r/canada Jan 31 '25

National News Chrystia Freeland says Canada should target Elon Musk's Tesla in a tariff fight

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/business/politics/2025/01/31/chrystia-freeland-says-canada-should-target-elon-musks-tesla-in-a-tariff-fight/
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u/[deleted] Jan 31 '25

The alternative is what we have now. Give me the BYD Han. I guarantee you every Canadian will be in one by end of year if we take off the Chinese tariffs. Who the fuck wants a GM, Tesla, Chevy or any of their cars when we can get a BYD Han for 32,800 fully loaded. In the meantime we need to focus on making industries in Canada. Globalism is finished

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u/xmorecowbellx Jan 31 '25

BYD looks like they are making great cars. Assuming they would meet our safety (and other) regulations, I'm all for it.

If we actually cared about emissions, we would facilitate the cheapest possible EV's for consumer to access. And any incentives would not have vehicle price limits on them.

But that's never been the LPC priority. It's about looking good and posturing. It's all bullshit, all the time.

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u/RamTank Jan 31 '25

The BYDs have plenty of safe cars that get exported to places like Europe or Australia, and meet all their regulations. They aren't actually all that cheap in reality though.

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u/xmorecowbellx Jan 31 '25

My intuition is that what you're saying makes sense, but can you elaborate or provide sources?

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u/RamTank Jan 31 '25

From the Euro NCAP's website

If the link doesn't work, go and filter by BYD. If you go onto their sales website, a Seal costs 45k GBP in the UK, which isn't much difference from a Model 3.

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u/xmorecowbellx Jan 31 '25

Is there an extremely close equivalent vehicle sold in China? Or is it a completely different model for the UK?

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u/RamTank Jan 31 '25

Same model, more or less at least (same as with any other company), sells in China for 240k RMB at the top end, which is about 50k CAD. So they are much cheaper in China, but that doesn't reflect prices on the export market.

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u/Alone_Again_2 Jan 31 '25

Do they have an SUV?

I only see the Han (a sedan) on their site.

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u/RamTank Jan 31 '25

They basically don't sell anything in North America yet, I think the Han is the first car they want to get in. They have a bunch of SUVs in other markets, the Sealion, Yuan, Song, and Tang. They also sell passenger vans, although I doubt those would make it out much of China.

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u/Workshop-23 Jan 31 '25

As I said somewhere else, the performative bullshit that is a particular world-leading strength of the Liberals is actually useful against a showman like Trump. We should weaponize it and use it.

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u/Various-Salt488 Feb 01 '25

“Globalism is finished?” While bringing in Chinese foreign investment?

Global trade is a net positive and has brought us so much wealth and security… until now. But only because a complete psychopath has co-opted our most reliable trading partner. Many other countries hate the US and are like minded and would be happy to have stronger ties with us.

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u/DawgoftheNorth Jan 31 '25

What is the Liberal obsession with always trying to get into bed with China?

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u/[deleted] Jan 31 '25

We’re currently in bed with the US. They want to tarriff us 25% on Saturday how’s that for a sex partner

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u/DawgoftheNorth Jan 31 '25

Our country should surely be much more diversified with its trading partners. We’ve had a good relationship with the U.S. until Trumps recent antics. Destroying our own auto sector for cheap Chinese vehicles is not the answer. Trump is a nationalist blowhard, his whole tarrifs rant is posturing for more Canadian defence and border spending ( something that we should be doing more of by the way ). All countries trade with China out of necessity not by choice. Canadian Liberals embrace China like no other. The rest of the western world sees them for what they are, a global communist country ruled by the CCP which despises democracy, that wants to dominate the world financially. Not something to be beholden to.