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- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
China has positioned itself as the main car supplier in Mexico, with exports reaching $4.6 billion in 2023, according to data from Mexico’s Secretariat of Economy.
The Chinese automaker BYD surpassed Honda and Nissan to position itself as the seventh largest automaker in the world by number of units sold during the April to June quarter. This growth was driven by increased demand for its affordable electric vehicles, according to data from automakers and research firm MarkLines.
The company’s new vehicle sales rose 40 percent year over year to 980,000 units in the quarter—the same quarter wherein most major automakers, including Toyota and Volkswagen, experienced a decline in sales. Much of BYD’s growth is attributed to its overseas sales, which nearly tripled in the past year to 105,000 units. Now BYD is considering locating its new auto plant in three Mexican states: Durango, Jalisco, and Nuevo Leon.
Foreign investment would be an economic boost for Mexico. The company has claimed that a plant there would create about 10,000 jobs. A Tesla competitor, BYD markets its Dolphin Mini model in Mexico for about 398,800 pesos—about $21,300 dollars—a little more than half the price of the cheapest Tesla model.
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That tariff-free access is part of the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (T-MEC), an updated version of the North American Free Trade Agreement that, as of 2018, eliminated tariffs on many products traded between the North American countries. Under the treaty, if a foreign automotive company that manufactures vehicles in Canada or Mexico can demonstrate that the materials used are locally sourced, its products can be exported to the United States virtually duty-free.
MAGA strikes again
They could build and sell a basic car (combustion) for under $15k if enough people bought them but most people don’t want stripped down compact cars. There’s just not enough of a market to justify cheap cars in the US.
I think you are right, and I hate that it is a fact.
What I want right now is a small electric kei truck or utility van for use as an in city daily driver. Just make the cargo area large enough to put 4’x8’ sheets of plywood in it and close without any fuss and I am sold, but I don’t think that’s going to happen here anytime soon.
Ford discontinued selling their small Transit Connect van here recently so that isn’t even an option anymore.
Thr problem is there is not a good deal in america period. Even the cheaper cars have horrible privacy and data collection issues. The fact is that every car company in America is predatory and greedy. Not a single one of them is trying to make a good car. The american way is some engineers come up with a great efficient car, and then money people manipulate it into a monster that just has the illusion of being a good car.
Ask an engineer who’s worked with the big three what they think of them and they will talk for hours about essentially how immoral they are.
Also maybe ask yourselves why foreign car companies make cars here, and its not just tariffs. A lot of countries, including Asian ones, have better protections for their citizens and its actually cheaper to hire dumb Americans from flyover state.
Some companies specifically target low income areas for the cheap replaceable labour.
Trying to explain this to all the Corolla owners
The Corolla is not a compact car, is has the same footprint as most small suvs. The yaris was Toyota’s compact.
The Civic was what I was thinking of, excuse me.
Practically the default car for high schoolers in my neighborhood.
New civics are as wide as a Corolla but have a slightly longer wheelbase. They’re small compared to midsize and full size SUVs but are not compact vehicles.
American vehicle safety standards, combined with the rising number of SUVs on the road, have driven domestic automakers to increase the size of their vehicles overall.
But the Civic is classically considered a compact car. If you drive into a grocery store parking lot labeled “Compact Cars Only”, nobody is going to tow you.
Honda increased the size of the civic to meet us consumer wants, and put the fit in it’s place. The crash ratings are the same between the two. Americans don’t want cheap small cars it’s why the civic outsells the fit 10:1.
That’s the line. But they also increased the price. This is an age old business trick. When you’re running fat margins, increase the size of the meal to sell more of the product. The Civic has always sold well and I haven’t seen anything to suggest sales improved as the chassis size increased.
Not against larger vehicles. But its still marginal. If the F-350 plowing into you at 70mph hits a newer model, you’ll be just as dead even if the frame suffers less.
American businesses don’t want to sell cheap small cars and American consumers are given fewer and fewer options, as you illustrate when you note these vehicles all swelling in size. But when the price of gas jumps, people start piling into Priuses and Focuses and Elantras. Meanwhile, car graveyards are full of Hummers that never left the dealership floor.
Fit sales peaked back in 2008 when gas prices jumped to $6/gal. But the Fit effectively competes with the Civic at a lower price point. Dealers don’t want to sell them when Civics move just as fast and guarantee higher returns.
Do you have anything to suggest that keeping the civic small would not have affected sales?
Americans don’t buy the small car options they have. If Americans preferred small cars they would buy the small cars available to them. The only time Americans buy small cars is for financial reasons. They prefer the larger civic over the fit. Both have similar crash ratings and reliability ratings so buyers are choosing a larger vehicle at a higher cost due to preference for size.
Dealers are not hiding Fits in the hopes of selling a civic, people are just willing to pay for a larger vehicle.
I disagree but I don’t really have any data or anything.
In my opinion most people want the least car they need. Its a tool and the simpler and more efficient the better. We won’t know because there just isnt a line of cars like that.
I have a 2017 Mitsubishi mirage manual thats very simple and efficient, not a bad example.
Mitsubishi sold 87,000 vehicles in 2023 only 13,000 were mirages. Kia sold 782,000, 27,000 were rios. Nissian sold 235,000, 4,000 were versas.
In Europe the dacia sold 493,000, 200,000 were sanderos. Those are the numbers needed to make cheap compact cars.
Its an example of the type of car I think would sell well if an american car company made it.
There is no comparison vehicle by american brands at the moment.
Renault could import the Dacia Sandero and have its msrp be $1000 less than the versa after terrifs. With that kind of price advantage you’d think they would but there’s been no effort on their part. The US market for cheap vehicles is too small.
I don’t have an issue myself but I think. the average american wants to buy from one of the american brands, even the one thats not american anymore.
I don’t think Americans trust dirt cheap foreign goods just yet. Harder to find the right person to yell at you know, or whatever.
The Mazda 3s in the 2010s were cheap and were competitive with the focus sales wise. Kia has sold tons of vehicles and they are piles of cheap garbage yet Americans keep buying their larger vehicles.
So do we have demand for cheap cars or not then? I thought you were arguing the demand wasnt there.
Besides you confirmed by opinion that its common to not trust “piles of cheap garbage”.
In my opinion the ford focus was just as much a pile of cheap garbage as the rest but people think Ford is more reliable or at least wouldnt try to kill its own citizens.
The demand isn’t there for small cheap vehicles, my point was Americans have no problems buying cheap “foreign” cars.
My opnion of does not reflect the opnion of the American population, kias and Hyundai sell well here.
Our opinions on vehicles are not the issue. Americans don’t want cheap domestic small cars which is why they don’t sell well here. Americans don’t want cheap small foreign cars not because they don’t trust cheap foreign vehicles but because they don’t want cheap small cars.