You misunderstand. It doesn't matter much for BYD's pricing whether they're subsidized or not, but it matters very much that their competitors are. They'll char

You misunderstand. It doesn't matter much for BYD's pricing whether they're subsidized or not, but it matters very much that their competitors are. They'll charge as much as they can get away with, and competing against other Chinese manufacturers, they need to go a lot lower. But many of those competitors would be completely unable to operate without subsidies. Take Zhidou, which went bankrupt in 2019 after sales of EVs with range under 250 km were no longer subsidized. https://web.archive.org/web/20240926235216/https://carnewschina.com/2024/03/06/chinese-car-brands-never-die-chapter-2563-zhidou-rainbow-puts-chinas-once-2nd-largest-nev-producer-back-in-the-game/ https://web.archive.org/web/20240926235216/https://carnewsch... They relaunched in 2024 with some help from the Lanzhou city government, offering the Zhidou Rainbow at a subsidized sales price of $3,800 to $5,500. https://web.archive.org/web/20240512094644/https://k.sina.cn/article_6011862187_16655bcab0200129v2.html?from=auto&subch=oauto&ab=qiche&_rewriteTime=1715507014620 https://web.archive.org/web/20240512094644/https://k.sina.cn... Note that there's two different kinds of Chinese government involved here: the central government primarily wants to build up the EV industry and is mostly agnostic between manufacturers, hence the sales subsidy. Regional governments want to build up their own economy, so they give preferential treatment to companies that manufacture in their region. So it's not, as you thought, that the central government is specifically subsidizing BYD in order for them to destroy every other Chinese car manufacturer, but that regional governments are subsidizing local competitors in order to protect them from being destroyed by BYD. But those subsidies won't last forever, and once they run out, many manufacturers will go bankrupt (see original 2019 Zhidou bankruptcy). Once that happens, BYD will most likely be able to cement their market dominance and raise prices to finally be able to make a decent profit even on domestic sales.