There’s been no shortage of hand-wringing in Washington and Brussels about a tidal wave of cheap Chinese EVs flattening Western carmakers. The political script is simple: brace yourselves for a bargain-basement invasion led by China’s poster child, BYD.
Except here’s the awkward truth: the “cheap Chinese EV” apocalypse hasn’t actually arrived. In fact, BYD is doing something far more interesting, and rather more cynical. It’s charging foreigners eye-watering premiums.
Take a moment to let that sink in the price of a Chinese made EV with which Euopean and American brands can not compete with is considered expensive by the good folk at home in the Peoples Republic.
Take the Atto 3. In China, it’s priced like a reasonably specked family hatch. In Germany? The same car, give or take a few sensors and a marginally bigger battery, costs more than double. Not a cheeky markup. Not a rounding error. Double. Sometimes nearly triple compared with domestic pricing across several markets.
So much for the idea that Europe is being flooded with impossibly cheap imports.
What’s really happening is this: China’s EV market has become a gladiatorial arena. Dozens of brands hacking away at each other in a vicious price war. Margins at home are thin to non-existent. The entry-level Seagull sells for under $10,000. Splendid for consumers. Miserable for profits.
Abroad, however, is where the real money lies.
In markets like Germany and Australia, BYD is pricing its Dolphin, Seal and Atto 3 just under, or sometimes above, established European rivals. In some cases, it’s even nudging past Tesla on comparable models. That’s not the behaviour of a company trying to undercut the West into submission. That’s a firm looking to bank healthy margins while the going’s good.
Yes, Chinese manufacturers enjoy structural cost advantages: vertically integrated supply chains, in-house battery production, cheaper energy, friendlier regulation. They’ve spent two decades locking up battery minerals and building scale. Sensible industrial strategy? Absolutely.
But let’s not pretend this is a charity exercise for European motorists.
The irony is delicious. Western politicians are warning of a price war from Beijing. Meanwhile, Beijing’s finest are quietly charging premium prices and laughing all the way to the export ledger.
This isn’t an EV revolution steamrolling the globe. It’s a margin hunt. And if the numbers stack up, you can be quite certain those prices won’t stay lofty forever.
