this post was submitted on 08 May 2024
172 points (92.6% liked)
Technology
59605 readers
3501 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related content.
- Be excellent to each another!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
Approved Bots
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I mean the best we got is Tesla. You see those damned things everywhere.
Theres been a ton of startups, but none of them are keeping up, or really trying to penetrate the market. Lucid was just aiming for the high end luxury segment. Fisker was dead on arrival. The only one thats really trying is Rivian, but theyre also focused on luxury, with some less expensive options years away.
Meanwhile, the big 3 are twiddling their thumbs. GM's got their EV platform, but the only car they got is a Cadillac. The Bolt is discontinued. Ford has the Mach E that no one wants, and I dont know what the hell Stellantis is doing.
The Japanese are behind as well, with only a couple of options from Toyota/Subaru, Nissan, and does Mazda even have anything?
Really, it seems like its the Koreans who are putting up the best fight.
As long as Chinese EVs arent sold in the US, I dont see these companies really stepping it up yet.
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.