"Rivian doesn't have a footprint in China's highly competitive EV market, where companies like BYD and Xiaomi reign supreme. That doesn't mean the California-based EV maker isn't paying close attention to the world abroad. In an interview with Business Insider, Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe said the company tore down a Xiaomi SU7, a highly popular EV sedan in China, as part of an industry-standard practice of benchmarking other vehicles in the market."
"However, Scaringe said there's no secret sauce inside the car that makes the SU7 cheap and a runaway success in the country. "Cost - we understood how they've arrived there," Scaringe said, adding that "there's nothing we learned from the teardown." The CEO points to macroeconomic factors like the low cost of labor and the Chinese government's support for EVs. "The cost of capital is zero or negative, meaning they get paid to put up plants," Scaringe said of Chinese companies. "It's a very different opportunity.""
Rivian does not operate in China's EV market but conducts benchmarking of foreign vehicles. The company disassembled a Xiaomi SU7 to examine its engineering and components. The SU7 is described as a well-executed, heavily vertically integrated technology platform and was identified as a plausible purchase option for someone living in China. The teardown revealed no proprietary or surprising technologies that explained the SU7's low price. Observed cost advantages stem from macroeconomic conditions in China, including low labor costs, government support for EVs, and extremely low or negative cost of capital for building plants.
Read at Business Insider
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