DETROIT – Terry Woychowski, former chief engineer for several General Motors pickup truck models, says that the extremely affordable yet allegedly high-quality BYD Seagull EV from China is a “clarion call” to American automakers to make electric vehicles for the everyman, noting that “things will have to change in some radical ways in order to be able to compete” against low-cost Chinese EVs.

The BYD Seagull EV is built by BYD or Build Your Dreams, a Chinese automaker that, like much of the sector in the Asian country, is backed by financial support from the state, Associated Press reports.

Woychowski, who worked at GM from 1978 to 2011 and was vice president of global quality and launches before his departure from the company, identifies “efficiency” as the factor making the BYD Seagull EV highly affordable, with pared-down features such as a single windshield wiper instead of two – saving on both costs and weight – making the vehicle “an exercise in efficiency.” These reductions in bulky gear give the Seagull an overall 2,734-pound weight, or almost half a ton less than the Chevy Bolt EV.

Cutting down on weight improves range, with a single charge able to propel the BYD Seagull 252 miles at maximum. While such a design requires that “you better park your paradigms at the door” according to Woychowski, the Chinese EV still has a number of key features, including airbags, electronic stability control, and disc brakes at the rear.

Woychowski also says production of the entire suite of BYD Seagull components is “all in-house and vertically integrated,” describing this manufacturing setup as “an incredible advantage that they have.” Producing the Seagull in quantities of 3 million vehicles per year also gives BYD considerable economies of scale. The vehicle costs the equivalent of $12,000 in China.

Even if a U.S. version of the Seagull was somewhat more expensive, the Chinese EV clearly has a strong price advantage over U.S. automakers. The cheapest GM electric vehicle will be the upcoming 2026 Chevy Bolt EV, which The General’s CEO Mary Barra says will be “even more affordable” than the discontinued Chevy Bolt, but will not be able to pare costs down to the level of its Chinese rival.

While U.S. tariffs are currently excluding the BYD Seagull EV from American shores, with the Biden administration imposing a 100-percent tariff on Chinese EVs this week in place of the previous 25-percent tariff, Woychowski and others see the affordable, high-volume EVs as an existential threat to the U.S. auto industry.

Elon Musk remarked that Chinese EVs “will pretty much demolish most other car companies in the world,” while the Alliance for American Manufacturing described the Chinese vehicles as a potential “extinction-level event for the U.S. auto sector.”

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