Tell me honestly. How many times have you been waiting for the green light at a traffic light and a BYD has slid silently past you? Tirana is filling up with Chinese electric cars. If this keeps up, in two years we'll be greeting each other with "Ni hao."
But let's take it seriously for a moment. BYD is the Chinese company taking over the world, and a recent study explained exactly why their cars are so cheap, and why Tesla, Volkswagen, and Audi are quietly crying in the corner.
The price gap between a BYD and a Tesla is huge. So while Elon Musk is launching rockets and arguing on his own Twitter, BYD sits down, runs the numbers, and there it is.
How do they pull it off? First, the Chinese government. This year alone, BYD received $1.4 billion in state subsidies. Yes, my friends, while we get back 5,000 lekë in tax refunds after three months of paperwork, BYD gets $1.4 billion.
Then what?
BYD makes 80% of the car's parts in-house: the batteries, the chips, the motor. For everything else, the Chinese pay their suppliers after 155 days. Yes, you heard that right. Five months. Imagine if supermarkets in Tirana paid their suppliers after five months. It just doesn't make sense.
So next time you see a BYD in Tirana, know this: that low price is the combination of the Chinese state, vertical integration, and some supplier in Shenzhen who has been waiting five months for his money. And we, here, are happy to pay for a good car at half the price of a Tesla.