What the American Most Determined to Block BYD Admitted to Personally

On September 2, Charlotte Economic Club, North Carolina, USA.

Sitting in the audience were all people from the US industry.

US Treasury Secretary Bessent stood on stage and suddenly posed a question:

"Have any of you in the room seen BYD cars?"

Then he gave the answer himself:

"This is the best car in the $70,000 class that you can get for $35,000."

The whole venue went silent.

This quote later flooded Chinese social media. Netizens' first reaction was amusement: US Treasury Secretary personally advertising for a Chinese car company?

But don't get happy too quickly. After Bessent praised it, he immediately added a sting. He said BYD is "heavily subsidized," claiming China uses industrial subsidies to distort global competition.

Praise first, then step on.

This tactic is played very smoothly.

The question is, this step he took was completely exposed with data.

A report from the US Rhodium Group calculated this year: BYD's per-vehicle cost advantage over Tesla is about $4,700.

Out of these $4,700, how much comes from direct government subsidies?

$292.

Less than 5%.

Then where was the rest of the money saved from?

Vertical integration. BYD manufactures its own parts; this alone saves about $2,369. Plus lower operating costs and economies of scale.

That is to say, that "$70,000 experience" is not built by someone dumping money. It relies on manufacturing batteries, motors, and control systems in-house, relying on generations of iteration, and squeezing out cost cent by cent through mass production.

This is truly what makes Bessent uncomfortable.

If BYD was just "cheap," he wouldn't mention it at all. Cheap goods do not constitute a threat.

The real pain point is: spend $35,000, get something worth $70,000.

This is not a price war, it is a value war.

You can block it behind your borders with tariffs, but you can't explain to consumers why, for the same money, others give more.

Data does not lie.

In August, BYD sold 189,000 vehicles overseas, up 134.6% year-on-year, setting a record for the fifth consecutive month. From January to August, cumulative sales reached 1.158 million vehicles, surpassing last year's full year of 1.0496 million vehicles.

Overseas sales account for 43.4% of total deliveries. For every 10 cars sold, more than 4 are handed over to overseas users.

In the first half of this year, BYD's overseas revenue was 181.268 billion yuan, accounting for 52.6% of total revenue.

A Chinese car company, for the first time, earned more than half of its money from abroad.

Moreover, overseas car sales gross margins are nearly 2 percentage points higher than domestic.

It is not low-price volume chasing, but actually making money.

UK sales for the first four months were 26,396 vehicles, an increase of 124%. Latin America growth was 142.8%, and Brazil became the largest overseas market. Thailand, Singapore, Italy, Spain, Saudi Arabia, UAE, South Africa, one after another topping local new energy sales charts.

The factory in Szeged, Hungary, will start production in Q4 of this year.

There is another interesting detail.

Bessent is not the first US official stimulated by BYD.

In April this year, US Commerce Secretary Lutnick was asked if he would allow BYD to build a joint venture factory in the US. He replied with only one word: "No."

Late in April, 74 House Democrats sent a joint letter to the White House, the wording was almost begging: "We must absolutely not hand over the US auto industry to a strategic competitor determined to dominate the world."

In May, another legislator proposed a bill that not only bans Chinese connected car imports, but also plugs loopholes allowing Canadian and Mexican residents to drive temporarily into the country.

From ministers to legislators, from executive orders to legislative proposals, almost every gear of the US political machine is spinning at high speed around "how to block Chinese cars."

The more anxious they are, the more it indicates one thing:

They are scared.

Afraid of what?

It's not that they are afraid of cheap prices. They are afraid that the brand premium game played for decades suddenly stopped working.

In the past, whether a car was worth this price was decided by brand history, by the badge, by circle consensus. A large chunk of the money consumers spent was buying that badge.

What BYD did was to overturn this pricing logic: it doesn't see who you are, it sees what you provide.

Three-electric system independent and controllable, 10,000 fast charging stations built covering 332 cities, charging time only increases by 3 minutes at minus 30 degrees.

These things are hard assets. Whether you like this brand or not, it is right there.

So the dilemma Americans now face is: you can prevent BYD from entering, but you cannot let domestic consumers not know that there is a car outside that spends half the money for double the experience.

Bessent's words were originally meant to say "they rely on subsidies."

As a result, after speaking, everyone remembers only the first half.

$35,000, $70,000 experience.

This is probably the most expensive slip of the tongue.

In the end, the best certification often comes from the person who most wants to deny you.

He is not praising you, he is stating a fact that gives him a headache.

And this fact is a vote cast by tens of millions of overseas users with real money.

Win world recognition with product power—This phrase sounds like a slogan, but in today's context, it is just plain speak:

You are good enough, even your opponent cannot hide it.

What do you think?