Alice Han

You know, a company like BYD, where everything's done in-house, it has a fully closed supply chain, will continue to carry the cost advantage in a time where we could see gas prices being at sustained highs, right?

I know WTI might be north of 100 for at least the foreseeable next couple of months.

And then the last thing that I will say that I think is super interesting is the domestic environment, right?

So the stocks have, I think, seen some dampening, BYD stocks and EV maker stocks, early this year because of the cost pressures, the price wars that are still happening domestically.

And, you know, my takeaway from the government work report in the five-year plan is that the government still cares about this anti-involution drive, you know, this so-called drive to stop these aggressive price wars and deflationary prices in the economy and in sectors.

So potentially maybe that will reduce some of the cost pressures and profit pressures for BYD this year.

But by far the most important point is the point that you're making, James, is that they are, you know, really enjoying

positive tailwinds in terms of overseas market demand for the cars.

Yeah, and then one last point, just the battery side of things, China continues to dominate, right?

So China's power batteries currently have about 70% of the global market and the anode materials overpass 90%.

So if we just think about the other aspects...

of the EV supply chain, China has really continued to dominate.

And then beyond that, I think what will be interesting to see is further industrial consolidation in the market.

When I was in China a couple years ago, there were 400 odd different EVs, and it seemed like every

province in China, you know, from Hangzhou to Shenzhen had its own, you know, set of national champions.

And now I think there's going to be even more regulatory and cost pressure that is going to force further consolidation.

So apparently, according to One Outfit, Alex Partners, we could see the number of EV brands drop from about 130 currently to 15 in the next five years, which will be super interesting.

And definitely BYD, I think, will be at the front of the pack.

Yeah.

And that's a really important point because a lot of these brands are effectively not making any money.