well, like the other poster said, they’re extremely heavily subsidized by the government. and the tarrifs lately have been more in response to Chinese tarrifs on import vehicles.

the idea before this was to remove tarrifs from electric cars to create incentives to make and buy them. now the market is being intentionally flooded by heavily subsidized and tax free vehicles that you can’t easily repair locally. the tarrifs are being brought back to more standard rates for imported vehicles. this kind of maneuvering around foreign tax code is something China excels at. that’s where the wish.com business model for wish comes from for example. old international shipping treaties that subsidize small packages to promote trade from like the 60s.

so part of the concern is that this is the exact playbook of mega corporations everywhere.

1. use your massive wallet to sell at a loss for however long it takes to kill everyone else in the market
2. be the market

it’s something that shouldn’t be embraced. doesn’t matter who’s doing it, bezos or xi. these anti competitive market strategies aren’t any better or worse because a government is involved. that’s pretty much how American mega corps did it anyway. you think boeing got where the are now without subsidize from the government? Chinese ones won’t be better, they’ll just be more catered towards Chinese users.

we’re all just playing the suckers at the price tag game. it’s the fastest road to the bottom. “this one pays its workers well, uses environmentally friendly packaging, works better, lasts longer, and doesn’t cause death and suffering to be made” vs. “this one costs 5% less because we use child slaves and skip all that other bullshit”. the vast majority of people will choose the cheaper one. that one will also be higher margin and that company will become big enough to buy the other.

man, it’s almost like capitalism isn’t actually good for us or something… kindness and decency are bad business