Quietly zipping around the streets of Canberra, Awadhesh Prasad's red SUV cuts a striking figure against the dappled autumn light and golden leaves.
Late last year, Chinese automaker BYD surpassed Tesla as the biggest manufacturer of EVs in the world, and they've been neck and neck for the top spot based on quarterly sales ever since. "But when I started investigating the electric car, I found this particular SUV — the BYD — far, far better than compared with the Tesla.
"When Chinese EVs just started they got a pretty bad wrap, they a really low quality, they catch fire really easily," she said. In mid-May, the Biden administration announced it would be putting tariffs on about $US18 billion worth of Chinese imports, including increasing the rate on EVs from 25 per cent to 100 per cent — accusing China of "flooding global markets with artificially low-priced exports".
"Typical markets for exporting — Europe and the US — have really started to introduce different trade barriers and make it difficult for Chinese EV importers," said Dr Dwyer. "It's very clear from all of the messaging that we get from Washington on a bipartisan basis that the United States sees itself locked in existential competition with China and that's spilling out into the technological domain.
"Her concerns were related to the brand reputation of BYD because, compared to Tesla, BYD has been in the market only a couple of years," Dr Prasad said.