“Wang Chuanfu, BYD’s CEO, barely slept for weeks.
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i agree, the treatment of labor in china is still a problem, BUT...
>Plus this article reads like an ode to Wang Chuanfu who clearly sees himself as the next Elon Musk, moving fast and breaking things.
...i will say there is a marked difference between wang, an engineer with a master's degree in metallurgical physical chemistry, who paid his dues and actually did prior engineering jobs in a field that's actually RELEVANT to EV manufacturing, and musk, a wealthy playboy and finance bro who LARPs as an engineer, does ketamine on the regular, and was on pewdiepie's meme review back in 2019.
(i shit you not, that last one actually happened, and i am quite happy to supply the link if you're interested)
also everyone forgets that tesla wasn't actually founded by musk, but by eberhard (M.S. in electrical engineering) and penning (B.A. in computer science), both men with engineering skills who were ousted by musk in a series A round of funding.
if eberhard and penning were still running tesla, perhaps wang would actually have some competent competition to deal with.
i think the real takeaway from this article here is that we need more people in charge with actual professional experience in the field the business actually works in, as opposed to parachuting in MBAs from god knows where.
@breathOfLife @chris That's all fair, but I was speaking less about specifics of their education/background than their approach to business. Just based on this article, Wang appears to be a move-fast-and-break-things disrupter.
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@chris @zazzoo We shouldn't ignore that the US has plenty of questionable labour as well. Illegal workers power the hospitality, and landscaping industries especially in the south.
I am not really sure how widespread prison labour is in the US, but I expect that there is quite a bit (to replace slavery).
@human3500 @chris Very true. Their hungry for-profit prison system that pushes for incarceration as source of enslaved labour, combined with inmates' disenfranchisement from the political system is probably the largest-scale human rights abuse in the US.
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“Wang Chuanfu, BYD’s CEO, barely slept for weeks. Three passengers, all in their twenties. His chemistry. His cell. His company’s name on the casing. He had not built it to kill anyone, but it had. He pulled his engineers together with one question: What is the mechanism by which this cell fails, and how do we make that physically impossible”
Someone needs to get this article in front of Mark Carney and Doug Ford and then the stupid limits on Chinese cars need to be eliminated so Canada can start building these things immediately.
This is the future.
China is leading that future and we need to come to terms with it and use our influence to make it, and them, better.
https://www.fastcompany.com/91519302/byd-nail-test-why-this-54-billion-innovation-is-terrifying-western-auto-executives?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub
#climateEmergency #climatechange #byd #china #canada #canpoliWhat an amazing story. I had no idea. I'll be looking a little closer at BYD from now on.
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What an amazing story. I had no idea. I'll be looking a little closer at BYD from now on.
@gsymon it is a really well written article isn’t it!?
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@gsymon it is a really well written article isn’t it!?
Well... I read the entire thing. Word by word. That doesn't happen often these days.
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“Wang Chuanfu, BYD’s CEO, barely slept for weeks. Three passengers, all in their twenties. His chemistry. His cell. His company’s name on the casing. He had not built it to kill anyone, but it had. He pulled his engineers together with one question: What is the mechanism by which this cell fails, and how do we make that physically impossible”
Someone needs to get this article in front of Mark Carney and Doug Ford and then the stupid limits on Chinese cars need to be eliminated so Canada can start building these things immediately.
This is the future.
China is leading that future and we need to come to terms with it and use our influence to make it, and them, better.
https://www.fastcompany.com/91519302/byd-nail-test-why-this-54-billion-innovation-is-terrifying-western-auto-executives?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub
#climateEmergency #climatechange #byd #china #canada #canpoli@chris Amazing story. Perhaps unsurprisingly, BYD overtook Ford last year in units sold. Geely overtook Honda and is just behind Ford.
Top 10 car makers by sales, 2025
These are official figures from the manufacturers, not made-up ones that certain other websites and "AI" are claiming.
Autocade World (autocade.world)
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Well... I read the entire thing. Word by word. That doesn't happen often these days.
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@chris An innovative take on batteries that makes them safer, an alternate view on electric vehicles from a country that understands the importance of sustainability. BYD cars look interesting and I can't wait to see one in the wild - and other manufacturers' - available as alternatives to the F-150 Lightnings or Tesla iPhones-on-wheels 'domestic' manufacturers think we all crave.
But eyes wide open. The issue with China has always been in their treatment of labour. This article gives me visions of nets mounted to the exterior walls of factories.
Human + Fixture = Robot
Robots are not only used to replace the cost of human lavour - sometimes they're used to remove humans from dangerous environments.
Electrode material was being ladled out of vats with kitchen spoons. Workers in rubber gloves operated machines that looked like repurposed sewing equipment.
Plus this article reads like an ode to Wang Chuanfu who clearly sees himself as the next Elon Musk, moving fast and breaking things.
Just my 2p.
@zazzoo @chris he sounds more like a move fast and fix things… moving fast is always a risk, and not always the best course of action but western, especially American, manufacturing has far too much form for not moving at all, not changing anything and happily continuing to produce known dangerous products.
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“Wang Chuanfu, BYD’s CEO, barely slept for weeks. Three passengers, all in their twenties. His chemistry. His cell. His company’s name on the casing. He had not built it to kill anyone, but it had. He pulled his engineers together with one question: What is the mechanism by which this cell fails, and how do we make that physically impossible”
Someone needs to get this article in front of Mark Carney and Doug Ford and then the stupid limits on Chinese cars need to be eliminated so Canada can start building these things immediately.
This is the future.
China is leading that future and we need to come to terms with it and use our influence to make it, and them, better.
https://www.fastcompany.com/91519302/byd-nail-test-why-this-54-billion-innovation-is-terrifying-western-auto-executives?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub
#climateEmergency #climatechange #byd #china #canada #canpoli@chris "Do not settle for a plausible explanation. Demand a reproducible one."
Heck yes.
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@breathOfLife @chris That's all fair, but I was speaking less about specifics of their education/background than their approach to business. Just based on this article, Wang appears to be a move-fast-and-break-things disrupter.
@zazzoo @breathOfLife @chris where do you get that? He seems incredibly methodical, and incredibly patient. There’s none of zuckerberg’s get rich quick shit going on.
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“Wang Chuanfu, BYD’s CEO, barely slept for weeks. Three passengers, all in their twenties. His chemistry. His cell. His company’s name on the casing. He had not built it to kill anyone, but it had. He pulled his engineers together with one question: What is the mechanism by which this cell fails, and how do we make that physically impossible”
Someone needs to get this article in front of Mark Carney and Doug Ford and then the stupid limits on Chinese cars need to be eliminated so Canada can start building these things immediately.
This is the future.
China is leading that future and we need to come to terms with it and use our influence to make it, and them, better.
https://www.fastcompany.com/91519302/byd-nail-test-why-this-54-billion-innovation-is-terrifying-western-auto-executives?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub
#climateEmergency #climatechange #byd #china #canada #canpoli@chris wow. This is exciting.
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@vxo i can only speculate that it is a supply chain issue
Like the financialization of slavery, as described in Banking on Slavery by Sharon Ann Murphy, the fossil fuel industry's finances & politics are as deeply entrenched.
We still live with the legacy of slavery on behalf of the Epstein Class nearly 200 years later.
Disentangling the fossil fuel industry is equally daunting.
The oil industry amplifies each difficulty of the EV industry & is relentless in its payoffs to political parties & business leadership.
Malign influence.
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@vxo i can only speculate that it is a supply chain issue
One of the issues is new technology.
Solid-state batteries is one tantalizing edge. Another is a substantial change away from silicon.
And many of the break-throughs are patented by fossil fuel industry. And no, they are not letting anyone develop them.
So the current bleading edge is literally patenting ways to work around the newly claimed patents.
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@zazzoo totally agree. That is why we have to lean in as Canadians. The fact is China is the leader and we must learn from a tech and manufacturing perspective, but we also must find ways to influence and impact that country so that the conditions of all workers, not just those in these high tech spaces, are safe and treated as workers should be treated.
Too long we have been using China as our cheap work shop and hypocritically lambasting them for the way they treat workers and claiming they produce “cheap stuff”. Yet here we are buying it for 40 years.
We need to turn that on its head, grow up, and work *with* them. Form real partnerships that can then demand and improve the working conditions and human rights.
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“Wang Chuanfu, BYD’s CEO, barely slept for weeks. Three passengers, all in their twenties. His chemistry. His cell. His company’s name on the casing. He had not built it to kill anyone, but it had. He pulled his engineers together with one question: What is the mechanism by which this cell fails, and how do we make that physically impossible”
Someone needs to get this article in front of Mark Carney and Doug Ford and then the stupid limits on Chinese cars need to be eliminated so Canada can start building these things immediately.
This is the future.
China is leading that future and we need to come to terms with it and use our influence to make it, and them, better.
https://www.fastcompany.com/91519302/byd-nail-test-why-this-54-billion-innovation-is-terrifying-western-auto-executives?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub
#climateEmergency #climatechange #byd #china #canada #canpoli@chris wouldnt work. The entire point of the tariffs is to courage them to make the batteries here. Why would they build them here if it can be built in china and transported here?
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@chris wouldnt work. The entire point of the tariffs is to courage them to make the batteries here. Why would they build them here if it can be built in china and transported here?
@idiot300 same reason Japanese makers build cars in North America. Once the supply chains are in place, it's cheaper to manufacture closer to the end point of sale.
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“Wang Chuanfu, BYD’s CEO, barely slept for weeks. Three passengers, all in their twenties. His chemistry. His cell. His company’s name on the casing. He had not built it to kill anyone, but it had. He pulled his engineers together with one question: What is the mechanism by which this cell fails, and how do we make that physically impossible”
Someone needs to get this article in front of Mark Carney and Doug Ford and then the stupid limits on Chinese cars need to be eliminated so Canada can start building these things immediately.
This is the future.
China is leading that future and we need to come to terms with it and use our influence to make it, and them, better.
https://www.fastcompany.com/91519302/byd-nail-test-why-this-54-billion-innovation-is-terrifying-western-auto-executives?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub
#climateEmergency #climatechange #byd #china #canada #canpoli@chris This article re: BYD was fascinating (except for the zero work-life balance score)! It pairs very well with @Markham's discussion re: Alberta, and parochial blinders to energy (bitumen/oil) as technology, not commodity:
https://youtu.be/VNIzJI7ST24 -
R relay@relay.mycrowd.ca shared this topic
