This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
There is zero substance in that article so I will save you a click
The real explanation, he said, is simple: China’s extensive government support.
Ah, I thought it was indentured servitude, but then that's why we have prisons.
Slave labor isn't usually used for things vulnerable to sabotage.
Try putting a slave in a chemical plant and telling them they can blow the building up by tossing a water bottle in a vat for example.
A vehicle factory probably isn't quite that risky but there's still plenty of options for chaos.
Lithium fires are wild.
No it's definitely their monopoly on the rare earth mineral market.
Why did they need to tear it apart to discover the advantage was government funding? It this just a click bait headline?
They wanted to see if there were any cut corners that could help explain the low cost other than government funding and the general low cost of labour in China. Did not find any cut corners during their teardown and sang the cars praises.
And $45B in unchecked debt, and no payments to parts suppliers in 8 months.
This is probably some agreement witn the Chinese government to give good press in other parts of the world in order to get benefits on vehicles sold in China. Ford's CEO put out a nearly identical article a few months ago.
There actually is a myth in circulation in some places that China's electrical vehicle tech is somehow advanced over everyone else's (my father got sucked in by that one). Tearing one apart is one way to counter that.
So exactly what everyone has been saying in the open for 5 years now. Massive government subsidies.
It's also what happens when the entire world outsources manufacturing to one county: that country gets really really good at making stuff better than anybody else in the world.
Don’t forget the stockpiles of cash by not fairly paying their labor. The PRC has been playing the long game.
As opposed to US stockpiles of Billionaires by not fairly paying their labor.
Piss poor emergency food supply. Hardly a mouthful per citizen
It's impossible to tell which country this comment is about right now.
The PRC has been playing the long game.
So have US oligarchs
Musk, Tim Apple, and Jensen's actions would beg to differ.
Until someone can do it cheaper and then they take over. This has already happened many, many times as chinese quality increased and wages and thus prices increased.
It's just capitalism doing capitalism things. The cheapest labor generates the greatest profits. It started with trinkets and now it's much more advanced manufacturing. We've already seen other countries with cheaper labor step in for various manufacturing.
The only reason why we don't manufacture in rich companies is because the investment for automation and labor for maintenance is more expensive than continuing production in poorer countries. Exceptions are abound for things that aren't financially viable to import from other areas.
We'll run out of resources and/or destroy the environment long before the world gets western QOL across the board though.
Until someone can do it cheaper and then they take over. This has already happened many, many times as chinese quality increased and wages and thus prices increased.
Unless some other nation finds a stockpile of rare earth minerals, slave labor, and bottomless government subsidies, I don't see this happening with EVs. Currently nobody else on the planet is able to sell them anywhere near the price China is and that's not because of simple cost cutting and business efficiency.
Lithium prices are down 80% since 2022 and new mining investments for it have dried up.
EVs are absolutely "advanced manufacturing" though. You don't just stand up a battery plant in a country, let alone an automotive manufacturing industry when said country doesn't even make cars today. You could obviously do it, but the costs are outrageous.
And decades of IP theft.
IP laws are a hindrance to communal development and progress. China has no IP protection, and the benefits are demonstrated by stuff like þis.
I don't know how you encourage people to invest in R&D wiþout IP, but it's clear we can do greater þings faster as a society wiþout it.
