{"id":83447,"date":"2025-09-01T12:03:02","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T16:03:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=83447"},"modified":"2025-09-01T12:03:02","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T16:03:02","slug":"china-ev-technology-better-rivian-ceo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=83447","title":{"rendered":"Rivian’s CEO Explains What Everybody Gets Wrong About Chinese EVs"},"content":{"rendered":"

China\u2019s electric car industry is on track to swallow the world. But there\u2019s one piece of the puzzle that often gets overblown when people discuss the ramifications of these cars potentially being sold in the United States someday.<\/p>\n

That $10,000 BYD you keep hearing about<\/a>? Here in the U.S., there\u2019s zero chance it would be so astonishingly cheap, for better or worse. There are a few reasons for that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

EV prices have fallen in China partially due to a brutal price war<\/a> that is widely seen as unsustainable. Chinese cars sold in the U.S. would also need to meet different safety standards, which would hike up costs. (The same is true in Europe, where that ultra-cheap BYD Seagull<\/a> just went on sale<\/a> for around 23,000 euros, with some modifications.)\u00a0<\/p>\n

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The legendarily cheap BYD Seagull arrived in Europe recently as the Dolphin Surf, pictured here.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Photo by: BYD<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

And then there\u2019s the biggest factor: tariffs. Today, the U.S. imposes duties of over 100%<\/a> on Chinese-made cars in what amounts to an effective ban. The federal government\u2019s line is that China\u2019s lavish government subsidies have created far too much car-building capacity, and that it\u2019s not America\u2019s job to let artificially cheap imports steamroll into town.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s difficult to imagine those walls coming down in a major way anytime soon. And, for car companies that sell in America, it\u2019s a lifesaver to avoid competing with cars that cost half or a third as much. But that doesn\u2019t mean Ford, General Motors and the rest are out of the woods.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When we interviewed Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe<\/a> on the Plugged-In Podcast<\/a>\u00a0a few weeks ago, I asked him about the threat of China\u2019s EVs coming to America, and whether he and his rivals should be preparing for that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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