this post was submitted on 08 May 2024
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I see tons of Mach E’s around here. Not as many as Teslas yet, but I see on average two to three a day, which tracks to Teslas about 2 yrs ago in this area. So give it a bit of time. I’d seriously consider one if I was in the market for a new car. I just wish they didn’t call a small SUV a Mustang. “Domestic” US manufacturers are catching up.
That said, I’d love a Chinese 10-15k EV as long as it passed US crash standards and had a decent warranty. Competition is a good thing.
The problem is that $10-$15k Chinese EVs aren't competition as the Chinese government is paying the company directly for them to be that cheap. That's in comparison to a country where the best companies get is a $7500 credit toward their purchase. I would absolutely support Chinese EVs in the US if they weren't trying to undercut everyone with unsustainable subsidies just to put everyone else out of business.
Yeah, this is the Chinese government's go-to plan at this point: fund copycat industries, subsidize the crap out of them, and use those subsidies until there's a global monopoly share and a field of dead competitors that couldn't match the subsidies.
Cell phones, major appliance manufacturing, solar panels... If we didn't learn the lesson before EVs, that's on us.
That said, not a lot of sympathy for the US auto companies' complacency. They've known EVs were the future for years, and there's no reason we shouldn't have options at every price point.
I am pretty sure there are subsidies/grants/loans for auto companies under other governments too.
https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/us-offers-12-billion-automakers-suppliers-make-advanced-vehicles-2023-08-31/
Certainly but this can also be viewed as helping ease the transition for automakers since they've also implemented stricter efficiency rules upon them at the same time.
If we assume China is subsidizing $15k per car to allow them to sell for $10k, that $12B in US subsidies equates to about a single quarter worth of sales for just BYD alone, or 800k cars. There is no way we can match those subsidies for the rest of the players in the American market as around 13.5 million new cars are sold in the US each year.