By far one of the biggest surprises I had waiting for me when I arrived to Yangon was the sheer number of electric vehicles on the road. The overwhelming majority of them being of Chinese origin.
Most people think of California or Norway when they imagine a place with high EV utilization, but Myanmar? Yup.
The reason for this is last year the military government, to decrease reliance on fuel, allowed for the importation of electric vehicles into Myanmar with no importation fees. This is a pretty huge deal because the government adds hefty fees for all imported vehicles, and since nothing is produced locally, cars end up costing much more than they would for the same car in the U.S. A $25k Toyota Corolla is actually like $40k in Myanmar.
Whether or not this will reduce to fuel burden remains to be seen. A lot of the power generated in Myanmar is directly from fossil fuel, and with constant outages in the grid, most places run diesel generators as well. Does it really save a lot of gas if you are having to power you electric car from a socket that is powered on a diesel generator? I guess time will tell.
For me, it has been an absolute treat seeing all these awesome new car brands and vehicles from China. Many are surprisingly cool and VERY affordable. When politicians warn about the U.S. car market being flooded by cheap Chinese EV’s, I actually think they are right. The quality on these cars is surprisingly good, they offer good range, and are on average far less expensive than U.S. equivalents. Tesla does well in the Chinese market, but I think if the U.S. market got hit was Chinese EV’s offering 300 miles of range for under 30k, our car industry would get absolutely killed.
Below are a few of my favorite cars I frequently see. I have probably counted a dozen brands I had never heard of from China, all producing interesting high tech cruisers, some for as low as $11k.
Above is the BYD Seagull. Starts for about $12k in China and can travel around 200-250 miles depending on battery size. If I was to buy a car here, this would be it.
This is a LeapMotor T03, similar specs to the BYD car and available in this pink color. I see this everywhere around Yangon.
Above is a Chery Icar 03. Probably my favorite vehicle on the road. Looks like an awesome Land Rover Defender, is very roomy with nice tech features, gets 300 miles, and in China starts for less than $25k. Are you kidding me? You know if this thing hit the U.S. market sales would be through the roof and every school drop off zone would be flooded with these. Even a market adjustment to $40-50k and this thing sells like hot cakes.
No, I am not a stooge for the Chinese auto industry, but if you have followed my blog a bit, you know I like cars, and I really like seeing cars that aren’t available in the U.S. Myanmar has that in spades. With China planning factories in Mexico to get around U.S. import restrictions, it will be interesting to see if any of these cars trickle into the North American market. They are starting to appear in Europe, and I am sure it will only be a matter of time. Vroom vroom! (Or the electric car version of that) -Nick
