I was floored by what they are producing in China. It is a shame that these cars are not reaching more of the world and raising the competitive bar. I get the government subsidy and lower labor costs issues, but the tariffs are retarding competition, propping up prices, and hurting consumers.
Without all the trade restrictions, you could buy a BYD EV for 10k. It's not the greatest car ever, but it would be a cool city car. Naw, better go and pay 40k for a worse American version.
Temu is getting basically banned. It's not enough I pay around 40% of my income on in taxes and healthcare insurance, I now much pay higher prices for the same stuff on Amazon.
Americans are paying a lot for cars not because western manufacturers cannot make cheaper cars.
American cars are expensive because Americans have been convinced buying big SUVs is AMERICAN and patriotic, and even the Americans who aren’t dumb enough to fall for that nonsense have to buy bigger cars because we’re in a car size arms race and it’s outright scary driving a normal hatchback around these massive Trucks masquerading as cars.
This has lowered demand for smaller and cheaper cars, giving auto manufacturers the perfect excuse to stop selling small cars in the U.S. especially since SUVs are just not profitable because they’re unsophisticated and yet super expensive.
> Without all the trade restrictions, you could buy a BYD EV for 10k.
No, you couldn’t. In Switzerland there are no EV trade restrictions and no, we do not have 10k BYDs. They cost roughly same as any other Western manufacturer.
China is very good at mass production. Once they master the art, with the backing of the Chinese government, they can afford to lose money to gain market share. All U.S. car companies, including Tesla, would die if the U.S. allowed Chinese 10k car in.
Hell, Obama didn’t let the auto industry die back in 2008. Can you imagine Trump, who said there would be a "bloodbath" in the auto industry without him—allowing a $10K Chinese car into the U.S. market?
I'd actually be open to a libertarian government if that's what we got.
If before firing thousands upon thousands of government workers, they say eliminated all income taxes on your first 100k, it would do something for the middle class.
I really feel like US taxes are the worst of both worlds. They aren't much lower than in Europe where most(all?) countries have much cheaper if not free healthcare.
A system where getting fired usually cuts off your health insurance sounds like a dystopian novel. Serious health issues have a tendency to stop you from working.
No matter where in the world you go as a US citizen you still owe US taxes.
What does it mean to say you get lower labor cost and government subsidy issues? Are you saying the tariffs are disproportionate to the impact of the subsidies? Temporary price distortions eliminate competition, not encourage it.
The EU might have done a careful calculation with their tarrifs, but the US's tariffs of 100% seems closer to a nice round number they thought sounded good than carefully thought out "proportionate" response to whatever the Chinese governments' subsidies were.
Just an FYI, Kyle (owner of Out of Spec) is a complete narcissistic jerk who treats his girlfriend like complete crap.
It was a pretty bad and uncomfortable pattern to watch unfold online, and many people unfollowed their work because of how awful his (and honestly a few of the others who contribute) attitude(s) are.
They do interesting deep dives and more thorough benchmarks in the EV space, which does stink to not be able to enjoy anymore..I just can’t in good faith support them.
They've also got factories in Europe, South America, and a bunch of other countries. The cars from those factories aren't as inexpensive as the cars from the Chinese factories but they are still pretty low priced for the areas those factories are building for.
They could probably build cars in one of those places that would be economically viable in the US if not for the tariffs, and would satisfy US labor sensibilities.
Are we? Only about 16% of US auto workers are union.
When states started offering incentives like big tax breaks to get auto makers to build factories outside of they often made those breaks contingent on the plants not being unionized. Those states also often had laws designed to make it much harder for unions to organize.
>Intricate, invisible webs, just like this one, link some of the world’s largest food companies and most popular brands to jobs performed by U.S. prisoners nationwide, according to a sweeping two-year AP investigation into prison labor that tied hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of agricultural products to goods sold on the open market.
https://outofspecstudios.com/
I was floored by what they are producing in China. It is a shame that these cars are not reaching more of the world and raising the competitive bar. I get the government subsidy and lower labor costs issues, but the tariffs are retarding competition, propping up prices, and hurting consumers.