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…
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.
Chinese electric cars are just better. BYD is what Tesla wanted to be, but actually fulfills its promises. Plus it isn’t ran by a nazi dictator.
Watch the RichRebuilds review of Chinese EVs. There is a lot of “make it look good” in their engineering, like massive painted brake calipers…that are a single piston. The cars probably aren’t as quality as other EVs, but the prices, specs, and niche features are very compelling. I’d definitely consider one in the US. Anything that isn’t a Tesla or a massive crossover would be great.
I uh… you sure about that dictator thing? xi jinping enters the chat
If you think Xi Jinping is dictating what BYD does with their cars then you don’t understand the fundamentals as to why China managed to attract so much foreign investment and got to where they are now in the first place.
Foreign investment was because of cheap labor and companies being subsidized by the communist government…
BYD might make a better car than Tesla, but saying that a Chinese company isn’t “under the control of Xi Jinping”, the guy who crushed Hong Kong for having too much independence and wants to do the same with Taiwan, is laughable.
That’s actually a bit of a myth you know. Labour in China used to be dirt cheap 30 years ago but that’s not the case now. You need experts to build cars and they demand an appropriate salary. They probably don’t get paid as much as they would in the west but they’re not being paid pennies an hour either. However the idea that China is cheap has persisted.
There’s a reason that Apple doesn’t make the iPhone there anymore. It was getting too expensive ie they were being asked to pay for a decent wage, and they weren’t prepared to.
I was more saying cheap “when companies moved in”. Now it just has the workforce and supply chain knowledge/infrastructure because of those investments.
Corporate fucktard assholes are running out of cheap labor around the world. They keep moving it around, but eventually there won’t be any place to go.
but saying that a Chinese company isn’t “under the control of Xi Jinping”, the guy who crushed Hong Kong for having too much independence and wants to do the same with Taiwan, is laughable.
Just take that sentence at face value and consider the ridiculousness of actually believing the guy alone has that amount of crushing power.
You’re just regurgitating unfounded US propaganda which, this being Lemmy, is very unfortunate to see.
“Unfounded US propaganda”.
Are you saying China DIDN’T aggressively take over Hong Kong and all of the businesses that operated there?
Xi is the head of the government in a totalitarian, communist regime. Just because he might be “leaving BYD alone” or whatever today does not mean that couldn’t change in an instant.
The United States is its own form of screwed up and is an absolute mess. I’m not sitting over here going 'US good. China bad". I’m making the point they’re both bad in different ways.
Are you saying China DIDN’T aggressively take over Hong Kong and all of the businesses that operated there?
Uh, i kinda am, yeah.
Last time I checked, Hong Kong is still a tax haven in the middle of Asia. Western companies are still opening offshore subsidiaries and bank accounts there to engage in tax evasion, and the welfare system is still as pitiful as it was before China took over.
Retirees living in literal cages or under bridges is still common, and the same 3-4 families that ran Hong Kong’s banking, industry and real estate are still in control like they’ve always been.
By any metrics, China took control of Hong Kong on paper only. In practice, everything stayed the same.
the guy alone has that amount of crushing power.
Nobody of right mind takes this at face value. This isn’t a pro wrestling heavyweight championship belt, with Jinping suplexing the Hong Kong protestors.
It’s obviously as head of an autoritarian communist regime, using corona measures and a militarized police to suppress people for the extravagant act of desiring freedom from the CCP.
But even that is incorrect.
Yes, Xi Jinping is powerful as the Chairman of the party, but the communist party of China is not the military, and there is a fair amount of decentralization in decision making.
Further, the guy above goes “look at how Xi is suplexing Taiwan?!?!” even though he isn’t because guess what, he doesn’t actually have the power to do so.
Also, none of this has anything to do with the topic of EV production, which is in the hands of a private company which largely operates independently of the government, much like millions of other companies that operate in China.
Which is why I said the dude is just spewing brainless US state propaganda and Red Herring.
Further, the guy above goes “look at how Xi is suplexing Taiwan?!?!”
I think you’re the only one reading it that way. The rest of us understand that it happens within a context of an autoritarian regime.
which is in the hands of a private company which largely operates independently of the government
Independent untill the party decides they’re not independent. (Eg).
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.
They know, they just have too much invested in their 401k to think about their own best interests. Sold themselves and their future families for a couple more % points of growth yearly.
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!
