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.

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

  • mlg@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Yeah anytime the US “subsidizes” something in the local auto market, GM alone eats it up in 5 seconds and pretends they did something with it. Sometimes Ford and Chrysler also get a share.

    I’m pretty sure they already recently gave funding to GM for EVs which will go absolutely nowhere because all their major sales are from regular gasoline cars.

    I was even hopeful of Ford’s hybrid Fusion, but they killed that one too because money.

    If they really want to make some serious competition, they should break up the oligopoly of car OEMs. But they never did and never will.

    This exact scenario already played out with Japanese OEMs decades ago. They brought a superior product to the market, and instead of competing, they just lobbied congress to make a crap ton of stupid import laws to prevent Japanese cars from taking the market.

    Then they had a weird era of those hybrid car brands where the big 3 made partnerships with Nissan, Toyota, etc for tech sharing because they couldn’t even properly R&D for crap.

    Then Nissan, Toyota, Honda, and Subaru opened plants inside the USA to bypass the import stuff, and here we are today.

    The only difference this time is instead of what was generally perceived as an economic ally, the new kid on the block is the next enemy after Russia. And tbh not even a major threat type of enemy.

    • ✺roguetrick✺@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      not even a major threat type of enemy

      Brother the American industry apocalypse after China invades Taiwan and TSMC is torched will make the economic impacts of the rona look like a tea party.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldOP
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      2 months ago

      the new kid on the block is the next enemy after Russia

      Wait, why is our largest trading partner our enemy, again?

      • mlg@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Washington can’t fathom not running their monopoly on every global market lol.

        China is supposed to be a dirty 3rd world outsource nation, not a competitor. They should do as told instead of actually investing in their country’s infrastructure /s.

        • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldOP
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          2 months ago

          They should do as told instead of actually investing in their country’s infrastructure /s.

          Oh fuck, its the trains, isn’t it? We are their enemy because they built trains. Its the same reason we tanked Japan’s economy in the 90s.