BYD Finds an American Friend in Uber

China’s BYD, the world’s biggest EV maker, is hoping to ride-share Uber’s coattails.

On Wednesday Uber announced a new partnership with BYD to get 100,000 of its drivers into the company’s electric vehicles: part of the ride-hailing service’s plans to decarbonize its business. Uber signed a similar deal with Tesla not so long ago — the difference is that the US government hasn’t been trying to freeze Tesla out of the market.

Cheap and Cheerful

Uber and BYD’s deal is for Uber’s global business, and excludes the increasingly inhospitable US market. As part of its trade war with China, the US has imposed tariffs so onerous on China-made EVs that they’re non-existent in America. Thanks in part to Chinese state subsidies, BYD’s cars are pretty much the cheapest electric vehicles you can buy apart from a tricked-out golf cart, and Washington didn’t want them flooding the US market. Same with the EU, which is also gearing up to place higher tariffs on China-made EVs, although they won’t be quite as high as in the US.

Uber’s tie-up with BYD underscores the limits of Washington’s ability to kneecap Chinese firms, especially one on such a roll as BYD:

• BYD’s cheapest model, the Seagull, sells for less than $10,000. The cheapest EVs on the market in the US are somewhere in the $30,000 to $40,000 range.
• Bloomberg Intelligence forecast last week that BYD is on track to overtake Tesla as the top global seller of EVs by the end of the year.

Cheaper by the Dozen: Uber’s deal with BYD intends to make its vehicles even cheaper to buy and maintain. “To support drivers going electric, the companies’ joint efforts may also include discounts on charging, vehicle maintenance, or insurance, as well as financing and lease offers, based on what works best for drivers in a given market,” Uber said in a statement.