Senate Banking Committee chair called Chinese EVs an “existential threat” to the US motor industry.

Archived version: https://archive.ph/4RY84

  • maynarkh@feddit.nl
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    7 months ago

    I see this as less of a China good / China bad thing and more of a regulatory capture issue. The problem is not really that China makes cars that much better because they are doing something magic.

    The problem is that:

    • due to pressure from the “burn the planet” industry lobbies, cheap compact electric cars are not made in the US
    • there is a high demand for cars in the US, and also high demand apparently for cheap, clean, small cars
    • China is willing to serve and capture that demand by massively subsidizing their cars and dumping them across the world, in an effort to capture international markets and create dependencies that can be then used for political gain

    I expect the US government to again try every possible thing but solve the underlying issue, which is that the market is being manipulated from the supply side to make for ever bigger cars burning ever more fossil fuel. If Tesla et. al. would actually get around to releasing that “$25k car”, this would be less of an issue. If the US - and I mean the majority of the population who live in metropolises and sit in traffic jams, not the people farming in the prairies - wasn’t so car-dependent that you absolutely need a car to exist, this wouldn’t be an issue.

    The US car lobby is sucking its citizens dry, and China is taking advantage of the induced but unmet demand.