Praying Bridge, Peter Lewis, who's that Asia Business correspondent, Peter Good, Evening.

Praying Bridge, Peter Lewis, who's that Asia Business correspondent, Peter Good, Evening.

These things are either good evening.

These things are either good evening.

Peter Good to have you on the show. Let's start with BYD because anywhere you go in New Zealand you will see one of these cars and their sales have now reached a bit of a milestone one hundred billion dollars for the first time.

Peter Good to have you on the show. Let's start with BYD because anywhere you go in New Zealand you will see one of these cars and their sales have now reached a bit of a milestone one hundred billion dollars for the first time.

Yes, exactually sales top to one hundred billion dollars. Not only is that a nice round number, but it's also significant because they've now leaped frog Tesla, which is suffering a bit of a backlash at the moment because of Elon Musk's role in the in the Trump administration. Now, the Tesla only makes the electric cars. But you know, if you take BYD's evs, they're about the same number now as Tesla. If you include China, by BYD's hybrid cars, which are very popular in China, It's sold a record four point three million vehicles globally in twenty twenty four. Now, the reason for this, a lot of people will say, well, there's a lot of shenanigans going on, lots of state support for Chinese EV manufacturers, which has been true. But nevertheless, the BYD car product and Chinese eb makers in general, their product is absolutely superb. If you ever sit in aside one of these cars, sometimes you feel like you're not in the motor vehicle, you're in a time machine. They've got all the latest gadgets in it, and in fact, you know BYD is putting in its latest models all its latest features, like for example, that tree that charges in five minutes and gives you about five hundred kilometer range, so almost as quick as just filling up your car with petrol. It's got all the latest AI features. It's got a feature called Godzi, which is like a sort of a semi automated driving system. And this car, the latest model that it's just released at the weekend, only costs sixteen and a half thousand US dollars. So when you hear of Donald Trump putting tariffs on cars into the US, you can only think that, actually, all it's going to do is make it worse for the US car industry. Not only is it going to push up prices, but you know, the US has lost the battle already with the Chinese makers for electric vehicles. It lost the battle a long time ago for smaller vehicles because they're imported films like South Korea's Kia Motors and key On Dai. Really where it makes its money is in large gas guzzlers and pickup trucks, which are hardly the future of the auto industry.

Yes, exactually sales top to one hundred billion dollars. Not only is that a nice round number, but it's also significant because they've now leaped frog Tesla, which is suffering a bit of a backlash at the moment because of Elon Musk's role in the in the Trump administration. Now, the Tesla only makes the electric cars. But you know, if you take BYD's evs, they're about the same number now as Tesla. If you include China, by BYD's hybrid cars, which are very popular in China, It's sold a record four point three million vehicles globally in twenty twenty four. Now, the reason for this, a lot of people will say, well, there's a lot of shenanigans going on, lots of state support for Chinese EV manufacturers, which has been true. But nevertheless, the BYD car product and Chinese eb makers in general, their product is absolutely superb. If you ever sit in aside one of these cars, sometimes you feel like you're not in the motor vehicle, you're in a time machine. They've got all the latest gadgets in it, and in fact, you know BYD is putting in its latest models all its latest features, like for example, that tree that charges in five minutes and gives you about five hundred kilometer range, so almost as quick as just filling up your car with petrol. It's got all the latest AI features. It's got a feature called Godzi, which is like a sort of a semi automated driving system. And this car, the latest model that it's just released at the weekend, only costs sixteen and a half thousand US dollars. So when you hear of Donald Trump putting tariffs on cars into the US, you can only think that, actually, all it's going to do is make it worse for the US car industry. Not only is it going to push up prices, but you know, the US has lost the battle already with the Chinese makers for electric vehicles. It lost the battle a long time ago for smaller vehicles because they're imported films like South Korea's Kia Motors and key On Dai. Really where it makes its money is in large gas guzzlers and pickup trucks, which are hardly the future of the auto industry.

Yeah, and these terrorifts, I mean, I know that some think that they're going to be the savior, but also many people, including some working for those very companies, don't. Now, let's talk about these subsidies in China. This is fascinating. So they already we have quite a large subsidy program over in China, but they're looking at extending these to some leisure areas, that's right.

Yeah, and these terrorifts, I mean, I know that some think that they're going to be the savior, but also many people, including some working for those very companies, don't. Now, let's talk about these subsidies in China. This is fascinating. So they already we have quite a large subsidy program over in China, but they're looking at extending these to some leisure areas, that's right.

I mean they're trading program, which they introduced about a year or so ago, was to try and boost spending, to get the consumers to open their wallets and spend and boost the economy. So you could trade in mobile phones, cars, other gadgets for a new product at a good price within a certain period of time, So trading your old fe and you. They're now talking about including services in that. They're talking about travel, tourism, sports again to try and get people to spend because consumption is still nowhere near the level it needs to be, and there's certainly nowhere near consumer spending the sort of levels that you see in other economies. In the US, for example, it's about seventy five percent of GDP. In China, it's only about forty percent, so lots of room to expand consumer spending. The problem and the reason why they're struggling, it's just a lack of confidence in the economy at the moment amongst Chinese households, they're worried about losing their jobs. You've had employment is close to a record high, over twenty percent. There's no real social support scheme if you lose your job or if you get sick, so people rather save their money than spend it. So this is the ongoing battle that China has to try and get households to spend more, not just on goods now, but also on services as well.

I mean they're trading program, which they introduced about a year or so ago, was to try and boost spending, to get the consumers to open their wallets and spend and boost the economy. So you could trade in mobile phones, cars, other gadgets for a new product at a good price within a certain period of time, So trading your old fe and you. They're now talking about including services in that. They're talking about travel, tourism, sports again to try and get people to spend because consumption is still nowhere near the level it needs to be, and there's certainly nowhere near consumer spending the sort of levels that you see in other economies. In the US, for example, it's about seventy five percent of GDP. In China, it's only about forty percent, so lots of room to expand consumer spending. The problem and the reason why they're struggling, it's just a lack of confidence in the economy at the moment amongst Chinese households, they're worried about losing their jobs. You've had employment is close to a record high, over twenty percent. There's no real social support scheme if you lose your job or if you get sick, so people rather save their money than spend it. So this is the ongoing battle that China has to try and get households to spend more, not just on goods now, but also on services as well.

Fascinating now, Pete Hinseth, he'd be happy to be out of the States at the moment after the whole signal scandal, and he's hitting to your neck of the woods. He's hitting to the Indo Pacific as they call it, but we would probably refer to it as Asia and Tokyo is on the list.

Fascinating now, Pete Hinseth, he'd be happy to be out of the States at the moment after the whole signal scandal, and he's hitting to your neck of the woods. He's hitting to the Indo Pacific as they call it, but we would probably refer to it as Asia and Tokyo is on the list.

That's right, is in the Philippines at the moments. He's going to Tokyo this weekend. This is coming at a very difficult time in US Japanese relations. Firstly because the US has slapped tariffs on Japan on its auto vehicles, and it was hoping to get some exemptions from that, because actually Japanese tariffs are lower than US tariffs when it comes to auto's but they haven't obviously succeeded. They spend a lot of time trying to lobby Donald Trump, Prime Minister Shiga Wins over to Washington. None of that appears to have worked. And now this visit by Pete hege Haig said is coming when Donald Trump has questioned the security arrangement between the US and Japan. Now he says that the US is obliged to support Japan and defend Japan, but Japan's not obliged to defend it back. And he says, you know who on Earth makes these deals? What the answer is, It's the US that makes those deals, because it was the US who imposed the pacifist Clause in the Constitution after the Second World War. Dwight the Eisenhower further expanded that in the nineteen sixties. So Japan traditionally has had a very pacifist approach. It doesn't spend much money on defense, doesn't have nuclear weapons. But you know, it sounds like Donald Trump is going to shake up all of this, just like he's shaking up the relationship with the EU and with Canada and expecting some sort of trade deal and some sort of deal that's going to get Japan to spend more money on its own defense.

That's right, is in the Philippines at the moments. He's going to Tokyo this weekend. This is coming at a very difficult time in US Japanese relations. Firstly because the US has slapped tariffs on Japan on its auto vehicles, and it was hoping to get some exemptions from that, because actually Japanese tariffs are lower than US tariffs when it comes to auto's but they haven't obviously succeeded. They spend a lot of time trying to lobby Donald Trump, Prime Minister Shiga Wins over to Washington. None of that appears to have worked. And now this visit by Pete hege Haig said is coming when Donald Trump has questioned the security arrangement between the US and Japan. Now he says that the US is obliged to support Japan and defend Japan, but Japan's not obliged to defend it back. And he says, you know who on Earth makes these deals? What the answer is, It's the US that makes those deals, because it was the US who imposed the pacifist Clause in the Constitution after the Second World War. Dwight the Eisenhower further expanded that in the nineteen sixties. So Japan traditionally has had a very pacifist approach. It doesn't spend much money on defense, doesn't have nuclear weapons. But you know, it sounds like Donald Trump is going to shake up all of this, just like he's shaking up the relationship with the EU and with Canada and expecting some sort of trade deal and some sort of deal that's going to get Japan to spend more money on its own defense.

I suppose that was an inevitable thing to happen. Let's just hope he doesn't shake until it breaks, you know, like he hasn't some other areas of the world. Appreciate your time as always, Peter Lewis, who's our Asia business correspondent.

I suppose that was an inevitable thing to happen. Let's just hope he doesn't shake until it breaks, you know, like he hasn't some other areas of the world. Appreciate your time as always, Peter Lewis, who's our Asia business correspondent.

For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to news talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays of the podcast on iHeartRadio.

For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to news talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays of the podcast on iHeartRadio.