On one hand allowing obviously superior and cheaper Chinese EVs into the states at MSRP would obliterate the automakers which are one of the last bastions of organized labor. On the other hand getting cheap EVs into people’s hands is the outer limit of viable climate change action in this treat demon settler country.

EVs aren’t a viable way to address climate change; overall primary energy use needs to decrease and EVs are still a very, very energy-intensive form of transportation. Organized labor will be a necessary component of any attempt to address climate change beyond offering people better treats.

It is however ridiculous because the dems have created a system where only affluent people can afford EVs; they’ll pat them on the back and assure them they did their part to save the planet. Now if only the poors trundling along in their aged gasmobiles could get their shit together.

  • @HakFooEnglish
    29•2 months ago

    This seems like it would be setting off terrible, terrible signals to the investor class too.

    For American manufacturers, even if they have a somewhat higher labour cost structure, they should have a few “home field advantages” to make it at least initially competitive:

    • They should understand their customers better than the foreign devils-- have the Chinese manufacturers even DRIVEN anything with more horsepower than a freight locomotive and a carbon footprint two-thirds that of the entire city of Chongqing? How would they possibly understand what Americans want?

    • Some aspects of their cost structure might be more amenable; they aren’t schlepping supplies and vehicles across entire oceans, they have established dealer and service networks, they’ve already paid the right bribes to various regulators.

    If they can’t at least compete in that scenario, then basically all you have is a firm that lives as a protected novelty, subject to the whims of government subsidy and trade policy. That feels like telling an institutional investor “Go and buy stock in a tourist heritage railway, that’s a vital growth business right there!”

    On a high level, we can assume this is going to be a repeat of the 1970s with Japanese imports: Detroit continues to do what Detroit does while haemmoraging market share, eventually they have a series of come-to-Jesus moments where they make the electric K-car (or just start selling BYDs under license in the Geo style) to try to reposition themselves, but eventually the size of the market meant that “foreign” cars ended up being made domestically anyway. The smart play would be to jump to the end of the board: which state wants to be the first to get a Chinese EV plant running and generating local jobs and tax revenue?

    • CloutAtlas [he/him]English
      17•2 months ago

      China will never understand the average American citizen’s desire to roll coal down the middle main street, driving home drunk from a gender reveal party that started at least 3 wild fires.

      Which is why BYD will never install a secondary diesel engine next to the electric motor for the sole purpose of pumping out black smoke that serves no purpose.

      China is finished.