Here’s a buried lede in a story about Elon Musk’s lack of integrity and transparency:

Tesla set up its Shanghai operations in 2019 as an unrestricted subsidiary with very limited visibility. Because of this arrangement, Tesla’s investors only get a piecemeal snapshot of the China business’ contributions to the overall company. Tesla has been able to use this obscurity to mask the fact that its China operations generate most if not all the company’s total profits and cash flow while contributing less than 30% of total revenue — implying Tesla’s US operations are still largely unprofitable after 18 years.

Meanwhile, the latest news from China is Elon Musk is failing to trick people there into overpaying for his low quality cars.

…potential cuts in production come after the automaker decreased prices for its cars in China earlier in October and also increased insurance incentives in order to boost supply.

Some estimates put the expected drop in output around 20%.

That seems conservative considering consumer demand in Germany for Tesla crashed this past summer, while overall EV sales for other brands rose higher than ever.

A curious part of this situation is why Tesla thought they should be jacking prices up for its tired and flawed products… as if that wouldn’t backfire.

After a year of increasing prices almost every month in 2021…[in June 2022] the automaker is back at it. Today, Tesla updated its online configurator overnight to again increase prices across its entire lineup.

Dumb moves by Tesla, no? Chinese EV manufacturer BYD has further increased its sales and engineering lead.

BYD has [developed] what it calls a blade battery, a cobalt-free alternative to other rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that are said to be safer and more stable. […] The majority of BYD’s lineup sells for between $13,200 and $46,700. Meanwhile Tesla models started at around $50,000…

A higher quality, far safer AND less expensive car?

No wonder BYD demand has risen so fast while Tesla falls.