• @[email protected]
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    1827 months ago

    I would mind less if the American auto industry was producing affordable lightweight EVs…

    • @Arbiter
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      837 months ago

      Or cars with any level of quality.

      • @teamevil
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        316 months ago

        Hey man the Toyota I drive was made in the USA, it’s great.

        • @Maggoty
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          16 months ago

          And yet we aren’t bending over backwards to protect Toyota.

    • @credo
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      -287 months ago

      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.

      • @Eldritch
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        677 months ago

        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.

        • @ozymandias117
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          447 months ago

          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”

            • Alto
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              96 months ago

              While true, the general cultural preference for larger vehicles will inherently carryover to when people are deciding what EV to buy.

              • @T00l_shed
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                56 months ago

                I’d love a 2015 sized Ford ranger that’s fully electric.

        • @andrewth09
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          116 months ago

          Unfortunately producing a smaller affordable car for the average person would fall under “lower standards” 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

        • Amoxtli
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          -226 months ago

          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.

          • @[email protected]
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            106 months ago

            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.

            • @[email protected]
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              16 months ago

              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.

              • @Maggoty
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                26 months ago

                They discontinued the Bolt. They needed the factory for trucks.

              • @[email protected]
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                26 months ago

                Where I live, the base model of the Chevy Bolt is $41k, and doesn’t have heat pump climate control (or isn’t talking about it). It also doesn’t look like it would seat 5 comfortably. Now, even without the spectre of financially supporting Elon’s antics, I don’t see a lot of reason to pay another $10k for a reasonably similar car. People are weird. 🤷‍♂️

                • @[email protected]
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                  26 months ago

                  Often what people say they want and what they actually spend their money on are not even in the same ballpark. This reminds me of all the guys from /r/Cars who’d say they dream of some stripped down vehicle with crank windows and no features but when manufacturers make them, nobody actually buys them.

          • @[email protected]
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            26 months ago

            I think they’re a preference of the motor industry who want you to buy more expensive cars.

      • @[email protected]
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        376 months ago

        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.

        • @[email protected]
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          -16 months ago

          You’re describing the Bolt and it sells terribly here. The Model 3 outsells it 20:1 in any given month.

          • @[email protected]
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            36 months ago

            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.

            • @[email protected]
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              26 months ago

              With the $7500 credit, the Bolt is the same price or slightly cheaper than the Fit when you account for inflation.

              China is able to sell these vehicles for this cheap because the government is giving these companies cash to sell them at these artificially low prices. That’s the whole point of this discussion and the proposed tariffs as none of the competition will be receiving subsidies at these levels in order to compete. China is also known for lax worker protections which helps to drive the costs down further at the expense of the workforce and is not something they’ll be able to do if they manufacture here.

              • @[email protected]
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                6 months ago

                Are they still doing the EV credit thing?

                Subsidy definitely helps, but those Chinese car manufacturers are able to squeeze their parts suppliers hard, so they’re able to sell their cars cheaper even without subsidy. For example, their gasoline cars are about half the price of comparable Japanese models, even with engines sourced from GM/Ford.

      • @Maggoty
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        26 months ago

        We already use slave labor in the guise of prisoners. How low do we need to go?

        • @[email protected]
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          226 months ago

          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.

  • @credo
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    687 months ago

    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.

    • FiveMacs
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      267 months ago

      But I really wanted to die driving the suda sa01 ev which boasts features such as; zero crash ratings standards, and no air bags.

      • @[email protected]
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        136 months ago

        Stop whining and enjoy dying from obesity related complications and Healthcare bankruptcy like the rest of us.

    • Hildegarde
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      176 months ago

      The US subsidizes american car companies too. Pot calling the kettle and all.

    • @SupraMario
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      116 months ago

      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.

      • @kalleboo
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        6 months ago

        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.

        • @SupraMario
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          66 months ago

          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.

        • @[email protected]
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          56 months ago

          Then the cheap EV’s doesn’t matter if they are not legal.

          And the Volvo was not based on Geely. It was the other way around. They bought Volvo for this purpose exactly.

          But I hope they will make better EV’s for the world. EV’s are generally just better cars, and it’s a clear road to less noise and toxic pollution.

      • @Maggoty
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        06 months ago

        They’re already selling in Europe. To good reviews.

    • @Maggoty
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      26 months ago

      So you admit the cars are better and cheaper?

    • @[email protected]
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      China charges nearly double for its EVs outside of the Chinese market. They tend to do what most companies do, charge the highest price that people will still pay. China domestically is the most competitive market in the world, so they have $10,000 high quality EVs, but they don’t have to do that elsewhere and so they don’t.

  • BombOmOm
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    China is becoming an increasingly unreliable trade partner. Preventing them from completely taking over a segment is prudent.

    • @[email protected]
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      156 months ago

      Yes, but there’s already a steep tariff, it would be nice to let them light a small fire under the us automakers so they make better products for us, instead were kinda just letting them be evil and lazy.

      • @[email protected]
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        76 months ago

        But they don’t want to make better products for you. They want China to make products for you that they slap their badge on and sell you at an enormous mark-up.

      • BombOmOm
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        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.

        • @[email protected]
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          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.

          • Amoxtli
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            -156 months ago

            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.

            • @TheGrandNagus
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              76 months ago

              I don’t understand what your point is here? Fossil fuels were instrumental in the industrial revolution so we have to stick by them forever, planet and people’s health benefits damned?

              Nah. Use the most appropriate tech available. Which is now renewables, electric motors, etc.

            • @[email protected]
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              26 months ago

              In my country, it was mostly large dams and hydroelectricity. But they have their own issues.

            • @Maggoty
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              26 months ago

              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.

        • @Maggoty
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          That’s apples and oranges. The German government pulled out of that sector of it’s own will. Largely because they had planned to transition to Nuclear, did not do so, and then did nothing going forward.

          Letting Chinese cars compete is not going kill the big 3 unless they’re criminally negligent at running a business.

        • @[email protected]
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          6 months ago

          I doubt that UberEats drivers would be happy with that being called their economy.

          But ivory towers certainly have comfy chairs.

        • Amoxtli
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          -166 months ago

          NATO sanctioned themselves. You don’t get to blame Russia for that.

          • Alto
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            Russia could’ve, y’know, just not done an illegal invasion of Ukraine.

            • Amoxtli
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              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.

              • @Maggoty
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                36 months ago

                Nobody is bound to remain neutral in the face of enemy action.

                • Amoxtli
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                  -46 months ago

                  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.

  • @MrPloppy
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    376 months ago

    “We want expensive American EVs that most people can’t afford, not cheap Chinese ones…”

    • @bostonbananarama
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      216 months ago

      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?

        • @[email protected]
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          -26 months ago

          Well the USA and just about every other nation runs a regulated Market System, not a Laissez Faire Capitalism.

      • @Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In
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        106 months ago

        Americans get cheaper EVs and the legacy auto industry gets taught a valuable lesson as companies who refused to modernize go bankrupt.

        • @bostonbananarama
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          06 months ago

          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.

          • @Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In
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            96 months ago

            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?

            • @bostonbananarama
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              -66 months ago

              You’re literally just talking to yourself, ignoring any mention of selling below cost, which is the biggest issue, with spyware being a close 2nd.

              • @Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In
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                36 months ago

                You’re literally just talking to yourself,

                They responded

                ignoring any mention of selling below cost, which is the biggest issue,

                Adressed twice.

                • Suggesting subsidies should be given to American EV manufacturers

                • Investing to lower costs.

                with spyware being a close 2nd.

                You think US products won’t have spyware?

                • @bostonbananarama
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                  16 months ago

                  They responded

                  You’re saying “they”, but it’s you. And no you didn’t, repeating what you said before isn’t addressing the issues.

                  Adressed twice.

                  Never addressed at all, you pivoted to the oil industry. You didn’t address the subsidies from China or the unfair trade practices.

                  America will not subsidize to that level, if they could, and no amount of innovation is going to combat subsidization or the unfair trade practices.

                  According to a Bloomberg article, China will sell EVs at under $10,000, undercutting the price of the average American EV by $50,000. Are you seriously arguing that “investment to lower cost” will reduce the cost by 85-90%? That’s simply a ludicrous assertion.

                  You think US products won’t have spyware?

                  I don’t think that collecting anonymized usage data, is the same as unlimited spying going back to an authoritarian government. So no, absolutely nothing comparable.

              • @[email protected]
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                -16 months ago

                Tell me you know nothing about Chinese EVs without saying you know nothing about Chinese EVs.

          • @Maggoty
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            36 months ago

            Did we lose our industry when the Japanese auto manufacturers entered our market? When the Koreans did?

            What’s different this time?

          • @[email protected]
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            6 months ago

            For a few years

            Yeah cause car dependency is a completely unsustainable scam that’s literally destroying the planet.

            get subsidized by an authoritarian government

            Is it really so much better to by subsidized by an colonial/imperial government (that’s also authoritarian)?

            Do you even understand what below cost means?

            Yes. It’s an ideological term that promotes imaginary numbers over social reality.

      • @[email protected]
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        96 months ago

        They aren’t exporting them below cost, that’s why they want to export. Inside China every company tried to start an EV division because they heard Apple was doing it and assumed it must be a good idea. Now the market is topped out and the biggest companies are trying to price the smaller ones out of business (which still isn’t below manufacturing cost because China regulates that and is nervous about having tons of cars from bankrupt companies on the road). They export with a huge profit margin to make up for the domestic price war.

      • @[email protected]
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        66 months ago

        Also by claiming “developing nation”, which is up to the nation to decide for themselves instead of having someone else decide for them, the planet’s second largest economy gets to claim WTO rules that the recipient (country) pays delivery. That’s why you can buy something from China for $1.50 and yet it costs $150 to send it back if it doesn’t work.

      • @[email protected]
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        -16 months ago

        Well, they’re actually heavily subsidizing steel and aluminium, which are coincidentally what these Tariffs are for. It was never about EVs specifically.

    • @[email protected]
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      6 months ago

      He actually doesn’t talk about EVs at all, this tariff is against cheep steel and aluminium that the CCP is subsidizing.

  • @ZetaLightning94
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    326 months ago

    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

    • Hildegarde
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      496 months ago

      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.

      • @ZetaLightning94
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        16 months ago

        I agree, but in the meantime lets not make it that easy…

        • @[email protected]
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          106 months ago

          It’s that easy. They can and do already buy most of that data from American companies anyways.

    • @[email protected]
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      56 months ago

      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.

    • @Maggoty
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      46 months ago

      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.

      • @CriticalMiss
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        46 months ago

        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.

        • @Maggoty
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          86 months ago

          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.

          • Jojo, Lady of the West
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            36 months ago

            I agree. If this were actually addressing the problem in question (bad faith actors harvesting data) then sure, but it isn’t really because the other options are still suffering from the same problem. If anything, this entire discussion is a whataboutism to avoid talking about how more electric cars lets us phase out the ice ones.

            • @Maggoty
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              26 months ago

              I wasn’t going to go there because projection is, unfortunately, very effective at making the other party look immature when they correctly call you on it. But yes the entire discussion of data harvesting is a whataboutism. It’s not relevant unless someone stops doing it.

    • @assassinatedbyCIA
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      336 months ago

      They’re trying to block mexican made Chinese vehicles as well. They don’t want Americans buying cheap evs.

        • @AProfessional
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          6 months ago

          Thats great for GM and Ford shareholders. It just means Americans can’t afford cars.

            • @[email protected]
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              26 months ago

              It’s not so much about where it goes, more so the fact that it doesn’t stay in America. This is about saving the American auto industry. Whether it’s for the jobs that would be lost or the profits of the shareholders.

              • @Maggoty
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                -16 months ago

                The military will just order a million new pickup trucks as light utility vehicles.

                And the Answer to jobs isn’t more punishment.

              • @[email protected]
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                -56 months ago

                That’s a bingo.

                The idea that “they” don’t want the American public driving EVs is ridiculous.

                • @[email protected]
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                  46 months ago

                  You misunderstand. This is protectionism plain and simple. US car companies are horribly inefficient. Better yet, the US car cartel eliminated most of their budget models to push trucks and SUVs that are more expensive. It doesn’t take much to undercut them, so the US government is banning the competition.

          • @[email protected]
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            -16 months ago

            So what about Tesla, Kia, Hyundai, Nissan, Toyota, Subaru, and all the rest? You say we can’t afford cars yet 15 million new cars are sold every year here. New cars have never been something that just anyone can buy which is why the used market is so much larger.

            Selling Chinese EVs here below cost isn’t going to improve anything. It’s just going to put a bunch of competitors out of business and drive wages even further down.

            • @AProfessional
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              46 months ago

              The cost of cars has not scaled with incomes. EVs are also much cheaper to manufacture yet because of lack of competition they only sell luxury cars. Nissan admittedly tried but I think that was just too early to market with a mediocre product.

              • @[email protected]
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                16 months ago

                The added price is likely partially due to the development costs for these companies retooling their factories and doing R&D to develop these new platforms in a company that has been building ICE vehicles for the past 50-100 years. Luxury vehicles bring a markup that helps to offset these costs until these vehicles become more ubiquitous, parts are easier to source, and prices come down. You can’t compare the cost of a brand new design to something like the Camry which had the general design ironed out 40+ years ago.

                If you look at sales numbers, the Model 3 is outselling the cheap alternatives like the Leaf and Bolt 20:1, so it seems like many people are willingly choosing to pay more rather than buy the econobox option. The average sale price for a (any) new vehicle is around $50k currently, and there are a multitude of options in that price range.

                • @AProfessional
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                  16 months ago

                  This is all true. I just genuinely believe more EVs to market would be good for the consumer over the coming years.

            • @Maggoty
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              06 months ago

              If you want everyone to switch to EVs you need some that are cost competitive with gas vehicles.

      • @[email protected]
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        -16 months ago

        The tariffs are for Steel and Aluminium, intentionally shifting the discussion to EVs is disingenuous, just like the article.

    • @arin
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      66 months ago

      Make them in USA.

      • @Dozzi92
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        76 months ago

        This makes the most sense. Sell them here. Built elsewhere? Tax the shit out of them. You can avoid the tax by creating American jobs and having them manufactured here.

        • @Maggoty
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          16 months ago

          That’s what the chicken tax is/was. This is just a tax on EVs made by Chinese companies. It’s pretty ridiculous.

          • @Dozzi92
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            -16 months ago

            Yes, why not? They aren’t prohibited, they’re just being given a disadvantage compared to American made vehicles being sold in America. A tax for notoriously poor labor standards, we can call it. If they want to use a union shop somewhere in middle America they can avoid that tax altogether.

            If I misunderstood you please correct me.

            • @Maggoty
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              26 months ago

              That’s literally in the textbooks as the kind of thing you’re not supposed to do. If you keep protecting US companies they will never get better. Prices will never come down.

      • @Grimy
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        6 months ago

        They don’t want them to, they want you to keep using gas.

    • @dtrain
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      46 months ago

      What’s the problem with EVs?

      • @Zehzin
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        It partially fixes a single problem of the many caused by car-dependency and car-centric infrastructure

      • @claudiop
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        176 months ago

        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.

        • @JamesFire
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          56 months ago

          (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.

      • @[email protected]
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        26 months ago

        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.

      • @[email protected]
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        236 months ago

        Ironically, cars are stopping me. Roads used to be for walking, and now they’re for cars. They gave us sidewalks and now some places don’t have them, and are unwalkable. The bike lanes either don’t exist or are too dangerous to use. It’s all roads and stroads now, with speed limits dangerous to pedestrians, and large SUVs meaning that car crashes with a pedestrian are more likely to end in death.

        The amount of people in cars has also crippled public transportation. Buses aren’t quick, and there are so few of them in general. Not to mention the lack of high speed trains, and the inefficiency of our subways.

        Giant parking lots with no cars took our parks. Took our public spaces. Took our nature. And they’re everywhere. Everywhere I look is dull, grey asphalt.

        It’s depressing to be outside. And where would I walk to? Everything is too far away to walk to. It used to be a 5-15 minute walk away. Now it’s more like 40 minutes to hours…

        I’m tired of human interests and public transportation being overlooked so that people can drive a couple minutes faster to their destination. When people in Europe, Japan, and China can just… get on a train.

        Sorry for the rant but I hate this bs

      • @[email protected]
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        26 months ago

        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.

  • @[email protected]
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    216 months ago

    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!

    • @barsquid
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      176 months ago

      They would just put their hands on their ears and repeat “Hunter Biden laptop” until a scary fact like that one goes away.

    • @[email protected]
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      247 months ago

      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.

      • @[email protected]
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        46 months ago

        Imagine believing that China is the only country playing “currency games”.

        It’s all just imaginary numbers based on printed paper.

      • @Maggoty
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        36 months ago

        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.

      • @[email protected]
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        207 months ago

        China flooding the market with cheap EVs still makes the rich richer… Just different rich people in a different country.

        • @Altofaltception
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          66 months ago

          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.

    • Zorque
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      66 months ago

      The free market is propaganda to trick people into thinking capitalism is somehow ethically solvent.

    • @[email protected]
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      246 months ago

      Then he should solve the issue by requiring the code to be hosted on American servers with source code inspection.

      Not by making EVs unaffordable.

      • @woelkchen
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        296 months ago

        Novel idea: make a car, not a cloud service. My phone is better at navigation etc anyways.

        • @cyd
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          16 months ago

          My phone is better at navigation etc anyways.

          You could similarly argue that phone makers should concentrate on making and taking calls. Turns out, that’s not what consumers care about once a certain bar is cleared (a pretty low bar; call quality is notably bad on many modern cellphones). They care more about other stuff like… being good at navigation.

          This has been put to the market test in China. For EV purchases, most consumers turn out not to care about the “car” aspects beyond a certain point. If the car drives okay and has acceptable safety, what matters is the Internet-based bells and whistles.

      • @[email protected]
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        66 months ago

        “source code inspection.”

        Great idea. That way it can be put on pause indefinatly because that shit takes years.

        On top of it. You can NEVER be certain anyway because there’s code burnt into the chips that you cannot read.

        • @yamanii
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          36 months ago

          Why are you making stuff up? Cassinos have code audits and don’t stop working.

          • @[email protected]
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            -26 months ago

            It’s just not the same to review code that runs a slot machine.

            And code that runs a whole car.

            One of the two is a whole lot more complex and probably had millions of lines more than the other.

            I’ll let you guys which is which

        • @[email protected]
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          16 months ago

          Then make it so the manufacturer cannot just push cloud updates without permission from an oversight committee.

          Raising the price does nothing at all to fix the security issues.

    • @Pretzilla
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      6 months ago

      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.

    • @[email protected]
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      6 months ago

      Then he should solve the issue by requiring the code to be hosted on American servers with source code inspection.

      Not by making them unaffordable.

    • @Maggoty
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      6 months ago

      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.

      • Jamyang
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        156 months ago

        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.

        • @Maggoty
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          -16 months ago

          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.

            • @Maggoty
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              16 months ago

              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.

                • @Maggoty
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                  16 months ago

                  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.

        • @Maggoty
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          16 months ago

          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.

            • @Maggoty
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              16 months ago

              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.

    • @[email protected]
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      56 months ago

      Actually, he’s announced increasing the existing tariffs against Chinese Steel and Aluminium. He didn’t even talk about EVs at all.

      • @Wilzax
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        26 months ago

        How about PRC-manufactured electronics at large?

      • @Maggoty
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        06 months ago

        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.

        • @[email protected]
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          6 months ago

          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.

          • @Maggoty
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            -26 months ago

            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.

            • @[email protected]
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              06 months ago

              I’m gaslighting? Me? Not the news article trying to convince the left that they’re anti-EV?

              • @Maggoty
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                -16 months ago

                Biden is not the left.

  • @[email protected]
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    166 months ago

    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.

    • @[email protected]
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      -26 months ago

      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.

  • @[email protected]
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    46 months ago

    they really willing to throw the planet under the bus so they can protect their own oligarchs. so much for the free market.

  • @Hawanja
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    26 months ago

    Chinese EVs are piece of shit death-traps anyway that tend to explode for no reason.