Andreessen Horowitz founders Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz said on their podcast that Chinese automakers have developed high-quality and affordable vehicles supported by a robust supply chain ecosystem.
With the American auto industry struggling with slowing growth in its EV market, American automakers need to be able to offer a compelling $20,000 EV that also competes on quality if the US doesn't want to "lose the auto industry," Andreessen said.
"What China has now is not just really good car companies, but they've got this entire constellation of supply chain componentry," Andreessen said.
China's government has spent at least $230 billion to support electric vehicle makers such as BYD since 2009, according to a study published in 2024 by the Centre for Strategic & International Studies think tank.
Andreessen said that Chinese car brands are outperforming American EV automakers in affordability and quality, calling them "super technologically sophisticated."
"For example, they've got this feature where you just come in, and you just drop your phone down on the center divider, and basically, the car lights up," he said. "The whole system inside the car comes off your phone — like all your music and your maps and your calendar and all that stuff is just automatically there."
The venture capitalist also highlighted other features, such as customized dancing animations in the LED headlights that greet the driver and self-driving capabilities, which are already integrated into several lower-cost Chinese EVs.
To keep up, American automakers need to be able to offer a similarly affordable and full-featured car at the $20,000 price point, Andreessen said.
BYD was just a cell phone battery company, and was like "well we've got the lithium supply chain locked down, you know what needs huge batteries: guess we're doing cars now."