China Taxicab Chronicles: Mr. Le offers Career Advice in Xiamen
This is a repost of a Twitter thread originally posted on June 22, 2025. It has been edited lightly for long-essay format.
Mr. Le picked us up at the entrance to the Zeng Cuo’an tourist area in Xiamen. We were going to the ferry terminal and it was the middle of the day, so we had a bit of a ride ahead of us. I was immediately struck by his unique vehicle. (guess I should have been looking where I was going, amirite? *ba-dum tiss*)
Actually, what I meant to say is I immediately noticed his distinctive vehicle. It was a BYD EV, but I’d never seen one like it before. It was shaped like a smaller SUV crossover but had sliding doors and a somewhat boxy roof that offered lots of headspace like a minivan.
“Hey shifu, what is this car model? I’ve never seen it before. The BYD what?”
Mr. Le responded enthusiastically. "We just call it “Little Green” (小绿). BYD designed a car for rideshare drivers, as a partnership with Didi. It sold very well in Xiamen."
He seemed to have a lot of energy for a guy who spends all day just sitting. Great, someone to talk to!
“Really? We don’t have this car in Shanghai. At least, I don’t think so. I’ve never seen it. Didi drivers just drive regular cars.”
“I chose this one because it’s got a good design for passengers. The sliding door is safer to let out guests on roads with many bicycles. And it’s more comfortable for tall passengers to not bump their head.” His eyes flickered up to the rearview mirror.
“Like you...”
“And I guess it’s pretty cheap?”
“Yeah, not bad. About 150,000 CNY. And it has a good range for a small city car…about 370 km.”
Later I found the car model pretty easily after a quick search. It’s the BYD D1, purpose-built by BYD as a vehicle for rideshare drivers. Although I had never seen one, it’s probably just because I wasn’t paying attention, because two days after I got back to Shanghai, I saw one…I think. Or at least a vehicle that looked very similar:
Le Shifu went on: “I remember when BYD released their first car models. Wow, they were ugly! No one bought them. But their first NEV vehicle…it was so great. That’s already 10 years ago. Now everyone knows they are attractive, good value…and cheap.”
(Here, I assumed Mr. Le was talking about the BYD Qin, which was released in 2013, and wasn’t actually their first NEV, but it was the first one anyone cared about).
"Yes, BYD is cheap. Actually, BYD is so cheap that it’s creating problems for other EV manufacturers in China. They have to lower their prices when BYD lowers its prices, or they can’t survive. The EV sector is so juan." (卷, meaning hyper-competitive, sometimes destructively so].
"BYD is the most 卷! I heard they are not hiring any graduates this year. Yesterday, some engineering students in my car said they hoped to apply to BYD this year, but they are not taking anyone. They also mentioned applying to some company in Ningde, but also too hard."
"Ningde? I guess they mean CATL. It’s also a new energy company…that makes batteries. The battery industry is very hot right now, but also very 卷. Maybe they should just apply to join the civil service."
"Civil service jobs are even more competitive! But in a different way. For the civil service, it doesn’t even matter how good of a student you are…if you don’t have the right connections you won’t get a job. You have to be good at sucking up…following orders...good at that style of working. The civil service is not suitable for everyone."
"Well, I entered the clean energy industry 10 years ago, so I don’t envy the students finding jobs in this competitive environment now. I analyze some of those 卷 companies, but my own field of work itself is not so 卷. There are only a few companies that do what I do."
"Do you want to go back to the USA?"
"For my industry? No way. The policies can change completely overnight…from supportive to not supportive...a complete reverse. The entire strategy for what is most important in the USA can change every 4 years if there is a new president. Maybe my industry would suddenly have no support because of some political reasons. If that happened, it would break my heart. I have some big ambitions for clean energy. In China, I can always get closer to my dreams. In the USA, I would probably have my heart broken"
"Americans don't use EVs?"
"They do, but some people don't like them for culture reasons. And they are always worried…about their range, about safety, about availability of charging stations. Do you remember when China didn’t have a lot of EV chargers at the beginning?"
“Yes, you had to wait in line to charge your car. Very annoying.”
“To build a charging station requires a lot of capital, and you are hoping enough people will buy EVs and eventually use the chargers to recover your investment. You need a lot of trust…or the government should have some policies to remove the risk from your investment. But for that to happen, it means the government really wants it to happen. China really wants this, so you see so many EV chargers recently.”
"Why does China like EVs so much?"
"Well, it was part of your national plan, to use more EVs and reduce ICEs, reduce gasoline and petroleum usage. China likes to make long-term plans."
"Oh yes, China is good at planning. This is a gift from Chairman Mao."
We arrived at the ferry terminal, where I was going to take a boat to Gulangyu Island , so we said farewell to Mr. Le and headed inside. But I did ask if he could stay parked for a moment, so I could take a picture of the BYD "Little Green" you saw at the top of the essay.
Fun extra fact:
Le is a very uncommon surname in China. The character is 乐, which as a surname usually pronounced “Le” like in 快乐 (kuaile, happy), not its other pronunciation “Yue” like in 音乐 (yinyue, music), but apparently even this can also vary by region.
I believe this is the first person I've ever personally met in real life with this name, however, there is a well-known Chinese entertainer and TV host with this surname: Mr. Le Jia (乐嘉). Baidu Baike says its prevalence in the Chinese population is 0.015%, meaning there should be just 210,000 people in China with this name. A rare name indeed.
I enjoyed this, thank you. "The battery industry is very 卷" will be echoing around my head all day, probably with horrible mental mispronounciation.
I figure to live in and understand it you really have to speak the language at the level of competency you have. It’s only then you can dig out these gems of ‘real life’ - that’s my option’s limited to staying put in the UK or hopping over to France - which had been perennially tempting until Brexit killed that. surprised my surname is so unpopular in China - Dr Lee.