As in Stella Li of BYD, China's largest automaker, was interviewed recently and she made a number of very important statements about Tesla. First, she says China is willing to share key technologies in electric vehicles and autonomous driving with foreign companies despite trade tensions with the US and Europe. Second, she said BYD needs to work together with Tesla to make the industry change. And that Tesla and BYD have a common enemy in the internal combustion engine. She also clarified their plans whether they'll build auto factories in the US and Mexico. And so we've got Hans Nelson joining us. Hans has been following this story very closely with BYD and their attempts at their plans to put God's Eye, which is their autonomous capability, their plans to build factories and their plans to maybe partner with other companies.
Welcome, Hans. Thanks for having me, Herbert. This is a very interesting and complex topic. It's an important one, right? Because BYD is one of the largest automakers. They're very successful in China, whether they're profitable or not, but they're selling like crazy, multiple car vehicle segments, and then they're going global. And so now they announce with God's Eye, they're going to install some sort of ADAS in all of their car segments, including the ones that are small. So this is Stella Li, and she's actually the color senior vice president in China, executive vice president in China for BYD. But she's the president of the US division for BYD.
And so she said this in an interview, China is more open to foreign business than the West. BYD pledges to work with rival Tesla to combat petrol cars. And then it's this paragraph down here, which she said China. So she didn't say BYD, but China is willing to share key technologies and EVs and autonomous driving with foreign companies, despite trade tensions. What did you take about this particular statement before we go to the rest of her comments?
Yeah, there's a reason that this is the dynamic that's going on. You have to have eyes wide open when you hear statements like this from companies from China, because I know that you, Herbert, have had Michael done on your show as well. And then Farzad and I have had a couple of interviews with him. When you look at the history of these American car companies doing business with China, what you realize is that they love to talk about win-win business with American companies. But when they say win-win, they take us for being naive fools, which we often are.
And what they are thinking is, hey, this is a win-win business strategy for us. China will win twice and the American company will lose. So the general playbook that they use here is they want to do a partnership with an American company, and they want to learn everything from the American company. They want to extract all of the intellectual property that's necessary and the experience necessary to where they can then replicate that technology on their own.
And once they have learned all that they have learned and acquired everything that they feel like they needed to acquire, then there will be a shift in the relationship. They are very, very conscious of leverage in partnerships. And they will act like the weaker partner, which they are from a technological standpoint, because they enter into a relationship like this, but they have a long-term strategy and plan to flip the tables of that leverage over the long-term.
And once they have done that, the host company that they used to begin with will end up feeling the brunt of very fierce competition and changing political dynamics within the company. So we've seen this, for example, with all of the Western automakers made a lot of money in China for a long time when they first got started there, whether it was GM, whether it was Mercedes, Volkswagen, all of these Western brands came into China. The Chinese offered up their market and it was just irresistible to these companies, but they had to do these joint ventures with Chinese companies.
And these Chinese companies learned everything about how to make cars from these Western automakers. And they built up their local supply chain. And now what you see is that every single one of those Western car companies has faced fierce competition from the intellectual property that they had in China. Didn't stay confined to that one company that they're in a joint venture with. That person that they're in a joint venture with is used to then transfer that knowledge and information to the entire competitive ecosystem in China.
And then you find yourself competing with a hundred other companies. And they've all like the profitability in China for all of these companies has gone to almost zero or less than zero. And people are having to pull back. And so the thing that was, for a short time, the most profitable business segment in their entire companies is now actually something where they're losing money year on year. And that was not an accident. That was the plan from the get go for this business relationship. And so they understand that we like short term profits and they use these carrots to lure us into a trap to then be able to out compete us in the long run. In technologies that they view are strategically important for the country.
So I am 0% surprised that a Chinese company wants to do a partnership like this with Tesla. Obviously got the best advanced driver assistance technology. And this is going to make the calculus for Elon very, very interesting because they know what it is that Tesla and Elon are trying to do. This language is specifically meant to appeal to Elon. Let's go ahead and try to take gas cars down. Let's put EVs against gas cars. It does align with the mission in those ways. But Elon has to know that over the long term, they're definitely going to try to like any technology partnership that they have with BYD expect all of that IP then to get transferred to every other Chinese automaker in relatively short order and to be facing fierce competition from them all over the globe.
And so does he want to enter into a partnership like that? Maybe, maybe not. You know, the thing that Elon has going for him is that they are continuing to iterate rapidly across the entire business. And so Elon doesn't believe in moats. He says the only real moat is pace of innovation. And so as long as they continue to maintain that culture and that ethos, they should be able to at least keep pace with if not stay ahead of all of this competition that they would face from China. And that's just not the case for the legacy automakers that they didn't have a pace of innovation.
You know, like they had this IP that they had built up over many, many decades. And once the Chinese automakers understood how to do what they do, they weren't changing what they do to improve it fast enough to stay ahead. So that's it's a very interesting and very complex set of dynamics at play. Yeah, I think what's happening here is BYD wants to get into the US and they know that there's trade tensions. They know that US won't let them in. And so they're saying, hey, you know, we're willing, China is willing to share key technologies and EVs and autonomous drive and wood foreign companies. So they're saying, you know, maybe partner with us, get our tech, get into, you know, get us into the US. Our common enemy is the internal combustion engine.
We need to work together. When she's talking about, you know, she pledged to work with rival Tesla to combat petrol cars. While insisting that Beijing was more open to foreign business than the West is. I don't know if that's a also potentially a threat. Yeah. I think that that statement is a reference to Chinese companies invite Western companies into the Chinese market more often than Western countries invite Chinese companies into the Western markets. But that's because we've observed this exact dynamic and we understand that, you know, most of the time partnerships with these Chinese companies do not work out as win-win partnerships over the long term that these are strategic partnerships that they view through a very anti-competitive lens over the long run and that they are trying to extract value at our expense in ways that are not conducive to free trade.
They're not conducive to free markets. And, you know, they can try to make it sound like they're this innocent entity in all this. That's more, you know, more virtuous than Western companies. But it's a ploy. That's not real. It's not true. And yeah, so I guess this is a good statement. The government will support you. They'll work with you to allow any technology to be realized. You know, yeah, I got what you're saying, but, you know, the concern would be that they would go completely opposite and just shut out foreign companies that come to China. They're still trying to negotiate here.
So that last month they introduced their BYD, choose their version of smart driving functions called God's Eye. We've covered that at length. It's going to be made available at no cost to most of its models, but it's very complicated. It's like three different kinds of suites, depending on the three different segments of cars, the low cost, the middle cost, and the high premium cars. It will have LiDAR. They're going to cover the cost of these multiple radars and sensors.
Yeah, I don't think, you know, they have the technical vision or instincts that Elon has to know which of these things is going to work or not. And so they're just going to try anything and everything and whatever works the best they'll move forward with. So, you know, this could evolve. And if they can get vision to really work well, maybe they'll abandon all of these other things. They're, you know, this is much more of a spray and pray shotgun approach to let's try everything and whatever works the best, then we'll double down on that in the future.
Yeah, people are saying, oh my God, they're leaders now in self-driving. No, what this was was recognizing that if they don't say that they have some sort of ADAS system, then it's like, it's table stakes. All cars need to have advanced ADAS. And now that they say, okay, we're going to have it, but it's nowhere. There's no proof here that in any way that this is solved autonomous driving at all.
Yeah, so that's their point that she made. And then the other one was that this is, you know, her plans. So she confirmed that BYD had no plans to introduce electric vehicles in the US, right, which of course now that Trump has won, she knows that the policy is to not let cars made in Mexico to just go in without tariffs. In fact, they've implemented the tariffs in Mexico and Canada. So that's why BYD had made no decision has been made on BYD's plans to build a plan in Mexico. They work about to, then they pulled off and similar to what Tesla did.
She said she was not concerned about a global slowdown in the EV transition as a result of Trump's policies. So obviously it's still very much electric vehicles is here to stay. Why are people still choosing the EV? Because it's a better car, it's a smarter car, it's higher quality. So that's good to say to hear that anything here that you thought was surprising. No, not at all.
I, like I mentioned earlier, this is the position that I expect the Chinese automakers and BYD specifically to take, you know, BYD is the largest of the EV manufacturers in China, which means it's the most in bed with the CCP. I think the subtext that this tells you is that the CCP views Tesla's ride hailing technology as, if not superior, at least unique and uniquely valuable.
And so they want to be able to keep as close of an eye on it as possible, incorporate it as much as possible so that they can learn how to replicate this domestically in China. And just understanding the way, you know, the art of war thought process in business that, you know, the CCP and Chinese industry has this is right on brand for what I would expect from them.
And like I said, that's why I would caution Elon and Tesla to enter into these negotiations with eyes wide open on all of these dimensions, which I'm sure that they do like, you know, Tom Joo, Grace Tao, they understand these things very well. You know, this is not going to be surprise or news to Elon or Tesla management.
But this is something that I think a lot of the Tesla community and just the broader Western consumers don't understand about the dynamics of these business relationships. I do think that BYD is willing to partner with Tesla. They already are partners for batteries. And I think that they're just trying to figure out how do I get into the US? How do I go global if I partner with you, Tesla?
But China has allowed Tesla to release full self-driving. And it is being well received by the Chinese testers and the experts out there. They're being shocked at how good it is, you know, for a year or two now we kept hearing everybody saying, don't don't underestimate the Chinese autonomy. They're so far ahead of Tesla.
Yeah, do not underestimate them. But no, they're not that far ahead of Tesla. We're seeing over and over again people saying, hey, you've compared it directly to all of them. It's funny that, you know, there's such a big overlap between the people that all think that Tesla is doing the wrong thing because they don't have LIDAR and the people that think China is ahead in full self-driving.
It's because they believe in LIDAR and China is doing more stuff with LIDAR. And so. And they're trying to get out of it too. That's the thing though, right? We keep hearing one company after another, including Huawei by the way, they just announced what six months ago that they're moving to neural nets. And many companies are dumping LIDAR.
But people still think. Okay, so let's. Is an intelligence problem? It has always been an intelligence problem and it will always be an intelligence problem. So if you have the intelligence to drive. Do you need laser beams that shoot out of your eyes and come back to tell you exactly where all the things are when you drive? I don't think so. So you know, that's like really as simple as it comes down to. And more people will come to realize this over time. I think there are some specific scenarios where if you can get the LIDAR cheap enough on the car, like sure, it is hard as a person to park in really tight parking places. And so you know, if you can use it as a supplement to do parking, I think that's like the best use case for the technology. I don't think it's necessary for you know, 99% of driving in any way, shape or form. And because of that, it's always just going to be more expensive than just using cameras and intelligence.
So this is what obviously the experts here you got. Says here, these Chinese folks were once critics of Tesla, but after FSD full self driving became operating in China, they conducted meticulous tests and became full of praise for Tesla's active safety features. By analyzing every frame of video footage, they found that Tesla's FSD not only has extremely low reaction latency, but it's also accurate and rational. They gradually increase the difficulty of their tests at night with car beams high beam shine directly at it under powerful spotlight conditions. Tesla could still promptly detect a simulated pedestrian suddenly darting out from behind an obstacle. The final surprise came when in a nighttime backlit environment, they placed a 20 centimeter tall wild vegetable on the road. The test FSC and FSD still handed it safely.
So this is now people. I'm going to turn off the sound here. But basically, this is like a very long video of this guy who was such a critic of vision only and now became a convert. What you see behind there is the vegetation, small little, you know, little vegetation like that little bush and the car was able to detect it and be able to, you know, figure this out. This is them testing it and the high beams. Here's another. And you can hear the excitement. That's one example. And then you've got, you know, very many videos. You got this video here of the Trashter's roads. Tesla FSD takes on this lousy shoe road, legendary nine bends, 18 curves, flawless precision. So this is where really it's shocking everybody's not only during the city, where there's busy with scooters, pedestrians, just craziness going on. This didn't really well. But more importantly, it's in these mountain roads, these unmarked roads.
This is the part that people are very freaked out. And if you listen to the guys, they're just freaking out. You can hear the excitement. Yeah, it's just it's just the shock that they can do this so well, these kinds of roads. Yeah, even like that, right? There's cars parked there and able to do that right. The excitement for them, because remember, this is the first time many people in China are experiencing full self-driving, like we have here in the US for the last year. It's the first time they're seeing it and they're realizing this is good stuff. It works. So sentiment has changed.
What have you heard? What have you heard so far? Yeah. I mean, what we've watched here, you know, on X is the extent of what I've heard, but it is so exciting that this technology is rolling out that it's working well. You know, there were a lot of question marks around Tesla's ability to do this. And once again, Tesla AI proves the skeptics and the doubters wrong. And I, you know, even I was, I just didn't know, I wasn't confident that they wouldn't be able to roll it out. I do think that there's questions about, you know, politically in China, you know, if if Tesla doesn't want to work with someone like BYD, how long will the Chinese government allow them to operate FSD domestically in the country?
I think you just need to know those kinds of things. There's a quick pro quo for letting Tesla to go FSD into China. They said, okay, we're concerned about privacy. You need to figure out how you're going to, you know, keep the information in China that there's something there that but they got the regulatory approval. Yeah, there's probably a quid pro quo. I'll say that the political that we said in the recommendations going on here. Yeah, I have got to be intense. Some companies, any of those kinds of things. It's hard to handicap how that will play out over time. But yeah, the one thing that I didn't doubt was Tesla's technical capability to make this work in China is just going to take more time and creativity, you know, based on the constraints that people had.
So that's why I was a little bit surprised. The upside is that we're able to make this work so fast. So that I'm just once again, so impressed by Tesla's AI team that not only were they able to accomplish it, but they were able to accomplish it very, very quickly and to a very high level of quality. And so you just have to give it to them. And it's another it's only going to get better from here.
Yeah, it's only been a week. And of course, it's still not reading some Chinese signs. It's still going into bus lanes. It's still being too cautious. It's not going to be perfect. But you know, their ability to roll it out at this level so quickly should give people high confidence that they will work down that, you know, punch list of things that are, you know, bugs and flaws in the system. You know, it's all going to happen.
Like, I feel this makes me more confident, even as someone who lives in the United States, that we're still going to continue to see rapid progress on FSD here and everywhere. Like, this is just proving the chops of the Tesla AI team to solve whatever the bottleneck is this week, that they seem to be able to solve it pretty quickly. And there are no challenges that we haven't seen solved that they've said, okay, here's the thing that we're going to do. And then they do it. That I can think of off the top of my head.
So like, we are we were just rapidly moving into this future of Tesla, robo taxis, and I'm here for I am stoked. This was a big, big deal that they were allowed to do FSC in China, because as we've kind of been talking about, it's one thing to show you've been saying the technology that they were able to solve the AI.
But see, I think about the political maneuvering, the political maneuvering that Elon had to do to be able to have a gigashang high. And if he didn't have a gigashang high, look at all these terrible gigashang high. There's no terrible issue to Tesla selling their cars in China. And they continue to sell cars in China. One of the biggest the biggest come up the point that the what was his name the biggest Tesla short at one point. Chino chain us Jim channels.
Yeah, his number one biggest point when he went on TV and he debated said I'm going to short Tesla. He said at any moment China, it was like, you know, makes up 50% of their sales could just turn around and stop it. It hadn't happened yet. And that's why the comments were here. And the reason that it hasn't happened yet is because Tesla understands that if you're doing business in China, it's always has been and always will be about leverage and what you bring to the table.
And so he understands how to maintain that position and keep the leverage between the CCP and Tesla at you know, relatively neutral. And so, you know, so they've done well so far. Hopefully that can continue.
Yeah, indefinitely attack into the future. And China wants to become a global leader. Follow us, let us in there. And that's what happened. They let him in there. They built up the supply chain that supplies Tesla. All of these companies formed in China. They're successful. Many of them die, of course, because it's a bloodbath there. But now they're going global, you got BYD, you know, being helped.
Now you want to become a leader autonomous tech, who's the leader Tesla, let Tesla in, let them share that technology partner with and they will be the leader, you know, FSD is not the only bleeding edge technology that Tesla is developing. They're also developing optimists.
Optimists is going to be of huge importance to the CCP. So there's going to be continued leverage there as well. And then Elon always has the leverage of SpaceX and Starlink. And I'm not going to get into how hugely strategic those assets are in all of these political calculations as well.
But yeah, Elon is a very, very, I mean, I'll just briefly say that SpaceX and Starlink are Elon's most underappreciated strategic assets in negotiations period world with the world with the United States government, with his relationships politically with leaders in China.
You know, other countries that really don't like Elon right now, you know, like Starlink is a Trump card that works for a lot of things. And then just think about the fact that SpaceX lost 90% of all mass that goes to orbit right now. And if air superiority was the most strategic battlefield of the 20th century, space superiority is the most strategic advantage in the next.
And the ability, you know, especially when Starship gets to launch the ability for them to put orders of magnitude more mass into orbit in a couple of days than anyone else combined means that SpaceX is one of the single most important military strategic assets in the world. Period, Barnut.
I just did a show with Phil Bessel. He used to be the VP at Rivian electric car maker. He's brilliant. He did a show and he just talked about how Starlink is going to be game changer for the bots and that allows them to have ubiquitous network connection. And then how when you have ubiquitous network connection, he'd listed out a lot of things that you can do not only have memory, shared memory, group actions, but just the whole thing about how, you know, you can basically having swarms of bots all coordinated working together, instant latency kind of thing. Well, on Skynet. Let's call it Skynet.
That's a great name. But yeah, so you are on it's a really good point that you're making. There's reasons why China needs to have Elon as part of it. And he needs, they need to give Elon what he needs. But then he will there's a quick pro call, dude. And maybe it's BYD, maybe it's another company. But I do think that there will be something was given back to a Chinese car company to be able to have some of this tech. Yeah.
Oh, big show BYD. Very important. Thank you so much, Hans. Your analysis is always top notch and really appreciate you so much. Follow him on his YouTube channel. And if you are going to buy a Tesla, I'll put up his link, you can save up to $2,500 and use his referral link. Thanks, everybody. Thank you. Bye bye.
Have a good one, Harvard. I've created a website that is the most comprehensive resource for the Tesla investor. Please check it out. Simply go to my website at herbernall.com.