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Americans Are Open To Cheap Chinese Cars. That’s 'Scary' For The Rest Of The Auto Industry (insideevs.com)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/evs@lemmy.world
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/15089465

Americans Are Open To Cheap Chinese Cars. That’s 'Scary' For The Rest Of The Auto Industry

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[–] 20 points 2 years ago (1 child)

But for the most part are American cars bringing that much more value for the price? If the average American car lasted 250,000 miles with little maintenance, maybe that would be worth the price.

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  • [–] -3 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    BYD and other Chinese manufacturers are only able to sell at these low prices because the government is paying a portion of the manufacturing costs which isn't sustainable long term. What will happen is that they'll continue to subsidize them until they put a bunch of competitors out of business and then end the subsidies. Their prices will shoot up, and we'll be right back in the same situation we are now with high purchase prices. The only difference is that a lot of American manufacturing (union) jobs will have disappeared because of it.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago* (2 children)

    The US government can and should be directly financing mining and making lithium batteries. There's enough lithium and cobalt scattered around the world to not give China full control over the price. The perfect is the enemy of the good. Until a more energy-dense battery chemistry goes mainstream: lithium is our only option to stop burning (some) oil. Batteries needs to be fully embraced regardless of who's currently setup to profit. China just thought ahead and the US wants to throw a tantrum.

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  • [–] -2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Great but this had nothing to do with selling cars with massive, unsustainable subsidies as the price of lithium is just one part of the cost to manufacture a car. Furthermore, their goal isn't to get more people into EVs. It's to increase power and influence by selling their product at prices so low, nobody can compete against them. Once the competition is gone, a monopoly forms, subsidies end, prices skyrocket, and ideas and innovation stagnate.

    Your approach is akin to throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Who's going to develop a more energy dense, climate friendly solution if the entire market is controlled by a single entity?

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    The batteries are about half the cost of making an EV. A $30k car literally has $15k+ worth of batteries inside. The Chinese are prepared to produce batteries today. China will not be able to arbitrarily limit global supply in the future. Global lithium supply is not analogous to oil prices and OPEC.

    Lithium ion batteries are not produced by 1 entity and the tech has been around a few decades. People are absolutely innovating better, more sustainable, and less toxic battery chemistry. Lithium is just the best option we have now.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    You keep focusing on the lithium market while I'm speaking about the automotive market. If China makes EVs unprofitable for the rest of the market by selling them at an artificially low price, who is going to be left to build them once the dust settles?

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    In other words they are doing the exact same thing the US government is doing. Remember the stock swap?

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  • [–] -1 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I have no idea what you're referring to with "the stock swap."

    The US government does provide subsidies for EVs, but it is different in that it doesn't solely apply to US companies or companies directly controlled by the US government and they aren't being used for cars sold in other nation's markets. Any player in the industry can receive them provided they meet the criteria which is why American, South Korean, Japanese, and various EU-based companies are currently receiving them.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    2008 Stock swap with GM. Thanks for admitting the hypocrisy of everyone defending the big 3.

    Big 3 shills: give me tax dollars

    Also Big 3 shills: our competition gets tax dollars and it is unfair

    The CEO of GM could personally blow me and I still won't give them a dollar.

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  • [–] -1 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

    I think this argument must have been written in 2008 because nobody here is defending the "big 3" and the "big 3" doesn't even exist anymore as Dodge/Chrysler is owned by a European company and Ford/GM manufacture most of their cars in Canada and Mexico. The most American vehicles these days are Tesla, Toyota and Honda. I even specifically pointed out that US EV subsidies apply to manufacturers from multiple countries...

    If you think this is some sort of "gotcha," I have bad news for you.

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