Subject: Re: BYD financial statements review
BYD and the other 30+ emerging Chinese EV makers are majorly disrupting domestic Chinese sales. 2023 was a watershed year because Japanese car sales in China dropped quite a bit, displaced by other western and domestic brands due to the favorable EV ownership policies.

BYD's technology has already shocked many people. I can say this because the company I work at is the biggest Mercedes-Benz dealer in the world, and the biggest one in China/Asia (very low-key company). Our CEO told me, back in last year's Shanghai Auto Expo, when the Germans saw the latest BYD's tech, they were shocked.

As that Rob Vinall (a fund guy) noted in his podcast (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/...), if the automakers are slipping away in EV space now, it'd going to be extra hard to catch up, as average car model cycle is 6-10 years? or longer? There are those ESG bs targets to deal with too...

BYD is already dominating low-to-mid income space in emerging countries. But those places aren't exactly pushing out EV electrification infrastructure yet, not the top of agenda...

Eventually within China, if you do look at Chinese equities and market lately, is there would be 3-5 big auto makers, probably in 2030's or 2040's. Naturally by market function and also fits greater political agenda too. BYD would definitely be one of survivors, from today's viewpoint.

But long-term the value of EV rests upon its software, even if autonomous driving seems much more difficult than companies say. The in-car software is the value fulcrum. Outside of China, what's going to happen to BYD cars?

Munger in his last big interview through Acquired Podcast, if I remember correctly, was saying they didn't expect BYD to go into auto making at all! BYD started off in mobile phone battery making. I guess over the years they didn't quite tell their fears of BYD, until BYD really showed traction in autos (LOL). They bet on the right dynamite (Wang Chuanfu) behind this BYD scale-up, more lucky than skill in a way.