I like this because it encourages affluent people to adopt electric vehicles. If we want to live in cities with clean air, quiet streets, and fewer gasoline stations, then it makes sense to encourage electric vehicle adoption. Many people look to the wealthy as role models, and many wealthy people seek status, so this seems like a win.
This kinda glosses over the entire history of BYD cars though.
BYD started very low, selling cheap EVs or hybrids like the BYD F3, then slowly creeped up to being a mainstream brand (a la Toyota) in China, and is now moving towards the even higher end with cars like Yangwang U8.
I guess my point is, it always seemed to me that their plan was to release products like the U9. It's just that they were doing it bottom-up.
I don't know how you got that crazy idea. The point of Ferraris is to look sexy and show off your wealth. They're pretty fast too, but not the fastest cars in the world (Lamborghinis are probably faster in a straight line). They're rather loud compared to a typical sedan car, but lots of other vehicles are louder.
You're probably thinking of Harley-Davidson motorcycles.
> The point of Ferraris is to look sexy and show off your wealth.
This is why I wonder why anyone (at least in the West) would buy a Yangwang, instead of a Ferrari. A handbag could be nicely designed and crafted excellently, but many would still rather pay more for a Louis Vuitton.
Two things: 1) people really buy Louis Vuitton stuff for the brand name itself, so they can show off their wealth. "Look, I paid $500 for a belt that's no better than a $25 belt from Macy's!" So partially yes, a Yangwang isn't going to have the same brand appeal. 2) Unlike a belt, a layman can't tell how good a car is by just looking at it. Cars are incredibly complex machines. So normal people use brands and brand reputation to judge cars, which is why Toyota and Honda are so well-regarded. It takes a lot of time to build a reputation for quality, since people expect cars to last for many years without breaking down. A weird Chinese brand that no one's heard of isn't going to have a perception of quality until people in the West have been driving them for 5+ years. And people who buy to signal wealth, rather than for quality, probably aren't ever going to buy them.
Not by EV standards. No gas car is faster than $90K Model S Plaid. Very, very few are faster than $75K “plain” Model S, or its counterparts in the lineups of other manufacturers. In fact most “hypercars” are now slower than the Cybertruck.
It depends if we're talking about two launch control on a drag strip or actual speed on a track, in which case a plaid S get smoked by quite a lot of cars actually, and a lot are similarly priced or cheaper than a plaid S
