This is one of the reason that the USA being heavy handed with Chinese is going to bite us in the ass. While in the USA, we bury our heads in the sand and GM, Tesla and etc. all crank out $95,000 giant trucks/SUVs, some companies in China are making very, very affordable vehicles. These aren’t necessarily garbage either – there’s models available for almost any price point.
What WOULD be really smart and forward thinking is if in the USA, the domestic brands also make some affordable models to get EV more popular. However, they are addicted to fat profit margins, and thanks to all the protectionism, they don’t need to worry about offshore models being “better”.
While other nations either develop and/or import affordable EVs, we’re effectively banning them. This is all going to end up with a giant wake up call for American auto-manufacturers when the protections/tariffs are ultimately lifted and they HAVE to compete.
I think it would be great if the tariffs came with huge incentives for domestic manufacturers and motivated them to be competitive. Instead, it’s just letting them segment the market for a few years and make a killing. Who loses? The people…
Not just people, the economy will end up paying the price.
Tariffs have horrible second order effects.
Every companies outputs is some other companies inputs.
American companies end up locked out of more affordable vehicles as inputs. That cost then gets baked into its output, which is some other company’s input. Then just keep following that chain.
The best broad blanket tariffs can hope to do is trade long term competitiveness for some short term price increase.
Americans will wonder why other nations eat our lunch in the coming decades. Well that foreign company could buy the cheaper machine to produce the widget, their raw materials cost less to deliver because the transit company that ships it in charges a better rate because they have lower vehicle overhead. Since they have 2 dozen suppliers for their components both foreign and domestic they are forced to compete on quality and price.
American companies will become even more bloated and inefficient
It was just like what happened to the American auto industry before. Instead of listening to the market, we tell the market what they should buy.
We are losing our edge. People don’t want expensive cars. They want affordable, reliable cars. It was just like earlier Japanese cars. Japan is losing their edge too.
Honda is too unreliable. I won’t buy Honda again.
This is the real reason for tarrifs. Forcing citizens into paying ridiculous prices so biliionares can circle jerk about how much more power they can get. They’re scourges and bottomless voids of resources and misery.
Did not zee this happening.
and the people rejoice
Data published Wednesday by ACEA found that Tesla’s car sales in the European Union, Britain and the European Free Trade Association fell to 13,863 units in May, down 27.9% year on year.
Tesla’s European market share also dropped to 1.2% from 1.8% in May 2024.
European/other than China EV makers also did well, that this and other headlines this year, intentionally obfuscate. The combination of both above numbers means overall EV growth was about 25%. 93% is non US/China.
Even before the current political situation I wouldn’t have bought a Tesla. They have a documented quality problem and not very good customer service at least outside of the US.
Why would I buy a car that is not only more likely than most to break but when it does break it’s hard to get fixed. Spare parts are notoriously hard to get hold of and you usually have to deal with Tesla directly which is a problem because they don’t have a lot of dealerships in the UK. Also they won’t come to you, so if your car won’t start you have to arrange a pickup.
They have terrible customer service in the US too. I think it’s their business model: find people who enjoy being treated like an asshole and sell them overpriced shit.
So like Apple but more expensive
I used to like and look up to SpaceX for the interesting stuff that they build,
but nowadays i don’t care anymore. The company can fail for all i care. Musk spoiled it.
The tipping point, for me personally, was when Musk seriously threatened to slash public spending in February this year. It shows a clear disrespect to the people, and frankly, a sociopathic attitude.
Musk had everything, lots of money, lots of fame, lots of influence, but he threw it all away when he decided to threaten the wellbeing and lifelyhood of a lot of people just so that rich assholes can make an extra buck through tax cuts.
He’s basically gutting NASA so it can be reduced to a taxpayer-funded corporate subsidy for greedy billionaires and giant corps. They’re killing everyone’s dreams and inspiration.
SpaceX should be nationalized. We paid for it, it’s ours.
I don’t know why you didn’t just fund NASA properly.
Government agencies can’t bribe as good. Our politicians are whipped dogs who sell the free world for less than an F-150 a year in kickbacks.
For those maybe blissfully ignorant of car culture that’s an F-150 (the grocery getter for fragile egos) oversized pickup truck , and not some fighter jet.
Sure, just let me change the payee on this check
Agreed. This system of giving out money and getting what we paid for sold back to us is fucking dumb.
Who in the current admin would you like to see run it? Because one of them would if it were nationalized. Who would be your pick?
The current regime is full of ignorant buffoons but at least in that case it would normally be temporary.
In the private model where the gov pays for everything anyway, the taxpayer pays the cost of doing the thing plus whatever profit the oligarch wants to make and you have no way of switching to another oligarch should the current one becomes unacceptable. There is simply no upside to SpaceX as a private entity
It would be under NASA, but the argument is moot, since it wouldn’t happen under a MAGA Nazi administration. It will have to wait until Americans take back our government. Then we can nationalize Space X, confiscate the DOGE Goblin’s fortune, and deport him back to South Africa.
Prison will be perfectly fine for him. That or the neck trimmer.
Better super late than never.
I wonder what continues to motivate the uber rich to seek more wealth-you simply can’t buy any more tangible amount of happiness through material or influence after a point.
Once you have enough money, anything you do makes you money.
Elon blew 44 billion or Twitter, axed the servers, staff, and the name, and he was able to leverage that into a government job where he could kill investigations into his companies years later. You could say it’s intelligence, but I’d say it’s a combination of luck, and the resources to blow 44 billion and not have it affect you personally in any way.
Here in the UK Musk is just seen as an idiot. Some decent European EV solutions coming along but the Chinese cars are so much better value than Tesla OR the main European makes. Couldn’t happen to a nicer megalomaniac and as a plus I love seeing the monthly SpaceX explosions
It’s not just the UK that sees his as an idiot. The world sees him this way, and that’s because he is one. Also an egomaniac.
Looking forward to Tesla reporting Q2 earnings next month. I assume another round of disastrous numbers paired up with some vaporware distraction. Perhaps they can keep this charade going, but at some point reality will catch up.
Is gonna go up, Elon said they’ll have full autonomous this year! /s
Just give Elon more of some new drug. /s
HAHA
What a downfall Tesla
Good, continue with the downward spiral.
And in the US we just block foreign options because it is gov policy to artificially support specific corporations.
the country of free market capitalism…
I don’t think that has ever been true, really. Nor should it be, Laissez Faire is a trainwreck waiting to happen, probably literally and figuratively.
Textbooks will tell you that the USA, and other countries like China and Russia, are a regulated “Market System” which in some markets teeters on strict Oligopoly.
it’s only true in propaganda.
Oddly libertarians never acknowledge that market leaders ask for theses things. The biggest threat to the free market are capitalists themselves.
American libertarianism is just a form of nationalism mixed with a strong dose of “don’t nose into muh life”
There are 2 types of libertarians.
One group is comprised of people who think the government should basically keep the military going, and handle foreign relations when that doesn’t impede private citizens.
The other group is just Republicans who don’t like being called Republicans.
I think that’s the invisible hand of the market. The visible part is the products you don’t get to have.
USA could have spent money developing an electrified economy but the republicans are focusing on bringing back coal mining and reshoring shoe manufacturing instead.
This admin has set the USA back 100 years.
ETA - what I mean is that China is rampaging on in electrification, developing manufacturing skills, infrastructure, and design/engineering/technology around renewables and electrification. Europe is thinking about it but not going crazy to the extent China is, because legacy - China doesn’t have 100 years of cars and 150 years of trains; they’re building new. USA meanwhile is actively regressing under Republican policies.
Apparantly they have also been removing bike lanes in some area’s….
bringing back coal mining and horseshoe manufacturing
I think my glasses are smudged
Which kind of blows my mind. Coal miners should love EVs. There was a story in the news a few years ago about how nice it was for the miners to help someone in an EV, as if they should be mortal enemies.
Non-EV cars don’t run on coal, they run on gasoline. EVs on the other hand can run on coal, natural gas, solar, wind, you name it - and still are more energy efficient than cars burning gasoline. In a sane world, coal miners would be throwing their support behind electric vehicles. The utility companies seem to understand this, but seems like the support hasn’t made its way up the supply chain.
Of course US trucks run on coal. I see them rolling coal all the time! They cant roll coal if it wasnt coal. Duh…
Especially when you see some of the tech being rocked in Asian cities
This isn’t exclusively a problem of the new administration, or the previous. All administrations since the late 20th century have been compliant in allowing the offshoring of most industry
It’s not just industry. Now they’re killing the development of skills and knowledge in engineering (hardware, software) and design
This admin has set the USA back 100 years.
Again. They already enshrined “billionaires get all the money” in the one legislative victory of trumps first term.
They already enshrined “billionaires get all the money” in 2008 when the banks got the bailouts instead of the people
The problem is systemic, it didn’t start with Trump. He’s just way more flagrant.
But… but… those good ol’ days felt so good! We need to relive those days!
I own BYD and it is a great car. Very pleased with it.
We have 2 BYD plug-in EVs in our house, absolutely delighted with the brand. Before that I had a Model 3 Tesla, which I could not get rid of fast enough.
Honor where honor is due, Tesla did open the door for mainstreaming EVs, there’s no doubt about it, but it was through marketing based on gimmicks, not through quality products. But the reality is that BYD, Xiaomi, Avatr and a few other Chinese manufacturing cars are way better value and even quality than their Occidental counterparts.
Heard it can be hard / expensive if you need to order spare parts and stuff like that. Anything to that?
That’s halfway true, depending on the part, and where you live. But the warranty they provide (at least in my country) covers everything that you don’t damage yourself, and the warranty is transferable if you sell it still being under warranty.
The only expense I’ve had with mine are new tires and correcting some body scratches caused by other people (and public charging if on long road trips, because I charge at home with solar power).
how many cameras does it have? be pleased about all your, and your neighbourhoods everydays be uploaded to china, to train face recognition and whatever else
I hate teslas, but byd’s are not even slightly better in my eyes.
I don’t like the feeling that we may never see a consumer friendly EV anymore, but only ones that exploit their users in any ways they can
China can have all the images they want from my car’s. I don’t live in China or anywhere near them. I’m more concerned about US made EVs and their surveillance because I travel there regularly, and they are digging hard on everything for people coming into the US.
I live neither in china or the usa, but I don’t want myself be recorded by either of their appliances that I use. and that naturally also extends to my neighbors and wherever I go.
its quite interesting how many people suddenly started to love mass surveillance
Don’t know why exactly are you downvoted but this is exactly what is going on as cars get more ”connected”, following Tesla & BYD lead. Just like with phones at the moment, everything tries to spy on you a little to tap into that sweeet targeted ad revenue, or something else.
For example I bet the insurance companies love to have some driver behaviour data about you, and the big retail likes to know where/what time you are on the move (though they already get it from the dozens of apps on your phone that have access to location data, like Google Maps).
Don’t know why exactly are you downvoted
It’s very weird. maybe I was a bit too harsh in the beginning, but I don’t think it was nearly this bad.
For example I bet the insurance companies love to have some driver behaviour data about you, and the big retail likes to know where/what time you are on the move (though they already get it from the dozens of apps on your phone that have access to location data, like Google Maps)
there are ways to clean it out of a phone, but cars are much more closed down, and if I had to guess they are probably even protected against you cleaning it out software-wise by safety regulations
