Recently Yahoo News on-line picked up the following:
BYD Unleashes an EV Industry Reckoning That Alarms
Beijing (1/2)
Bloomberg News - With assistance from Yasufumi Saito and
Chester Dawson.
Sun, June 8, 2025 at 2:00 p.m. PDT·5 min read
(Bloomberg) -- The price war engulfing China’s electric
vehicle industry has already sent share prices tumbling and prompted an unusual
level of intervention from Beijing. The shakeout may just be getting started.
For all the Chinese government’s efforts to prevent price cuts by market leader BYD Co. from turning into a vicious spiral, analysts say a combination of weaker demand and extreme overcapacity will slice into profits at the strongest brands and force feebler competitors to fold. Even after the number of EV makers started shrinking for the first time last year, the industry is still using less than half its production capacity.
“What you’re seeing in China is disturbing, because there’s a lack of demand and extreme price cutting,” said John Murphy, a senior automotive analyst at Bank of America Corp. Eventually there will be “massive consolidation” to soak up the excess capacity, Murphy said.
For automakers, relentless discounting erodes profit margins, undermines brand value and forces even well-capitalized companies into unsustainable financial positions. Low-priced and low-quality products can seriously damage the international reputation of “Made-in-China” cars, noted the People’s Daily, an outlet controlled by the Communist Party. And that knock would come just as models from BYD to Geely, Zeekr and Xpeng start to collect accolades on the world stage.
For consumers, price drops may seem beneficial but they mask deeper risks. Unpredictable pricing discourages long-term trust — already people are complaining on China’s social media, wondering why they should buy a car now when it may be cheaper next week — while there’s a chance automakers, as they cut costs to stay afloat, may reduce investment in quality, safety and after-sales service.
Auto CEOs were told last week they must “self-regulate” and shouldn’t sell cars below cost or offer unreasonable price cuts, according to people familiar with the matter. The issue of zero-mileage cars also came up — where vehicles with no distance on their odometers are sold by dealers into the second-hand market, seen widely as a way for automakers to artificially inflate sales and clear inventory.
Chinese automakers have been discounting a lot more aggressively than their foreign counterparts.
BofA’s Murphy said US automakers should just get out. “Tesla probably needs to be there to compete with those companies and understand what’s going on, but there’s a lot of risk there for them.”
(to be continued)
Translation
比亞迪引發電動車行業內捲令北京警醒（1/2）
（彭博）— 席捲中國電動車產業的價格戰已導致股價暴跌，並促使北京採取了不同尋常的干預措施。業界洗牌或許才剛開始。
儘管中國政府竭盡全力阻止市場領頭羊比亞迪 (BYD)股份有限公司的降價行為陷入惡性循環，但分析師表示，需求疲軟和產能極度過剩的雙重打擊將侵蝕最強勢品牌的利潤，並迫使實力較弱的競爭對手倒閉。即使在去年電動車製造商數量首次開始萎縮後，該產業的產能利用率仍不到一半。
中國當局正試圖淡化影響，譴責汽車產業 “老鼠賽跑” ，並於上週召集各大品牌負責人到北京。然而，先前的干預嘗試收效甚微。至少在短期內，很少投資人押注汽車製造商能夠毫髮無損：比亞迪，可以說是產業整合的最大贏家，自5月底股價達到高峰以來，市值已縮水215億美元。
美國銀行高級汽車分析師 John Murphy表示: 「中國的情況令人不安，因為需求不足，而且價格大幅下調」。 Murphy表示，最終將出現 “大規模整合” ，以吸收過剩產能。
對汽車製造商而言，持續的折扣會侵蝕利潤率，損害品牌價值，甚至迫使資金雄厚的公司也陷入難以為繼的財務困境。共產黨控制的媒體《人民日報》指出，低價低質的產品會嚴重損害「中國製造」汽車的國際聲譽。而這種打擊恰逢比亞迪、吉利、Zeekr 和小鵬等品牌車型開始在全球舞台上贏得讚譽之際。
對消費者而言，降價看似有利，但卻掩蓋了更深層的風險。不可預測的定價會損害長期信任 - 中國社群媒體上已有人抱怨，質疑為什麼現在要買車，下周可能就更便宜了 - 同時，汽車製造商為了維持營運而削減成本，可能會減少對品質、安全和售後服務的投入。
據知情人士透露，汽車行業的首席執行官們上週被告知，他們必須 “自我監管” ，不應低於成本價銷售汽車或進行不合理的降價。零里程汽車的問題也隨之出現 - 里程表上沒有里程的汽車會被經銷商賣到二手市場，這被廣泛認為是汽車製造商人為抬高銷量和清空庫存的一種手段。
中國汽車製造商提供的折扣遠勝於外國同行。
美國銀行 (BofA) 的 Murphy表示，美國汽車製造商應該撤離。 “特斯拉可能需要在那裡與這些公司競爭，並去了解情況，但這對他們來說風險是很大。”
（待續）
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