I think there's room in the market for a back to basics car company that takes out all this bs, goes back to crank windows and all that crap and sells new vehicles for an affordable cost with a good warranty.
It would probably crush today.
Edit: I got like 400 responses saying "slate" ok I get it you can stop
I'm a mechanic and had the displeasure of working on a chinese ev (was a geely, can't remember the model) and they are bottom of the barrel quality. Cheap plastic everywhere, awful quality control and unsourceable parts. Service information was borderline incomprehensible, lots of content was missing and what was there was a shitty translation from Chinese to english. Ended up not being able to finish the repair as the bcm had bricked itself and the manufacturer doesn't sell replacement parts, at least anywhere in the USA.
If you need an example of a cheap EV imported from Asia to the US take a look at the Vinfast suv that killed a family of four because of a software error.
That comment is total nonsense with zero evidence behind it. Just Google Chinese EV crash tests and reliability rankings and see for yourself.
In the latest Euro NCAP crash tests, three Chinese cars, the AION UT, Geely E2, and Leapmotor B05, all got the top 5 star rating. Volkswagen's own Cupra Raval only got 4 stars unless you pay extra for a safety package. So who's actually taking safety seriously? Pretty clear.
Reliability is catching up too. J.D. Power's China dependability report shows the industry average dropped to 192 problems per 100 vehicles in 2026, down 5.3 from last year. First improvement after three years of getting worse.
Sales speak for themselves. In 2025, Chinese automakers sold close to 27 million vehicles globally. Japanese automakers sold around 25 million. That's the first time since 2000 that Japan lost the number one spot. BYD and Geely passed Ford and Honda on the global rankings.
Nobody's saying Chinese cars are perfect right now. But calling them "bottom of the barrel" is just ignoring the facts. The reality is: Chinese cars have caught up to European brands on safety, and they've already passed Japanese brands on sales.
Have you ever had to work on one? No. Have you ever driven or even sat in one? I doubt it. Stop parroting shit you've heard from other people. I've driven and worked on them. You haven't. End of story.
I am also a mechanic and I worked on Chinese cars and I’ve never had a problem working on them. Maybe it’s the fact that I’ve used many electronics and almost all of these “American” companies made their stuff in China anyways so it was easy to work on it. If you tell someone to stop parroting shit, then you should listen to your own advice too.
That's the beauty of having industry standard testing and statistics, you never have to be in one to be able to see which are the safest, most reliable, or almost any important metric.
NCAP are no longer only crash tests though. Raval scores highly in passive and post crash safety, cheaper version does not have adaptive cruise control, which is what lost the fifth star.
The sales numbers are due to domestic production in a country with a population over double the entire continent of North America's. Crash safety numbers are near irrelevant when subpar software poses more of a risk than user error when driving. J.D. Power is also not a reputable source for anything really, its widely known that manufacturers purchase the awards and thry mean pretty much nothing.
BYDs are by far the most popular EVs in most markets. They get very few complaints from just about anyone driving them. They're also far cheaper than any US models of equivalent features. You also need look only as far as Stellantis group to see you don't even need reliability to do well in the US.
Funny because australia is having no issues with chinese evs, especially byd. The reason why parts are more difficult to get in america is they haven't been there as long, so the supply networks aren't as developed compared to the established brands. Give them a year or two and that'll all change
Service information was borderline incomprehensible
It'd be fine if you knew Chinese
manufacturer doesn't sell replacement parts, at least anywhere in the USA.
Maybe being banned in the USA has something to do with that. Idk. It'd be kinda dumb to complain about US car brands being terrible with supply chain and translation when they aren't allowed in a market
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u/burge4150 9h ago edited 3h ago
I think there's room in the market for a back to basics car company that takes out all this bs, goes back to crank windows and all that crap and sells new vehicles for an affordable cost with a good warranty.
It would probably crush today.
Edit: I got like 400 responses saying "slate" ok I get it you can stop