in S.A - it was ironic seeing the BMW dealership closing in my town and being replaced by a BYD one.
It will be interesting to see how VW responds next year with the locally manufactured small SUV Tengo targeting the Chery Tiggo 4 Pro 4 - why bother with an old Polo Vivo when you get something WAY better and modern.
It needs to retail at R269,000.00 or cheaper.
VWs are decent cars, but they've been somewhat "premiumly" priced since at least 2000, in my view the brand is irrationally overvalued by South Africans.
When I looked at a Polo around 2018, the finishes were a bit nicer, but compared to the Honda Jazz I went with (with CVT, cruise control, climate control) it was considerably more expensive.
BMWs and Mercedes are apparently having a really hard time here right now. Chinese cars are really comparable in terms of features and finish but for like half the price, the only other reason to buy a luxury German car is as a status symbol, but for the genuinely affluent here, a Mercedes or BMW isn't exclusive enough.
They're not dead yet as there are still quite a few South Africans who deem it essential to their social status to have the nicest possible car at the absolute limit of what they can afford. My theory on why they do this is because others can see the car they pitch up in, but don't see that each night it's parked outdoors of a rented apartment worth barely more (possibly less) than the car.
> the high fuel prices due to the Iran war is making their entry level EV pay for itself
Is this that 4D chess thing people keep talking about?
sounds like you shoulda just gone full EV then, if you basically never use the gas?
It only has 13kW/h of batteries and an advertised electric only range of 50km making it considerably cheaper than a full electric SUV, and I can still use the same vehicle for the occasional long-distance trips with zero stress or concerns about charging infrastructure, e.g. 600km drive to holiday destination which I've done once already and have already planned to do again soon.
I work from home and my wife is hybrid, special school for my daughter is 8km away which is 22km from where my wife works. In practice we manage to cover about 98% of our day-to-day driving using electricity.
A while back I had a job which was 40km from where I lived, if I still had a work commute like that, I would have purchased (from BYD) either a Dolphin Surf (I think ZAR 340K for 300km range) or their Sealion 6 (I have a 5) with advertised electric range of 100km.
People should purchase the vehicle which makes sense for their circumstances.
Price is a fair argument. After going full EV I personally couldn’t imagine going going back to the hassle of a PHEV
I was really impressed with the BYD’s I rode in for uber while in Mexico