For all the clamor, Europe hasn't exactly taken a hard line against Chinese electric and hybrid imports, and resistance has been even weaker in the U.K. With the tariffs issue temporarily over, China's big electric-vehicle makers are hatching a ploy that should strike a chord with even the most staunch skeptics: football.
If football doesn't work out, there's always cheap local production: Stellantis has started making the first of its cheap, Chinese-designed electric cars in Poland ahead of a wider rollout later this year. That might be one way to get around the tariffs that have been introduced in Europe and have prompted some tasty little retaliation from China.
![Vidframe Minimal Top](https://images-stag.jazelc.com/uploads/theautopian-m2en/vidframe_min_top1.png)
Back in the U.S., used car sales surged in May, which I think further supports my theory that people just can't wait any longer to replace their older vehicles.
Euro 2024 Tournament Drives 69% Increase in BYD Searches
Speaking of soccer, I'm reminded of the old Dave Eggers line: “Only Communists play foot sports.” At the very least, Communists are happy to pay for Europeans to play foot sports.
BYD is an official partner of the Euro 2024 tournament that brings together all of Europe's soccer teams. A combination of streaming TV deals, Ted Lasso, Ryan Reynolds, and the success of the U.S. women's national soccer team have Americans taking a bit more interest in soccer, which is why every four years, some of my friends pretend to be soccer experts for a couple of weeks.
On the other side of the Atlantic, everyone teeth The experts are here, and everyone is paying attention. A record 10 million+ people in the UK watched Germany smash Scotland (it couldn't get any worse), and the data suggests that both the stupid colonizers and the stupid colonized are at least open to the possibility of being invaded by Chinese cars.
According to data from Auto Trader UK, traffic to its car sales/research site for BYD cars increased by 69% over the weekend, with most buyers expressing interest in the BYD seal. Erin Bunker, editorial director at Auto Trader, said:
“Our traffic data shows that the tournament has already made a significant difference to BYD's perception just over a year since entering the UK market. This high-profile media partnership only underlines BYD's ambitions in Europe, where it faces stiff competition from well-established, well-established brands. BYD's sales are growing rapidly, albeit from a low base, and the Euro partnership has the potential to cement them in the public consciousness.”
I was going to make a joke here about cars and pitching on a football field, but it didn't work out. Tell me your best football/BYD/Euro joke in the comments.
Another quote I like about soccer is from Lewis Black, who claims that Europe avoided a continent-wide war by participating in the much more violent and nationalistic UEFA soccer tournament. The Ukraine war undermines this claim a bit, but I think we would allow the Russian team to participate in the tournament if Russian troops would withdraw from Ukraine. Is that a fair deal?
Leapmotor starts production of $20,000 EV in Poland
![LeapMotor T03 2](https://images-stag.jazelc.com/uploads/theautopian-m2en/Leapmotor_T03_2-1024x576.jpg)
Stellantis has some strange plans for North America, but its joint venture with Chinese automaker LeapMotor (of which Stellantis is the majority shareholder) makes a lot of sense to me. Chinese companies are ahead of the pack in EV manufacturing for a variety of reasons, including the fact that Chinese automakers also sell small, supermini-sized electric vehicles that are popular in Europe.
With a number of factories in Europe, Stellantis has a good base to produce Chinese-designed cars locally – in this case its factory in Tychy, Poland, has begun initial test production of the intriguing Leapmotor T03, a compact car (about 5.9 inches shorter than a Mitsubishi Mirage) due to go on sale later this year, priced at around $20,000 and offering a range of 145 miles on the WLTP urban cycle.
Automotive News Europe From a financial performance perspective, they report that local production is effective.
According to Jefferies, executives said production costs at the Polish plant will be between 400 and 500 euros ($428.08-535.10) per vehicle, on par with Leap Motor's China base and around 1,000 euros in Italy.
Leap Motor is one of the Chinese companies facing new tariffs on imported cars, but the tariffs are low at 21% (plus 10% on all imported cars). As far as I know, the company should be able to avoid the tariffs by building in Europe. The tiny car may be popular, but the company also has plans to build the A12, an SUV similar in size to the Model Y, in Poland next year.
Forget the chicken tax, here comes the pork tax
![Jamon](https://images-stag.jazelc.com/uploads/theautopian-m2en/jamon-1024x683.jpg)
China has largely ignored the new European tariffs, but that doesn't mean there won't be some form of retaliation. China has already imposed a 25% tax on heavy-engine cars from Germany and threatened to penalize French cognac makers.
What about the rest of the EU? China could hit them hard.
from Reuters:
China has launched an anti-dumping investigation into imports of pork and pork by-products from the European Union, primarily targeting Spain, the Netherlands and Denmark in response to export restrictions on electric vehicles.
The investigation, announced by China's Ministry of Commerce on Monday, will focus on raw, chilled and frozen whole pork, as well as pork intestines, bladders and stomachs intended for human consumption, and will begin on June 17.
The joke here is that the EU investigated Chinese electric cars before imposing a whopping 38% tariffs on Chinese automakers.
Used car retail sales up 15.9% month-on-month
The green line in this graph of used car retail sales shows a significant increase in sales, far exceeding last year's sales. What's going on?
The chart comes from Cox Automotive, and here's how the company explains it:
“After a lackluster spring selling season, used-vehicle retail sales rebounded in May to their highest level so far this year,” said Scott Vanner, senior analyst of economic and industry insights at Cox Automotive. “In fact, used-vehicle retail sales volumes are higher than any month since March 2022, when tax refunds were fueling the market.”
It's worth noting that March 2022 was an ideal time to sell used cars because interest rates were low, people had money to spare from refunds and stimulus checks, and new cars were few and far between. I think the fact that we're approaching that figure indicates that while there is still a huge amount of pent-up demand in the market and incentives are increasing, rising interest rates are making it harder for people to take on large car loans.
If I were running a large multinational car company with excess inventory, I would be tempted to rely heavily on financing transactions to sell cars.
What I'm listening to while writing TMD
Can I brag a little about an old friend? My friend Will Butler composed the music for a play called “Stereophonic” (check it out!) in which a band records their breakout album. Will finds himself in the position of having to write a fake 70's rock album, which sounds really hard! The play won a number of Tony Awards, including “Best Play,” and I'm really happy for my friend.
It also puts the story of how musically unintelligent I am in a more interesting context: I think in 9th grade, Will and I were competing in a speech and debate tournament at our high school in suburban Texas (Rhythm Falls?). There were always long breaks between rounds, and we only had so much time to play Egyptian Rat Screw. I knew Will loved music, so I suggested we try to write a song together based on a song I had in my head.
Will dutifully recorded the notes and played the song on a small portable keyboard he carried around with him. By the end of the day, I knew I had a hit. Once I had the basics of the song down, I asked Will to play it to me in its entirety.
“Why does this story sound familiar?”
“That certainly sounds familiar.”
“I think it's the theme song to 'Bewitched.'”
“Damn, that's the theme song to 'Bewitched.'”
I gave up songwriting then and there, and the world was certainly a better place for it, but I'm glad Will wasn't too discouraged.
The big question
What do your friends say about buying a new/used car?