A Japanese person who disassembled a Chinese car

A story about a Japanese person who purchased a Chinese EV in 2023
and disassembled every single part, down to the last bolt..
Did the Chinese BYD electric vehicle
imitate others, or did it leap ahead?
The result of disassembling everything, including the bolts and nuts of a Chinese EV,
was that there were almost no Japanese parts.
In contrast, when disassembling a German Volkswagen,
there were actually many Japanese parts..
This was the first shock..
Almost all the parts in Chinese electric vehicles were domestically produced.
While electric vehicles from Germany, Japan, Korea, the US, and Europe
use a format where the battery is attached to the bottom of the car,
China is the only one where the battery itself
becomes the floor of the vehicle interior.
This scene demonstrates China's cost reduction strategies.
Through this kind of simplification,
less manual labor is required, which in turn
lowers the manufacturing cost.
While other countries
assemble parts A + B + C + D separately,
China combines four different functions into one
to manufacture it.
The advantage of this Chinese method
is that it reduces manufacturing costs to an extreme level.
The disadvantage is that if even one of the four functions fails,
the entire unit must be replaced.
With Hyundai or Toyota, you can just replace the broken part.
That is why they say even for minor breakdowns,
repair costs for Chinese cars can be as high as a German Mercedes.
You simply have to replace the whole thing.
The conclusion reached by the Japanese technician was
that Chinese cars are "disposable cars."
In short, it means if it breaks down midway through ownership,
it is better to just scrap the car.
It is a 20-million-won electric vehicle,
but even a small breakdown can result in 10 million won in repair costs.
Because they focus exclusively on
drastically lowering manufacturing costs,
the structure is said to completely disregard
maintenance and upkeep after the purchase.
For this reason, European insurance companies
refuse to provide insurance for Chinese BYD vehicles altogether.
A situation can arise where the repair costs exceed the value of the car,
making the "tail wag the dog."
Among European mechanics,
Chinese cars are cited as having the most extreme difficulty level for repairs..
Because they were so obsessed with cost reduction,
the structure was designed from the very beginning
without any thought for maintenance or repair.
And most decisively,
while they sell cars using all sorts of sweet talk
and low prices at the initial point of sale,
once the sale is complete,
they turn a blind eye
and act as if they know nothing, causing local consumer dissatisfaction to explode.
The perception is spreading that Chinese people, as expected, lack credit and trust.
Of course, it wasn't all negative talk about Chinese cars;
experts from all over the world said
it is absolutely impossible for any country to make an EV at this price,
and they acknowledged China's technological capabilities itself.