I think this is probably much closer to the core of the issue than simply comparing Chinese and American wages.
A car isn't just the labor cost of the people doing final assembly. It's batteries, power electronics, semiconductors, motors, castings, software, logistics, suppliers, tooling and the speed at which all of those things can be developed and scaled.
That's also why Brazil and Europe are becoming such interesting experiments.
Chinese manufacturers are increasingly moving final assembly outside China. In Brazil they're taking over or reusing existing factories and hiring Brazilian workers. In Europe, BYD, Chery, Geely, Dongfeng and Leapmotor are all moving toward some form of localized production.
So over the next few years we're going to get much better evidence about this.
If their advantage disappears as production localizes, then Chinese labor costs and domestic industrial conditions were doing most of the work.
But if much of the advantage survives, then the supplier ecosystem and manufacturing organization you're describing become much harder to ignore.
E para o TurkeyBLTSandwich, eu usaria:
This is the part of BYD that I think gets overlooked when the discussion becomes only about subsidies and wages.
BYD isn't just taking a conventional Western automotive supply chain and paying the assembly workers less. It has built a much more vertically integrated industrial structure around batteries, electronics, powertrains and vehicle production.
That doesn't mean the model is automatically superior or that its current advantage will last forever. American manufacturers can reinvest, reorganize supply chains and bring technologies back in-house.
But that's exactly why I think competition matters.
We're now seeing Chinese manufacturers take that manufacturing model outside China. Brazil is already getting locally produced Chinese vehicles, and Europe is moving rapidly in the same direction.
Once those cars are being made by Brazilian or European workers, the wage explanation becomes easier to separate from the manufacturing-system explanation.
That's the experiment I'm interested in watching.
SMCI up 10%
Gone from Double Bottom -> Cup and Handle with nice green candle
Ready to rocket another 20-30% by EOY
>SMCI P/E: 12.48
DELL P/E: 32.87
>SMCI Forward P/E: 9.36
DELL Forward P/E: 20.04
I know Chinese stocks are risky and all that… but has anyone looked at TME? It’s like under 4x P/E (ex-cash). Isn’t that crazy cheap? 🧐 for this stock ?