I have to say I'm super impressed with how heavy duty everything is. The control arms, subframes, etc all look good and don't fit the 'chinese car bad' narrative you always hear. The powertrain components all look to be extremely high quality.

I've poked around a few EV's with him now, and I do feel like the Chinese market cars are evolving to a really good standard faster than their Korean counterparts did back in the 80s/90s.

I own a BYD: this is not true. The key is not hinged; rather, the entire mechanical key pulls out when a small clip is unlatched near the top of the assembly (you can see it in the CT). I assume the circular hinge-looking mechanism in the CT is just a by product of the plastic/metal weld process.

Nonetheless: very cool tech demo!

Both BYD and Tesla claim to produce around 75% of their components. Ford is at around 25%.

Tesla is indeed smaller in scale (cars/year):

  BYD 4.6M
  Ford 4.4M
  Tesla 1.6M

Actually, yes, we would: https://www.kmoser.com/ctscan/

Those are small parts, though. The interesting part is the E-axle. BYD builds a unit with an integrated motor, differential, axle, and wheel hubs. That, plus an electronics box and battery, is the power train. This simplifies vehicles considerably.

There are E-axle teardown videos. There's no big secret about how to do this. Copying this is hard for Detroit, because they have a huge investment in "engine plants". With this design, BYD doesn't need standalone engine plants.

Tesla ought to be doing this, but they're into performance, not cost. They want to put two or four motors in a car. BYD does make supercars, to show off, but their volume products are reasonably good cars with E-axles and lithium iron phosphate batteries, which work fine. (It's not clear that Tesla is even into car design at all any more, but that's another issue.)

Detroit ought to be doing this, but they insist on making electric cars that are modified gasoline cars. Ford has an electric Mustang, an electric F-150, and an electric Transit. Chrysler doesn't even make cars any more, just one minivan. GM has a good Bolt now, which they are killing to appease Trump.

Also worth noting that they are very advanced in applying robotics and automation in their factories. Anyone assuming that this is all underpaid Chinese workers doing things manually would be mistaken. And that also means they are very good at maintaining the same level of quality through their production process. So, this is not surprising.

Also in general, the Chinese car market is insanely competitive right now. There's just very little room for manufacturers that deliver low quality products with lots of warranty issues.

Kind of surprised that the part that is perhaps the most "BYD" of the entire car, isn't actually the same cell that the BYD Blade batteries use, which was what I was most excited about seeing :(

It's simple things like this which incumbent manufacturers need to avoid losing sight of.

All that serves to do is ensure the American car industry falls far behind by being coddled into a lack of competition.

Toyota showed the world the Toyota Production System. What Tesla, Kia/Hyundai, and Chinese EVs have shown American automakers is how much vertical integration can be an asset, especially with the lower part counts of electric vehicles.

The model where every part is contracted out to parts manufacturers is proving to be antiquated.

Been driving Tesla the last 9 years .. entirely possible that my next car will be a BYD.

Pack that shit full of silicone dielectric grease, check it every year or two, and it should be good for decades.

But this one seems to be "state the obvious" and "recant political talking points with no new evidence".

The only reason you would do this is for competitive analysis and I assure you the other car companies have already analyzed these parts.