Latest / Kvetch & Release / Chinese EV maker BYD tells Ottawa it plans to enter Canadian market

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Chinese EV maker BYD tells Ottawa it plans to enter Canadian market · Kvetch & Release

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Well, we talk often about electric vehicles here on the show,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: and of course there's a reason for it. We have
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: an electric vehicle battery manufacturing plant that's being built. We've
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: got retooling of the the Lantis plant here in Windsor.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: It is a big deal. And we have been now
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: found out that Chinese electric vehicle manufacturing Giant byd intends
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: to come to Canada according to a filing that they
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: made with a federal regulator. We've discussed this briefly before,
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: but now we know that it's actually happening, and this
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: is all happening as Ottawa is contemplating trade action against
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: made in China. EVS joining me is the guy who
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: knows this file in and out because it is his file.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Plavio Volpe is the president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers Association. Hey,
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: how you doing good?
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: John? You're being generous. There's a lot of people your
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: listeners who chase me on places like Twitter say know
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: nothing about it, So thank you for helping validate my feelings.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: Hey, well, you know, at least I always feel like
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: I walk away with a little bit more knowledge when
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: we have a conversation and I can't say the same
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: thing on Twitter. So take that for what it is. Okay. Yeah,
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: so we last spoke and you said, hey, look they
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: haven't made this filing yet, so they can't sell in Canada.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: It's not, you know, the end of the world conversation,
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: but here we are, and we now know that they're saying, look,
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: we want into your market. And this is just on
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: the heels. I saw that BYD has launched or they're
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: launching a new electric vehicle with like a four hundred
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: kilometer range. It's like seven thousand dollars US even with
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: tariffs that would still be coming in at like fifteen
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: thousand Canadian That's just I mean, the numbers sound great,
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: but there is you know, still risk here to our
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: industry in Canada.
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Look a couple of things on pactor John number one.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: You know what that report was talking about the filings
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: were I want to sell a car in this country,
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: you've got to meet federal safety standards. And the first
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: thing that you've got to do is register and go
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: take a vehicle and go meet crash standards with Transport Canada,
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: work with the NRC, get the car certified for sale.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: You just can't sell a car that you're making somewhere
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: else for sale and saying a lot of people that
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: those prices in those secondary markets are vehicles that can't
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: get certified here yet, although they will absolutely have an
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: incredible price advantage when they certify here. The company filed
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: in the Lobbyist Registry. What happens when companies want to
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: talk to government. Everything's transparent in this country, so we
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: know that they're doing it actively. Now they want to
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: sell here. You know, when you want to do sales
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: and distribution, you've got to either decide that you're going
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: to set up a dealership network or work with current dealers,
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: or sell directly to market like Testla and then fast.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: These are the things that companies do when they prepare
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: to enter a market. I said in that report that
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: that looks to me like they're intending to sell twenty
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: twenty seven model year vehicles in twenty twenty six. So
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: now one are those implications. You know, I've said for
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: a long time, ask yourself why they're so cheap. You
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: know where your listeners are in a town that make
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: cars and make parts and make tools and make batteries,
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: and nobody's getting rich, but we're paying people real wages
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: we're paying for real product. You've got to pay the
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: materials prices that are on the market. You've got to
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: go out and get all your certifications, and things cost
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: time and money in China. They don't in China. You're
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: competing with the government. And BYD will tell you that
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: they are a Well they're a private company. They're not
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: a public company. You know, they're not part of the
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: Chinese infrastructure. Well, if you get access to capital, you
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: get access to all the advantages, which include heavily subsidized
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: raw materials, a government that is focused on flooding the
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: world with your product in the hopes of collapsing car
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: towns like windsor then you absolutely are part of the
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: Chinese geopolitical objective to crash the auto market like they
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: did consumer electronics goods. Why is that important? Okay, listen,
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: a lot of people think it'd be really cool to
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: get a fifteen thousand dollars car, and you can do
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: that for a few years. But those fifteen thousand dollars
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: cars that are built on the back of foot all
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: the labor in the country, there's the worst polluter in
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: the planet, is going to nullify investments by stilant to
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: support in that town. And I don't think anybody's going
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: to care how cheap the cars are when they don't
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: have a job.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: So we're here in this piece of course that you're
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: quoted in on the Globe of mail, that auto industry
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: source said that they heard that BYD representatives were actually
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: in Windsor last week talking to potential parts suppliers. Now
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: the globes not identifying that because this person wasn't authorized
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: to speak about it. What do you make of that
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: that they were, you know, in our neck of the
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: woods down here?
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: Well, you know, I don't think there's anything espionage like
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: in that. Here's a company that's registered to lobby the
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: government in Ottawa. If they're going to lobby the government
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: in Outawa and go speak to them, they're probably doing
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: their homework on the ground. You know. We know that
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: they and others have been in contact with suppliers to say, okay,
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: look if we end up in this space where there's
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: big Canadian tariffs and big American tariffs, is there a
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: way that we can get around that. Can we source
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: from Canada into the proposed production into Mexico? Are you
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: willing to be a partner in distribution. You know they're
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: doing their homework, but I think people should be vigilant.
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: You know, you're you have a chance. You we're at
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: a moment to see change in this business. This is
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: like where we were in solar, you know ten fifteen
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: years ago, where we were in wind ten years ago.
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: You know, we had all these big investments that were
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: going to come and then they didn't. Wind. The Chinese
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: flooded the market with stuff that worked almost as well
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: for one fifth the price. You're taking a call and
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: winsor on these things. You should know that they will
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: make you a lucrative offer. They will flow funds. But
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: it's not because they want to partner with you. It's
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: all part of the central scheme. It's called Made in
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: China twenty twenty five. You can look it up. It's
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: published by the Chinese federal government, and it says we
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: need to dominate the world's auto sector, and to do that,
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: we need to knock down all the players around the world,
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: and to do that will subsidize the hell out of it.
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: So in many ways, making a deal with them is
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: helping to advance Chinese economic and geopolitical interests over those
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: of your neighbors. It's hard when you're in a tough
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: time when the price tag shows is big and shows
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: up at the right time to say I got to
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: pick country over self. And they know that and that's
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: why their strategy works all over the world and good
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: people do business with them, as well as people who
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: are unscrupulous. It's not for the individuals to compete and
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: meet the challenge of a state. This is why we
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: keep saying, Ottawa, you got to do it. Industrial policy,
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: trade policy, tax policy. You fight back and I'm glad
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: they're doing it. Are the consultation period ended yesterday. You're
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: going to hear about what we asked for next week.
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: And it wasn't for it wasn't bubbles and rainbows.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: Well, we will talk to you about that soon, undoubtedly. Hey, Flavio,
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: have yourself a wonderful long weekend. Thanks for bringing that
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: down for us, You too, Johnny, Cheers all the best.