- cross-posted to:
- politics@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- politics@lemmy.world
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Protectionism only works in the VERY short term. If the USA doesn’t pull its finger out of its ass and make affordable good EVs, then its automotive industry will crash and burn. Because the rest of the world unaffected by tariffs will be buying Chinese (or Korean / European) EVs and not American ones because they’ll be expensive and suck.
I am genuinely curious if CCP subsidizing cheap steel and aluminium on the global market can be sustained and for how long. If they control output then they’ve probably got the land resources and authority to keep it up for decades, right? Somebody should do a study on this.
I would mind less if the American auto industry was producing affordable lightweight EVs…
Best we can do is a four ton truck.
Or cars with any level of quality.
Hey man the Toyota I drive was made in the USA, it’s great.
…that go straight into the landfill?
No, I’d prefer they get used. What an odd question.
It’s not really an odd question from that particular user, if you consider the context that they have an agenda; FUD and misinformation about EVs.
To that end, this means we would need to lower standards, use some forced labor, and increase taxes to increase subsidies in order to compete.
Republicans would shoot down the subsidies.
No it literally wouldn’t. It’s absolutely possible to produce smaller lightweight vehicles with the exact same standards. But unfortunately we’ve all been pushed towards larger vehicles. Simply because they make more money on them.
Unfortunately producing a smaller affordable car for the average person would fall under “lower standards” 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
The push towards large vehicles was due to the fact that they used a truck chassis, and were exempt from safety and emissions requirements of a “car”
Not if it’s electric (for emissions)
While true, the general cultural preference for larger vehicles will inherently carryover to when people are deciding what EV to buy.
It doesn’t matter what size car Americans build, they simply can’t compete. Larger vehicles are a cultural preference and fits the American environment.
If this was true, the Chinese EVs could be allowed in and no one would buy them. I personally want a smaller car that can comfortably seat 5 and has additional safety and comfort features (backup cameras, lane assist, heat pump climate control, etc.). This could easily be done with a sedan, hatchback, or station wagon. The only cars that have these features that I know of are SUVs.
Not exactly true when they’re selling them for $10k-$15k. The Bolt is comparable to a Chinese EV and they only sell around 2k per month while something like the Model 3 sells 50k per month.
If you lowered the price of the Bolt to the price of a 10 year old used Camry, I’m sure it would sell a lot better but this is an artificial price that completely distorts the market and puts a lot of people out of work for what amounts to a temporary savings. This is the whole point of tariffs. They level the playing field for everyone.
They discontinued the Bolt. They needed the factory for trucks.
Just producing EV versions of Honda Fit or Ford Fiesta like what the Chinese EV makers do is enough. Instead, they keep producing EVs with luxury features (and high price tags) then surprised people won’t buy them without subsidy.
You’re describing the Bolt and it sells terribly here. The Model 3 outsells it 20:1 in any given month.
The Bolt isn’t cheap though (almost 2x of Honda Fit price), and wasn’t produced in sufficient quantity. The Chinese EV companies are somehow able to produce entry level EV models with minimal features at a price cheaper than Honda Fit and they’re selling like hot cakes both domestically and in neighboring Asian countries.
Chinese EVs are piece of shit death-traps anyway that tend to explode for no reason.
Anti China Republicans are going to HATE this! They would MUCH rather Elect the man whose Daughter got over 70 patents FASTTRACKED in China once he was elected!
They would just put their hands on their ears and repeat “Hunter Biden laptop” until a scary fact like that one goes away.
With how china keeps implanting everything with spyware, I agree to keep them away from the heavy tech incorporated cars. Really wish we could transition away from using chinese shit
All auto manufacturers put spyware in their cars now. This isn’t a china problem, this is an everyone problem. We need anti-spyware laws that apply to everyone.
I agree, but in the meantime lets not make it that easy…
It’s that easy. They can and do already buy most of that data from American companies anyways.
Rip all the computer shit out of your car and slap a carburetor on it, problem solved.
Oh? More spyware than GM selling your data to your insurance company? More spyware than all of the stuff your smartphone collects?
It’s absolutely a bad faith argument to say we can’t have Chinese cars because they conduct industry standard data scraping.
The whataboutism doesn’t help. It’s a wrong practice regardless of nationality. But since the house and senate is bought by the corporations, at the very least ban those who you can.
It’s not a whataboutism when that’s the other choice. This isn’t out of left field. I can buy Chinese data scraping, Japanese data scraping, Korean data scraping, German data scraping, or American data scraping.
Right now Germany actually wins that contest because GDPR just might have an impact.
A whataboutism would be me talking about American labor practices in farming. Not great, but also not relevant.
The Tariff is actually against Steel and Aluminium heavily subsidized by the CCP and flooding the market. At no point in Biden’s speech did he talk about EVs or electronics.
Isn’t it a national security risk?
Yes a big risk. Both natsec and IP theft are major concerns and cars are fully mic’d, compromisable, and to top it off, plug directly into your phone.
Do you have a phone in your pocket?
If you do then congratulations. All of the data your car would collect is already out there for sale to the CCP.
If you’re talking about people who have high level sensitive conversations in cars, then yes. But that’s an incredibly small group and they have those conversations in government vehicles that are all made in the US.
Yes, it runs grapheneos.
Irrelevant.
I’m talking about the mass deployment of spying devices across an entire country mapping every street running facial recognition collecting military related data. The idiot who buys the var who cares its everyone else.
The data they can just scrape from Google maps? Hell they can see where soldiers are deployed because of their fitness apps sharing running routes on social media.
This is black helicopter level conspiracy shit.
Riiiight so if its so conspiratorial why has China banned teslas from being within kilometres of any Chinese military establishment?
They aren’t banned for the surrounding areas. They don’t want them on military bases or used by government/military officials.
That’s kind of funny though, we have satellites. We know what their bases look like. Unless they drive their cars into the facilities we can’t get anything extra from their car.
Just because I already was backdoored without a lube by person A, doesn’t mean I’d love to be backdoored again by person B.
It doesn’t make sense to bar an entire sector of EVs over it either though. Caring about it only when that country does it is the peak of bigotry and simping for the executives who would happily grind you down for profit.
I’d prefer to be ground down for profit by greedy american pigs than be put in a concentration camp by the CCP.
And how is the CCP going to put you in a camp in the US? You sound like conservatives who are afraid the UN will declare a peace keeping mission here.
What u think they will do if they invade/become the dominant global power. My country is at a far greater risk of Chinese invasion than urs. U set precidents the west follows like the good little vassals we are.
As for the un thing that’s idiotic the us has veto power.
Europe isn’t banning Chinese cars. They stopped following our lead after the UK joined us in Iraq. Our paths go together many times but they come to that conclusion on their own.
Obviously I don’t know what country you’re in but the US has 10 trillion dollars more than the Chinese to throw at the problem and we’ve long held the position that China doesn’t get to invade anyone.
Obligatory fuck cars
What’s the problem with EVs?
They partially solve the fuel and the bad air problems. In exchange they damage roads way more (I recall reading that the damage is proportional to the vehicle weight to the fourth power, probably with some more nuance) and that also creates substantially more rubber micro particle pollution. They also happen to be more dangerous in the event of a crash. Plus the additional challenges with grid load, which some people dismiss with silly ideas like having said cars act like load balancers (that would be a mess to scale).
In most cases, EVs are not a solution to mobility, they are a solution to save the car industry from real solutions to climate change, namely spamming trams, trains and buses (in sparse locations) all over the place.
(I recall reading that the damage is proportional to the vehicle weight to the fourth power, probably with some more nuance)
Yes. Road damage is based on vehicle weight. To the 4th power, yes. Heavier vehicles do exponentially more damage than lighter ones. https://www.hagerty.co.uk/articles/opinion/opinion-cars-have-a-weight-problem-and-its-damaging-more-than-the-environment/
But actually it’s based on axle weight. This is why Semis have many axles, to spread the weight out.
But actually it’s based on tire weight. This is why Semis have doubled wheels on their axles.
But actually it’s based on contact pressure. This is why Semis have wider tires than your standard car.
It partially fixes a single problem of the many caused by car-dependency and car-centric infrastructure
EVs are a step in the right direction.
However, EVs only change one aspect of cars: How they go vroom vroom.
They are still heavy metal boxes operated by random people. Most drivers suck (myself included probably), they are lazy and don’t follow the local law on driving.
They are absurdly dangerous, for people inside other cars, themselves, and pedestrian. Anytime someone goes too early with their car it’s potentially an accident with death causes. Same if they spin their funny wheel a little too much.
Imagine yourself overtaking a car on the highway. Now let’s say the driver slips by accident, wheel stairs to your sidey giant death machine crashes yours from the side, and its a horrible accident.
Besides that, car infrastructure is absurdly expensive, and becomes even more expensive Everytime it needs to be renewed. The city I was at school at is literally one of the poorest in my country after having endless money in the 70s, because they built too many roads. They built some roads not on the ground but in large pillars, and it’s literally falling apart.
Lastly, cars take up tons of public space. Cities designed (or rather bulldozed for) cars sprawl, need huge parking lots, huge streets, produce noise pollution, regular pollution.
There is much more but that should suffice for now.
That being said, I doubt we can ever go truly car free. Remote regions do not have enough people for good public transit to be maintainable, and the distances are often too long for walking or biking. Deliveries need some kind of individual vehicle. Some of that can be addressed with EVs and car sharing.
Sadly, EVs are being presented as the all around solution.
Go ahead and walk, no one is stopping you.
I literally do that to go to work and university. I walk to my local train station 20 minutes and it’s amazing that I can. It makes me wake up, even as someone who hates to get up early and gives me time to listen to music, podcasts or think about personal stuff.
That being said, it’s not true that no one is stopping me. All those idiots that park in the sidewalk are stopping me. All those idiots that endanger me with their crappy super heavy metal boxes are stopping me. I literally have to stop when I want to cross the road.
And besides that, walking is only possible if you don’t live in a car infested hellscape (luckily I do for the most part). Otherwise, the next destination is hours away by walking, rendering it pointless, and walking becomes very dangerous.
Make them in Mexico. Less reliance on one country is better for everyone.
They’re trying to block mexican made Chinese vehicles as well. They don’t want Americans buying cheap evs.
The tariffs are for Steel and Aluminium, intentionally shifting the discussion to EVs is disingenuous, just like the article.
Make them in USA.
They don’t want them to, they want you to keep using gas.
Something something free market
Hey, capitalism is only good when it makes the rich richer…
China flooding the market with cheap EVs still makes the rich richer… Just different rich people in a different country.
Right… Except the average person, we can’t have that
Yes, but then the more people can afford to buy EVs. Under the current system you need to be well off to buy one, vs an ICE.
The free market is propaganda to trick people into thinking capitalism is somehow ethically solvent.
Might be a valid argument if China didn’t play currency games.
Also, the protectionist in me wants American heavy industry to continue to exist.
Imagine believing that China is the only country playing “currency games”.
It’s all just imaginary numbers based on printed paper.
I want American heavy industry to be good enough to continue to exist. Otherwise we’re just a house of cards waiting for a stiff wind.
China is becoming an increasingly unreliable trade partner. Preventing them from completely taking over a segment is prudent.
It is prudent for those that own the means of production.
German industry is/was in shambles as they allowed an unreliable trade partner, Russia, to completely take over a segment in the German economy (oil & gas). When that unreliable trade partner pulled the rug in 2022, suddenly Germany is paying out the ass for LNG, reducing factory output, even on-lining coal plants to keep the lights on.
It is simply a bad idea to allow an unreliable trade partner to completely take over a segment in your economy.
Germany voluntarily divested from Russian gas for political reasons. If Germany was run by more amoral “rationally greedy” business men I’m sure Russia would have happily kept selling energy to them despite the war.
It’s probably why a certain someone sabotaged the nordstream gas pipelines, to make sure Germany’s moral compass would not falter in the future - as its economy inevitably gets worse without cheap Russian oil and gas.
Fossil fuels are the underpinning of industrial civilization. It was fossil fuels that made the industrial revolution possible, it wasn’t solar panels, and wind turbines, or heavy, giant batteries.
It was water power dude. Water and Windmills started the industrial revolution. We’ve just been finding better ways to spin electric generator motors since then.
Explain to the forum how water generates power. This should be funny.
NATO sanctioned themselves. You don’t get to blame Russia for that.
Russia could’ve, y’know, just not done an illegal invasion of Ukraine.
Russians didn’t cut off natural gas supplies, or refused to pay for the commodity. The EU sanctioned themselves. What’s next? Blame the bombing of NORD-stream pipeline 2 on the Russian invasion? Don’t even discuss legality. Ukraine was legally bound to neutrality by the treaty for their independence. Western news media won’t tell you that. Towing the line of “feel-good” propaganda are we? Take responsibility for once.
Nobody is bound to remain neutral in the face of enemy action.
You are ignoring causation. The explanation by the West for Putin’s invasion is he decided in 2022 he decided to begin the campaign to conquer all of Europe and the explanation for the timing is that Donald Trump weakened NATO, but at the same time NATO unity is stronger than ever. These explanations are not convincing. Then we are expected to believe that the US never thumbs it nose in other countries’ business. The United States of America is the great destabilizer of the world; it is not China, or even Russia.
What is logical is that Putin is reacting to an EU and NATO threat to a historically and culturally intertwined region with Russia. What does the US want in Ukraine? You tell us.
Translation: Biden doesn’t want fire hazards that take hours and hundreds of gallons to extinguish imported from china.
As opposed to US built fire hazards using the same batteries?
Clearly that’s America smoke, which is far superior.
“We want expensive American EVs that most people can’t afford, not cheap Chinese ones…”
China is subsidizing EV production and selling cars below cost. Allowing them to be sold in the US would kill the domestic EV market. How is that better for Americans?
wasn’t that the whole point of capitalism anyways? /s
Well the USA and just about every other nation runs a regulated Market System, not a Laissez Faire Capitalism.
Americans get cheaper EVs and the legacy auto industry gets taught a valuable lesson as companies who refused to modernize go bankrupt.
Americans get cheaper EVs…
For a few years, until the American automakers go bankrupt, as you said, then the Chinese automakers increase prices 10x.
…and the legacy auto industry gets taught a valuable lesson as companies who refused to modernize go bankrupt.
What a valuable lesson, get subsidized by an authoritarian government so that you can offer vehicles below cost. Also be sure to add spyware for the aforementioned authoritarian government.
Do you even understand what below cost means? No amount of modernization will counteract it.
Did we lose our industry when the Japanese auto manufacturers entered our market? When the Koreans did?
What’s different this time?
until the American automakers go bankrupt, as you said, then the Chinese automakers increase prices 10x.
Americans can also buy EVs from countries other than China. America can also subsidise internal EV production.
My point is that we shouldn’t give a fuck about petrol loving manufacturers.
What a valuable lesson.
Respond to user demand and environmental pressure.
Don’t arrogantly assume your polluting product will remain market leader.
Don’t build ever bigger vehicles just to avoid particular regulations.
Do you even understand what below cost means?
Yes. Would you like some oil industry case studies?
No amount of modernization will counteract it.
Have you heard of R&D investment, continual process improvement and economies of scale?
Well, they’re actually heavily subsidizing steel and aluminium, which are coincidentally what these Tariffs are for. It was never about EVs specifically.
He actually doesn’t talk about EVs at all, this tariff is against cheep steel and aluminium that the CCP is subsidizing.
If only he could extend that rationale to every industry
Actually, he’s announced increasing the existing tariffs against Chinese Steel and Aluminium. He didn’t even talk about EVs at all.
Are we really going to do this today?
From the article at the top of the page.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the Biden administration will announce plans to roughly quadruple tariffs, to 100 percent from the current 25 percent, as well as tack on an additional 2.5 percent duty.
Correct. Tariff’s on Aluminium and Steel. More importantly, WSJ cite the video of Biden giving a speech about steel and aluminium.
Imagine this as a headline:
Breaking News: President Biden Announces War on Chinese Soda.
That is an equally true title.
And Semi Conductors. But that’s besides the point. This is corroborated all across major media. You’re just gaslighting at this point, hoping someone reads your comment and just never checks.
I’m gaslighting? Me? Not the news article trying to convince the left that they’re anti-EV?
Then China shouldn’t subsidize its manufacturers’ exports while increasing the burden for foreign companies to compete internally. If anyone thinks China cornering the global EV market is a good long term plan, they are naive.
So you admit the cars are better and cheaper?
The US subsidizes american car companies too. Pot calling the kettle and all.
I don’t see how they’re going to pass the safety regulations here and in the EU. A ton of their ICE vehicles never made it here because they’re dangerously designed and built.
The Volvo EX30 is based on a Geely platform, made in China, and does well in the EU (won several Car of the Year awards).
MG (SAIC/Roewe) also has no trouble selling in the EU.
Chinese manufacturers can make regulatory-conforming cars when the market demands it of them. If the market wants cheap and doesn’t demand safety, they can do that too.
That’s not %100, the EX30 is still engineered and developed in Switzerland and pretty much everything MG wise, was and still, is developed in the UK…yes both are owned by Chinese companies, but it doesn’t mean the products are solely Chinese. You are correct they can build cars that are designed to conform to western markets with much stricter regulations, but I don’t think they’re going to do so without significant input from branches in these countries.
They’re already selling in Europe. To good reviews.
I do t want the Chinese EVs because there falling apart exploding crushing more exploding and.there just not safe
Edit:Sorry about this I get political when I don’t sleep sorry about this
No need to apologize when it’s true.
But Elong Musk’s shiny acute angle isn’t? You’re a fucking idiot.
Contrary to teslas that don’t explode and don’t rust. BYD is dominating with affordable EVs while other countries keep prices astronomically high.
I’m interested in seeing the statistics for this, as I’m looking at a new ev and it would be nice to see.
Because you wouldn’t just make something up would you, you must have the figures to substantiate your claim.
Anecdotally cheap Chinese EVs are all over Costa Rica and even there they’re generally known to be garbage. Like how do you get a fairly car rusty in Costa Rica? Even if you live exclusively on the beach you’d have to have some really bad paint and 0 rust prevention done.
Which EV brands? Those Chinese EVs aren’t created equal, the good ones are great for its price, while the bad one should be named and shamed.
Ma’am, do you want me to call 911? you’re exhibiting signs of a stroke.
