China’s auto-maker will be opening a new facility in California to sell electric busses to local companies. The move is small, with only a few dozen people being employed, but could mark the start of Chinese vehicles penetrating the American market. Many other Chinese companies have failed to enter other markets than their own, but with American billionaire Warren Buffett involved it is likely BYD will succeed. They will also be able to sell these vehicles at a highly discounted rate with the U.S. government picking up the rest of the cost. This marks another step in trying to publicize the importance of alternative energy vehicles not only in the U.S. but worldwide as well.
Later versions of the bus might switch to natural gas as a fuel with how cheap it has become. Companies will begin building areas to house and maintain or charge these vehicles as well. Source WSJ:
As per our class discussion, trucks are special because of the 25% “chicken war (1963)” tariff: if you want to sell them in the US, you’ve got to assemble them here. However, don’t assume that having Warren Buffett as a shareholder is a guarantee of success.
This article is very interesting. Before, most small products were made in China, but how many people thought that China would manufacture most of the things that we use in our daily lives? The fact that China has developed a lot in the past few years shows in their widespread cheap products. I think the same thing can happen with the car business. BYD might be the first one in the U.S. market but if it succeeds, then I think it is possible for Chinese cars to be a big part of the U.S or the global market.
I do agree with G on this. Though having Mr. Buffet as a shareholder is not a guaranteed success I think it does prove that there is money to be made in that side of the industry and having him in your corner can only help. A man with that amount of business knowledge can never hurt if you are looking for a profit maximizer. The scary thing for this company though is that if it fails consumers will just fall back to believing China has poor quality. The success would mean like G said that a Chinese company has its foot in the door and could allow for others to join them later on.