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BYD has no plans to enter the US Market amid “complications’ [Feature]

(Credit: BYD/Weibo)

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China’s top new energy vehicle manufacturer, BYD, has no plans to enter the United States auto market. 

BYD Executive Vice President and CEO of BYD Americas Stella Li sat down with Yahoo Finance, and talked about the Chinese automaker’s lack of presence in the US Market and the global electric vehicle (EV) market. 

“Complications” in the US EV Market

Li explained BYD’s reasons for staying out of the United States EV market. The BYD Vice President alluded to complications within the United States, particularly a slowdown in the EV market.

“It’s an interesting market, but it’s very complicated if you’re talking about EV, and then I think the US market is a little bit slowdown on electrification, and there are a lot of confusing, also very complicated, so we’re saying, ‘No…we don’t have plans to come to the US,” said Li.

In late 2023, a few publications, automakers, and auto suppliers hinted that electric vehicle sales in the United States would slow down in 2024. Ford and General Motors (GM) announced plans to scale down EV production this year. 

Some theorized that GM and Ford scaled back EV production plans because there was not enough demand for electric vehicles in the United States. However, some argue there is strong EV demand in the United States, just not for the electric vehicles GM and Ford offer. 

For instance, Hyundai and Kia claimed to see strong demand for electric vehicles in the United States. Together, the Korean car companies came in second in EV car sales in the United States last year behind Tesla–by a large margin.

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Interest rates are another factor that might be contributing to slow EV sales. LG Energy Solution warned of slow revenue growth in 2024 amid rising interest rates. Tesla CEO Elon Musk shared a similar concern in one of TSLA’s earnings calls in 2023.

“I am worried about the high interest rate environment that we’re in. I just can’t emphasize this enough: that the vast majority of people buying a car is about the monthly payment. And as interest rates rise, the proportion of that monthly payment that is interest increases naturally,” commented Musk.

United States and China Relations

Li was also asked if politics played any role in BYD’s decision to stay out of the United States. 

“Everything is complicated. Politics are complicated…and its confusing for the consumer, and then they don’t know which to choose,” Li said. 

The Biden Administration is working toward building an auto supply chain in the United States that isn’t entirely dependent on China or other nations. The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022 aims to encourage companies to invest in North America or nations with US trade agreements. It also incentivizes companies to build supply chains within those same parameters.

Unfortunately, China has been labeled a foreign entity of concern (FEOC) under the IRA. Any EVs with components are not eligible for the IRA’s EV tax credits. Chinese companies with close ties to China’s national government may also get an FEOC designation.

Given the present political climate, it may not be the right time for BYD to enter the US market. However, it is not crossing off all of the Americas. BYD has invested some in South America recently and is even rumored to be looking at a sites in Mexico. One of the sites is near Tesla’s Giga Mexico.

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If you have any tips, contact me at maria@teslarati.com or via X @Writer_01001101.

Maria--aka "M"-- is an experienced writer and book editor. She's written about several topics including health, tech, and politics. As a book editor, she's worked with authors who write Sci-Fi, Romance, and Dark Fantasy. M loves hearing from TESLARATI readers. If you have any tips or article ideas, contact her at maria@teslarati.com or via X, @Writer_01001101.

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Elon Musk

Elon Musk weather update tips Tesla Roadster speculation into Plaid Mode

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla CEO Elon Musk certainly tipped off some details of the Tesla Roadster event with a broadening of information regarding the company’s decision to delay the unveiling for two weeks.

For years, people have speculated about what the Roadster will be capable of. While there have been plenty of things said about what it *could* do, we have not seen or been told by Tesla what it will actually be capable of.

However, over the past few days, Tesla’s weather updates have truly pushed the speculation into Plaid Mode, basically all but confirming the car will have some sort of aerial capability — whether that would be hovering or fully flying remains to be seen — but it definitely seems that it will be able to leave the ground intentionally.

“Because this event can only be held outdoors…”

Tesla posted on Monday that it would delay the Roadster event until October 15, and it indicated that it had to do this because the event “can only be held outdoors.”

With the potential SpaceX collaboration to develop cold-gas thrusters that will help the vehicle go airborne, doing this indoors is probably not a safe, or even plausible, possibility.

FAA Airspace Restriction

The FAA gave Tesla a Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) for 10,000 feet above ground level, much higher than the typical 2,000-foot restrictions that are usually placed at SpaceX’s McGregor, Texas site.

Tesla Roadster event requires restricted airspace, and the FAA obliges

Some have said that this massive increase is due to Tesla’s need to restrict unauthorized drone use for spying on the event.

Elon Admits High Winds

“Due to high winds, the new Roadster demo is postponed by 2 weeks,” Musk said in a post on X yesterday.

A reply reading, “What’s strong wind got to do with a car demo with four grounded wheels?” was directly below Musk’s post, satirically and sarcastically probing for more details.

All signs are pointing toward an aerial demonstration for the Roadster.

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Tesla snags $30B in fresh credit lines for expanding its biggest projects

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Credit: Grok

Tesla has secured $30 billion in fresh credit lines from Citibank and Wells Fargo in an effort to scale its biggest current projects.

Tesla agreed to a $20 billion three-year delayed-draw term loan facility from Citibank, it announced on Tuesday. Additionally, it signed a five-year, $8 billion revolving credit facility and a $2 billion, 364-day term credit facility with Wells Fargo.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), that it “may draw” from the $20 billion delayed-draw term “from time to time” and “no more than ten times during the 18 months following the closing date.” This loan matures on September 29, 2029.

The five-year revolving facility from Wells Fargo will also be accessed by Tesla “from time to time,” and will become due and payable on September 29, 2031. Tesla can request two separate one-year extensions.

On the $2 billion, 364-day revolving loan, it becomes due and payable on September 28, 2027. Tesla can also increase its additional commitments to an additional $4 billion across the Revolving Facilities. This would increase the total facilities to $14 billion. Tesla said it does not plan to utilize any of these loans in 2026.

Tesla plans to utilize the money to help prop up its ambitions to scale its biggest products, each of which is either in early launch phases or still in development. Of course, we’re talking about Cybercab and Semi, which have launched, and Optimus, which is still under heavy development and working toward initial release.

All three Tesla products have one thing in common: they’ve all required Tesla to build new manufacturing lines for them.

For the Semi, Tesla built a brand new factory in Sparks, Nevada, adjacent to the Tesla Gigafactory. For Optimus, Tesla sunset Model S and X production at the Fremont Factory, which brought an end to the two flagship models, thus creating manufacturing space for the humanoid robot. Finally, Cybercab is being built at Gigafactory Texas and officially entered production earlier this year.

Tesla Cybercab fleet doubles to well over 100 units

The cash will help Tesla bolster its finances for the continuing development of these products. Tesla said that it forecasts its CapEx to be over $25 billion, up from just over $8.5 billion last year. These loans surely help with that spending.

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Elon Musk

Elon Musk and Trump are closer than ever, and Tesla could be the big winner

Elon Musk sat beside Trump as AI leaders signed a voluntary White House safety accord.

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Elon Musk had the seat right next to President Donald Trump on Tuesday as the White House hosted the leaders of America’s biggest artificial intelligence companies for a lunch that ended with a voluntary industry accord on AI safety.

A seating chart Trump posted on Truth Social placed Musk at the president’s left in the East Room, with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang on his right, according to an Associated Press reporter. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, OpenAI President Greg Brockman, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Google’s Sundar Pichai, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos also attended, along with Vice President JD Vance and House Speaker Mike Johnson.

After the lunch, Trump told reporters outside the West Wing that the executives had signed “The White House Accord on Superintelligence: A Joint Commitment on Frontier SI Responsibilities.” Johnson described it as a voluntary statement of principles built on “robust internal controls and layers of internal and external review,” while Zuckerberg said company boards would independently review reports from outside auditors. Trump called the document “morally binding,” said he would name a new AI czar within days, and signed an executive order formally renaming artificial intelligence “super intelligence,” CNBC reported.

Musk was not in the room for Tesla alone. Since SpaceX absorbed xAI, he runs the company behind Grok and one of the largest AI training operations anywhere. On September 25, he said another 220,000 Nvidia GB300 chips would come online at Colossus 2 within a week, with more expected in November and December.

SpaceX confirms third massive compute deal at Colossus data center

 

Musk also used the trip to restate his energy ambitions. “SpaceX is aiming together with Tesla to do 200 gigawatts of solar production per year,” he said at an event in Washington. It is the same combined target he laid out that feeds directly into Terafab, the Tesla and SpaceX chip venture that will need enormous amounts of power.

The showing between Musk and Trump has come a long way, since the two had the very public split in mid 2025 after Musk opposed the “Big Beautiful Bill” and left DOGE. They reconciled at Charlie Kirk’s memorial that September, and Trump later called their relationship “good”. Since then, Musk has joined Trump’s China delegation in May and attended last week’s White House state dinner for Chinese President Xi Jinping.

For Tesla, that access to government official could pay dividends. As Teslarati noted in January, federal autonomy rules, NHTSA oversight and a single national standard for driverless vehicles all run through an administration Musk can more easily reach directly as Tesla works to scale Robotaxi and Cybercab beyond Texas.

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