It is no secret that global automakers like Hyundai are finding it impossible to match Chinese competitors on costs and price discounting as the month’s progress in every new Chinese vehicle showroom.

BYD builds cars 25-30 percent more cheaply than what legacy global automakers can manage, thanks to extreme vertical integration, breathtaking speed and generous subsidies from the city, provincial and national government agencies.

But this is not just a low-cost manufacturing situation. Chinese automakers now equip their cars with some of the world’s most advanced autonomous and digital cockpit features. Keep an eye on tech giants like Xiaomi and Huawei, which infuse their new cars with world-class software.

China’s leading EV maker is set to drastically shake up the South Korean auto market where models like this Ioniq 9 pictured above are supposed to be segment best sellers. BYD officially announced plans to launch in South Korea with its low-cost EVs poised to challenge Hyundai and Kia on their home turf.

BYD confirmed plans to enter South Korea with a number of new vehicles, a market dominated by domestic automakers for decades, including Hyundai and Kia.

In the last few decades, Chinese car consumers swarmed into Buick, Volkswagen, BMW and Toyota showrooms nationwide, happy to pay cash for the prestige of owning a brand that wasn’t Chinese.

Now, suddenly, that golden era of foreign car ownership is over in China.

Sales and profits in the People’s Republic are vanishing. And boardrooms in Detroit, Wolfsburg and Tokyo are stunned by the speed and intensity of the changes.

In the past two years, Chinese automakers including BYD, GAC Aion, and Chery have announced plans to build manufacturing facilities in Thailand. BYD’s and GAC Aion’s factories started operations in July, and so far Chinese investments in Thai auto plants total at least USD1.4 billion.

Narong’s EV is one of the 80,000 battery-electric vehicles the Electric Vehicle Association of Thailand is projecting will be registered this year. Last year, Thailand registered 76,739 BEVs, according to government data, 6.5 times the number in 2022.