First Chinese EV manufacturer fails

[cyrano]

 

[JohnRoberts]

You almost made me watch... but nah...
===
I hold a position in Berkshire Hathaway, Warren owns a share of BYD a major EV maker in the PRC. It looks like BYD is #1 and Tesla is #3 there,
#2 SAIC-GM-Wuling is a joint venture with GM....

I haven't heard any news about them collapsing, but the government central planning can shift stuff around. The real estate market there is tangled up right now.

JR

 

[cyrano]

VW 200 billion in debt
BMW 140 billion in debt

While sales of EVs are dropping fast.

 

[fazer]

That’s a lot of debt. I guess the US is at 5% EVs. So it’s time to see if it happens or not.

 

[JohnRoberts]

Among US car makers Tesla is about the only EV maker making a profit, but even they are putting that at risk with price cuts to gain market share. The new Tesla cybertruck ramp up is not expected to turn profitable for over a year or more into production. Elon wants to make his new series of cheaper EVs in Mexico to cut costs. The "green new deal" has stipulations about where EV batteries are made, and that may be the problem for GM's china joint venture (#2 over there). Elon is pretty good at working the government teat for subsidies here.

US EV makers are shipping money with each EV reportedly as much as tens of $k. This is affectionately called "leaning out the window" betting on the come (future market), but EVs are a questionable business IMO.

[edit: I tend to be overly dismissive of EV technology (glorified golf carts), but there is more to modern EV technology namely "self driving". Tesla and others are messing with self driving taxis for major cities (like Tokyo). Think of how many lives could be saved by effective driver assistance. /edit]

JR

 

[ruffrecords]

The writing is on the wall. There is no way EVs can be rolled out, powered, insured and recycled in time to meet net zero deadlines.

Cheeres

Ian

 

[cyrano]

Amen.

You forgot the fire hazard. And what worries me the most, is that you need an internet connection to drive that EV (and even some ICE cars). What happens in underground parking lots?

Imagine some hundred thousand vehicles unable to drive, being a potential fire hazard and even hard to tow. I imagine the CP will find someone to run that network again, but there are already hundreds of car grave yards out there, each containing thousands of cars. From VWs buy-back diesels, to the latest ones.

 

[JohnRoberts]

I have shared my personal pet theory for how to make EVs practical. My plan is to eliminate or significantly reduce the battery to something far smaller, lighter, and cheaper. Imagine how fast EVs could be without the battery? The missing part of my dream theory is a way for EVs to be powered directly from the road surface. If you think about it this is how subways and trolly cars work, but they must follow fixed tracks.

The original (Nikola) Tesla experimented with wireless transmission of energy back in the late 19th century. I expect Nikola was a bit optimistic (free energy for all). The conspiracy theories reach back that far suggesting that powerful interests squelched his ideas. I can image energized roadways in densely populated cities, so smaller and cheaper vehicles could be used. The closest I have seen to this wet dream is charging coils buried under roadways to recharge batteries in EV consumer transportation buses (while parked or standing).

History is not very kind to Nikola Tesla but he was the guy who came up with AC power distribution, superior to the original DC distribution plans.

JR