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The US auto industry is in big trouble. China now makes 75 percent of all electric vehicles sold anywhere on earth. US automakers make around 5 percent. (www.nytimes.com)
submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by to c/mildlyinteresting@lemmy.world
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[–] 12 points 2 months ago (13 children)

Can you give me that legitimate reason beyond hurting poor Ford Chevy and GM's pockets?

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  • [–] 33 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (5 children)

    For starters the 300,000+ people employed by those two companies (Chevy is GM). Perhaps you meant to include Stellantis (Chrysler) which would make that number closer to 600,000 people. The auto industry was a big driver of the 2008 crash.

    That’s before we even start to get into the issues stemming from a Chinese monopoly on the auto industry. What happens if American, Japanese, and European auto makers go out of business and then China stops the subsidies? We will literally be in the same situation we are now but with money going to China instead of paying domestic workers.

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  • [–] 11 points 2 months ago

    So what.

    Protecting them from china and bailing them out multiple times hasn't done anything.

    It's almost like poorly run businesses SHOULD FAIL.

    Are we a free market capitalist society or not?

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago (1 child)

    Idk, as I said before sounds like everyone Big Mad because China is better at capitalism than the west. We could easily sell vehicles for cheaper costs by producing closer to local markets and making simpler cars. But then the corps wouldn't keep their over inflated stock prices.

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  • [–] 0 points 2 months ago*

    I agree, western automakers could easily lower prices.

    1. Get rid of unions

    2. Lower wages in auto manufacturing AND every industry in the supply chain (mining, etc).

    3. Every country that manufactures cars needs to mine and produce its own materials (may need to create more humans to work these industries)

    The engineers and designers at BYD make less money than assembly line workers in Germany or the US.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago (6 children)

    Ford and GM are only a fraction of the auto industry in the US. The majority of sales are foreign brands, but none of them can compete as companies against the entire nation of China and its willingness to put them all out of business and takeover said auto industry. They own the mines, materials, and labor and have bottomless pockets to subsidize their vehicles and dell them well below cost.

    How is any company supposed to compete against that?

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  • [–] 5 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    Make better products?

    Like every car from not China sucks hard, but they keep going on about prices.

    None of them ever tried to make good cars.

    Then yoy can get comparatively better cars for much cheaper? It's not like you have much of a choice.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    Lol this is a very naive, internet-brained take. Have you actually driven all these cars along with their Chinese counterparts? What makes every non-Chinese car suck so badly exactly? Is it because they're not selling $60k cars for $15k?

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

    Who wants 60k car full of surveillance and badly designed tech?

    Slate had the right idea, but Bezos is involved, so we will see.

    But every major brand has lost the plot a decade ago, they all took massive amounts of money from government and did fuck all with it and gobbled each other up. Now they act shocked that people prefer anything other than the 6 brands that remained.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago

    I agree that Slate has an interesting idea but they have an uphill battle with the marketing. Unfortunately, the US, to a great extent, particularly the rural US, sees electric cars as being “more tech”, which they equate with more frustration. Naturally EVs actually could likely have simpler computer systems than ICE cars, but, for instance Tesla chose to slap a huge iPad in their cars when consumers want dials.

    For all the technical superiority of EVs, it’s hard to convince the average person that they should drive a novel looking “high-tech” vehicle, when a Toyota Camry is an easily available, affordable option. Most people with F150s don’t need them, they want them. Slate isn’t competing for those people, it’s competing for the people who buy Impreza’s, Corollas, and Camrys. I’m not sure it’ll work out.

    For an industrial on-site work truck for running errands, I’d bet they sell like hot cakes, but that’s a much smaller market.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    By maybe not massively inflating the price of their cars and manufacturing their vehicles closer to local markets? Like idk what to tell you, it just sounds like youre mad because china is better at capitalism lol

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago

    How much should these cars be selling for then? Can you give me a breakdown with your expert knowledge? Can you also explain why it is that every automaker in the world outside of China is participating in this alleged price fixing scheme rather than undercutting each other?

    How many cars are being built far outside their local markets? What ones specifically? How much is this adding to the cost of these vehicles?

    Let's see some actual facts.

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