Not a snowball's chance in you know where, would I ever buy a Chinese car, they can keep their crap.

That's what a lot of people used to say about Japanese cars, too.

@EJFB1029

You're most likely using or wearing their "crap" already!

70% of goods on sale in Wal-Mart are made in China. Chinese firms also manufacture the majority of the computers used in the USA and many parts of the space shuttle too.

BYD themselves produce state-of-the-art batteries for more mobile phones than any other company in the world, so you are also probably using their technology on a day to day basis already!

It does confuse me that people find it OK to buy a Chinese computer, VCR, hi-fi, washing machine, lawnmower etc (even though they often don't know it due to branding), but seem to think that the technology involved in putting a car together is so mysterious the Chinese will never be able to produce one.

This type of response sounds almost identical to the anti-hybrid comments that emerged when the Prius first went on sale....

I believe there's a crash-test video circulating around the 'net showing a Chinese car that does quite poorly. One car/one video seems to have more power than anything these days. Sorry I don't remember the name of the car. It is indeed a scary video but that car would not be sold here, due to regulations...that being said the attached vehicle is sold and even revered as a safe mode of transport. Thanks to Darell at evnut.com for the pic.

I would SOOO buy an EV if one was offered with 100 mile per charge, 5 passenger, hatchback, decent accell, and under $30k. Hmmm, a Prius EV...

BYD also manufacture a Corolla size vehicle for the Eastern markets. It recently won a 4 out of 5 star safety award in the Russian vehicle testing programme, which is essentially the same as the Euro NCAP system. That puts it right in the same league (safety wise) as most cars on sale today in Europe.

TGTBT - Too Good To Be True!

At least they have one car that is real and works.

The automaker's name is Brilliance. After the initial poor testing (1 star?) in Europe, they revised it and more recent European crash tests gave it 3 stars. Not great, but it is a brand new car company, after all.

VIDEO: The Brilliance BS6's 3-star crash test - Autoblog

Hmmmm all the Hummer drivers, especially the SUT like in the photo, always claim their large size is a safety advantage. The driver should sue the school district for having a vehicle larger than his, for the emotional trauma

I think it is great this car has come out. It sounds better than the EV1. The only barriers are obvious: big oil in america, infrastructural changes, skewed beliefs/attitudes about electric cars, and exporting the vehicle (although we, as another poster noted, love to import anything from china). I am sure after several revisions (models) the vehicle will surely prove its safety to any questionable parties. It's a matter of education/technology and changing the political status quo of big oil dominance.

All SUV crash tests already show that to be false. It's a dead issue. Rollover dangers outweigh risk of having less tonages of steel wrapped around you.

The biggest problem with Chinese vehicles, is not only the bad quality, but the additional drain on the country they would add. Chinese don't invest here, they take, it would just be additional money that would further destroy the American car companies, and American jobs. The Chinese are NOT our friends, they are users, they already own a great deal of our debt, I don't want to give them more money to buy up American companies and move the work to China.

Does this mean that people living in other countries should not purchase American products for exactly this same reason?

If two products are approximately the same, it makes sense as Americans to purchase the domestic product. However, if there is a huge discrepancy between the two products, then consumers should purchase the product that best meets their needs.

And whose fault is that? I don't recall the Chinese invading and forcing American and Canadian consumers at gunpoint to buy their products. If that had happened, I'm sure I would have heard something about it on the news

The reason why the Chinese own most of the American and Canadian debt is because we are too spoiled, fat, lazy, and ignorant to properly manage our finances.

Jayman is partially right: we consumers have become too passive and allowed coroporations and companies to shift their supply/workforce overseas to increase their profit margin. We consumers demand good prices -- but at what costs? Who is the consumer advocate that looks ahead in preventing issues before people die from bad paint, faulty mechanics, etc? It's tough to demand the same companies that have made this shift to act as consumer advocates when they are concerned about their bottom-line (money). Moreover, who ensures the workers that are putting together our products are receiving the proper compensation and care? Sure, no has put a gun to our head. However, we make statements by having a conscience in what we buy and promote. Often times it just takes a little more time and thinking outside of the box.

how is cleaning up their air quality to some extent going to make a drain on their country?

oh my... you seem to watch tooo much TV.
It is big American companies that are destroying America by exporting American jobs.
and, if amercans make inferior products yet they charge lot more (because their workers make 10 or 20 times more) -- why would you want to protect that?

bottom line is that Europeans and Japanese make lot better cars than Americans do. Have you noticed how even Koreans are getting better with their cars - by quality, features and price?!

What makes you think that the Chinese who are making all other products (the world's manufacturer) will not be making as good cars as Japanese are making, say 5 or 10 years from now?

so, why not just go and bomb them to bits?
who created that debt?

was it Chinese who screwed up America?
or is it companies like wallmart who are not only screwing up the america but they are killing all of the small business.

You should protest in front of corp offices of wallmart, GM, Ford and other conglomerates, you should protest against the government of U.S. who is raping american economy, murdering people around the world thanks to puppets like Bush, Clinton and rest who begin to sell out America from time of Nixon onwards.
And, if you would lokk under the hood of establishment you would find that those same people who own corporations, all media, big pharma, intelligence and military are controlling the puppets in positions of power
that we call prime minister or president, congress or senate.

That is why we are still dependent on oil, although alternative technologies existed for some time, becuse they do not want us to be independent from oil. it is more than that, more than money. dependency = control, independence is freedom.
but, when oil men own the patents on alternative technologies -- you will not see electric or water powered cars flooding the market.
You will see just a typical oil guzzler on the road. and even a bigger one than it was decades ago.



which one do you think the ruling elite would give us?
dependency or independence?
how do they control us? by being nice an honest or by lying to us?


And, as far as Americans jobs are concerned -- consider them Amero jobs gone, for good. it is just a matter of a couple of years before American car makers proclaim "geee whiz, we did not see this coming, it took us by surprise. it was an honest mistake..... sorry to tell you this -- but we cannot compete with Chinese and Koreans. We just gonna have to move our operations from China in order to survive. And, we can't afford that 1 billion dollar filter that we have to place in each of our U.S. plants, due to EPA regulations and threat of global warming... blah blah"

and if you think that this is not happening already -- just look at other examples, like steel industry of U.S.
steel producing factories were dismantled from U.S. soil, shipped to China, reassembled there and we are the ones who paid the typical 18 months downtime of those factories. how about them apples?

so, you really think that American jobs can be saved?
or that Chinese are doing it to us?
or that a corporation actually cares about people?

what will it take for people to figure out that what is happening is not by accident -- it is intentional?!

and, you better pray that Chinese do not decide to start dropping the dollar, as dollar is already worth nothing, half of what it was worth compared to euro, just some 6 or 7 years ago.

now, shall we bomb Europeans because our government has shaft in our a$$es?!

Chinese are not stupid:


snipets from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_policy_of_China

[edit] Renewables

Main article: Renewable energy in China
In 2006, approximately 7% of China's energy was from renewable sources, a figure targeted to rise to 10% by 2010 and to 16% by 2020.[11] The major renewable energy source in China is hydropower. Total hydro-electric output in China in 2006 was 416 billion kWh. China is already the country with the most hydro-electric capacity in the world, and the Three Gorges Dam is projected to be the largest hydro-electric power station in the world.

Renewable energy sources

Main article: Renewable energy in China
Although a majority of the renewable energy in China is from hydropower, other renewable energy sources are in rapid development. In 2006, a total 10 billion US dollars had been invested in renewable energy, second only to Germany. [24]


Solar power

Main article: Solar power in China
China has become the world largest consumer of solar energy.[27] It is the largest producer of solar water heaters, accounting for 60 percent of the world’s solar hot water heating capacity, and the total installed heaters is estimated at 30 million households.[28] Solar PV production in China is also in rapid development. Solar PV production capacity was 0.35 million kW in 2005, over 1 million kW in 2006, and 1.5 million kW expected in 2007. [24]

[edit] Wind power

Main article: Wind power in China
China's total wind power capacity is at 2.67 million kW in 2006, and reached 6.05 million kW at the end of 2007.[29] Chinese government planned that by 2020, a total 30 million kW capacity should be installed. [30]






Energy conservation


[edit] General Work Plan for Energy Conservation

The General Work Plan for Energy Conservation and Pollutant Discharge Reduction aims to cut energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product (energy intensity) by 20% over the course of the 11th five-year plan which ends in 2010, as well as cutting the discharge of major pollutants by 10%. The plan was issued in 2007 after the 4% reduction in energy intensity targeted for 2006 was missed, and all companies and local and national government have been asked to submit detailed plans for compliance before June 30, 2007.[31] In 2006 the reduction achieved was 1.23%.[32]
Implementation will involve a variety of measures, including increased use of renewable energy, revised pricing for primary energy sources and electricity, export restrictions on energy intensive and highly polluting products, and tax incentives for pollution-reduction projects. Central and local government will switch to low-energy lighting, and will be compelled to purchase only the most energy efficient and environmentally friendly electrical products.[32]
Officials have been warned that violating energy conservation and environmental protection laws will lead to criminal proceedings, while failure to achieve targets will be taken into account in the performance assessment of officials and business leaders.[9]

[edit] Space heating and air conditioning

A State Council circular issued on June 3, 2007, restricts the temperature of air conditioning in public buildings to no lower than 26oC in summer (78.8oF), and no higher than 20oC (68oF) in winter. The sale of inefficient air conditioning units has also been outlawed.[33]

Excellent post above, zeeman.

What this means is that in the future, even when salaries in China meet parity with the rest of the world, they will still have a competitive business and manufacturing advantage simply because their infrastructure is more efficient and their energy supply is more secure (and probably cheaper given the way the price of fossil fuels is going).

If they get it on the market here and the price is fair I'll buy one. It would suit my daily commute to a tee and even go beyond my daily needs. I'd have the Prius for my wifes shorter commute and for country trips.

The China factor isn't a factor at all. Any car apart from 4 cylinder Camry, smaller than 3.5 litres sold in Australia is imported anyway and a big company in China is a BIG company. The biggest problem with Chinese goods is the small manufacturers that seem to be in abundant supply in China. How many motorcycle manufacturers are there in China? Hundreds!! Most make crap but a few make a reasonable product and quite a few sell under US and Japanese brands.

I have a South Korean motorcycle and it is brilliant.