"China’s EV price war is so brutal that BYD is trying to pinch its suppliers"

... BYD, Tesla’s main rival, asked a supplier to cut its prices by 10% next year, in widely circulated screenshots of a letter dated Tuesday and signed by He Zhiqi, an executive vice president at the Shenzhen-based company ...

CNN has reached out to BYD for comment and has been unable to independently verify the authenticity of the letter.

However, on Wednesday, Li Yunfei, general manager of branding and public relations at BYD, appeared to acknowledge the letter with a post on his verified account on social media platform Weibo.

“Annual price negotiations with suppliers are a common practice in the car industry,” he wrote. “We set price reduction targets for suppliers. It is not mandatory, and everyone can negotiate.”

[...]

Concern about the impact of the price cuts on people’s livelihoods during an economic slump made BYD one of the top trending topics on Weibo on Thursday, with a total of 19 million views. Commentators speculated that numerous suppliers in the car industry would inevitably have to slash salaries in an already grim job market in the new year.

“Exploiting the supply chain is their best skill, not treating grassroots employees as humans,” said a post with more than 1,000 likes ...