Electric Vehicles

Was a great trip and while it raised some eyebrows from ev sceptics it went off without a hitch.

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/31963572

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/42386886

Octopus Energy and BYD have launched the UK’s first vehicle-to-grid (V2G) bundle. The all-in-one package includes a V2G-capable BYD Dolphin, bi-directional charger and smart tariff – offering drivers completely free home charging and turning EVs into flexible energy assets.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/37465853

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• BYD has reportedly sued 37 influencers in China, claiming they have made defamatory comments.
• The manufacturer has a News Anti-Fraud department where people can send tips about possible defamation and get rewards.
• Companies suing influencers for potentially damaging their image is far more common in China than it is in the West.

The relationship between automakers and the people who create content with their vehicles can sometimes be tense. However, it seldom results in legal action taken against them, and requests to change or remove content are usually about as extreme as it gets.

But not if you’re covering the world’s fastest-growing automaker over the last few years, BYD, which is reportedly taking 37 influencers to court over things they said that it deems defamatory.

CarNewsChina says BYD has also added 126 content creators to an internal watch list, and they will be monitored in the future, potentially also facing legal action from the automaker if they say something that the company sees as damaging to its image. The carmaker created a “News Anti-Fraud Office” a few years ago and it’s encouraging people to send tips about potentially damaging content.

[...]

To encourage tip-offs about potential smear campaigns, BYD is offering substantial bonuses—50,000 to 5 million yuan ($6,900 to $690,000)—for credible leads. The source lists several examples of why BYD sued influencers. In one instance, a person accused the company of manipulating content creators to say negative things about rival brands.

The court concluded that the influencer was required to make a public apology and pay a fine of 100,000 yuan (around $13,800). Another influencer was fined after making claims that BYD was financially unstable and on the verge of bankruptcy.

All of these fines pale in comparison to the August 2023 lawsuit launched by Nissan Dongfeng against an influencer who had posted over 50 videos on TikTok denigrating the automaker’s vehicles. He was asked to pay 5 million yuan in reparations to the manufacturer. In 2022, Tesla also took a Chinese influencer to court, demanding 5 million yuan in reparations, but eventually settled for a lot less.

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Is there finally about to be a Brexit dividend? The EU & US are placing tariffs on Chinese EVs, but Britain isn't. So British drivers will soon have a welcome choice. Cheap well-made Chinese EVs whose EV charging means they travel 100 kilometres for a third of the price an average combustion engine car does.

Yet another death knell for fossil fuels and combustion engine cars.

How China made electric vehicles mainstream

BYD Dolphin Surf Review

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/37455372

Archived

Carmakers and salespeople in Brazil are up in arms at the arrival of a giant cargo vessel carrying thousands of cheap Chinese electric vehicles.

The world’s largest car-carrying ship – one of a number deployed by BYD, China’s biggest carmaker – is said to carry the equivalent of 20 football fields of vehicles. It finished its maiden journey to dock at Brazil’s Itajai port late last month. But not everyone is happy about its arrival.

BYD, China’s top producer of EVs and plug-in hybrids, is offering Brazilian car shoppers relatively low-priced options in a market where the green-car movement is still in its infancy. But Brazilian auto-industry officials and labour leaders fear the vast influx of cars from BYD and other Chinese carmakers will set back domestic auto production and hurt jobs.

Calls for immediate 35% tariffs after flood of EVs

The late-May shipment was the fourth of the Chinese carmaker’s ships to dock in Brazil this year, totalling around 22,000 vehicles, according to Reuters calculations.

BYD, the world’s top producer of electric and plug-in hybrid cars, is the largest among several Chinese brands targeting Brazil for growth. China-built vehicle imports are expected to grow nearly 40% this year, to about 200,000, according to Brazil’s main auto association. That would account for roughly 8% of total light-vehicle registrations.

Industry and labour groups say China is taking advantage of Brazil’s temporarily low tariff barriers to ramp up its exports rather than investing to build Brazilian factories and create jobs.

They are lobbying Brazil’s government to accelerate by a year a plan to increase Brazil’s tariff on all EV imports to 35% from 10%, rather than gradually phasing in higher levies.

“Countries around the world started closing their doors to the Chinese, but Brazil didn’t,” said Aroaldo da Silva, a Mercedes-Benz production worker and president of IndustriALL Brasil, a confederation of unions across six industrial sectors. “China made use of that.”

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https://archive.is/ITYTL

Other companies have already started to introduce battery swapping to Europe. Nio operates 60 power swap stations in Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Stellantis recently brought battery swapping to its fleet of Fiat 500 electric vehicles in Spain via its Free2move car-sharing service.

Now that we have electric semi-trucks propping up all over, which is the next area for clean transport to expand into?

~ USD$ 25,000 +

It already outsold Tesla in the UK and Europe, but this could be just the start. BYD said it’s launching new vehicles, including EVs, faster than any carmaker in Europe has done so far.