MostofBYD's carsaresimply a lotcheaperthanTesla's.
Infact, itsells 10 popularmodelsstartingfromlessthanTesla's cheapestofferingfortheModel 3 sedanandBYDsells a lotmoreofthecheapervehiclesinitslineup.
Theyhaveverycheapmodelsstartingfrom $10,000.
TheirapproachhasbeenextremelydifferentinthesensethatElonMuskbelievedthatyouhadtosortofstartfromthehighendwith a sexyperformancecartogetpeopleinterestedinelectriccarsandthenworkyourwaydownthepricespectrum.
BYDwentatitfromtheotherendwhereitwasaboutcheaptaxisandbusesthatneeded a heckof a lotofbatteriesandreallysortof, youknow, drovedownthepricesofthebatteriesthattheycouldputintopassengercars.
AndthebatterytechnologymightalsogiveBYD a technologicaledgeoversomerivals.
Ituseslithium-iron-phosphate, whichisnotonlycheaperthanotherbatteries, it's alsopackaged a lotmorecompactly.
Andchemistryis a coreexpertiseoffounderWangChongFu.
HeissortoftheantiElonMusk.
Wangis a chemistbytrainingandanengineerandananecdotethatoneofourreporterswastoldwasthatwhenhewastoldheneededtodressup a bitforaninvestormeeting, hestoppedtobuyshirtsjustsortofoffthestreet.
[SpeakinginChinese] BYDhasanearlystartinbatterytechnologyandvehicleintegrationtesting. WE'vebeenin a leadingpositionandbuiltup a lotoftechnologicalexpertise.