- cross-posted to:
- world@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- world@lemmy.world
You must log in or # to comment.
Thank the Lord in heaven! I’d buy a BYD right now if I could.
Let’s take stock for a moment. A freaking Toyota Corolla is pushing $30,000. A Corolla.
A regular F-150 is $60,000+. The average new car sells for around $40,000, and the average monthly payment is close to $1,000.
And guess what? They’re not selling. They’re just too expensive. A Ford Raptor is over $100,000. Over $100,000. Dealerships are flooded with them, and they still aren’t making meaningful deals.
From a purely economic perspective, we need competition from China to force this market back toward affordable vehicles, because there are no genuinely cheap, affordable new cars in this country anymore.
Why are Chinese cars so inexpensive?
That’s a very difficult question to answer.
On one hand, there’s a minimum price at which a product can be sold while still generating enough profit for a company to remain viable, pay its employees, and continue operating.
On the other hand, there’s the American business practice of maximizing every possible fraction of a cent in pursuit of higher quarterly profits. As we all know from game theory, pure min-maxing doesn’t always produce the best long-term outcome. There has to be a balance. Nevertheless, many American companies are driven primarily by maximizing shareholder returns. In doing so, they can end up shooting themselves in the foot, making decisions that inflate short-term financial results while ultimately reducing their long-term profitability.
China, by contrast, has a quasi-socialist market economy under a single-party government. It has invested heavily in developing strategic industries, including electric vehicles. The government sets national priorities and can exert enormous influence over companies. If corporate leadership fails to meet those objectives, it can be replaced far more easily than in Western economies.
In the United States, corporations instead spend enormous sums lobbying politicians to pass laws favorable to their interests. But, as discussed above, relentlessly optimizing for short-term gains doesn’t always produce the best long-term results.
That’s one reason Chinese cars are so inexpensive. Or rather, they’re arguably priced closer to what cars should cost. The real question may be why cars in the United States have become so expensive. Automakers cite rising costs, regulations, technology, and financing practices, but prices seem to ratchet upward far more readily than they ever come back down.
The businessmen in China know they will be shot by the government if they are too exploitative.
You think workers have better quality of life in China?
In some areas, like being able to afford a car, people in China are probably better off than people in the US.
Maybe, but vehicle ownership in the United States is way higher per capita. Something like 17 of households in China versus almost 90 in the United States. That could change with the availability and cost of electric vehicles, but as of now it’s still pretty skewed.
Many reasons but two big ones are that they don’t pay employees like North America does, and I’m fully convinced they’re pulling the EEE technique to dominate the NA market once they’re in.
North American workers aren’t earning much more than they did 20-30 years ago while vehicle sales prices went up 8-10x. So no, it isn’t workers’ wages driving the difference. Executive pay, stock buybacks & dividends, lobbying, advertising have all increased multiple times more than EE pay packages.
Heavy jnvestment in battery industry and government steered subsidies into renewables vs endless money to bomb brown people.
Yes, and don’t forget low pay and long hours for their workers.
Sucks to live in the real world with real money instead of colonial dollars that can be infinitely printed
Because they have invested heavily into automation. A couple years ago the ford ceo went over there and came back terrified. He didn’t think it here was any way that american companies had a chance of competing.
Jim Farley, CEO of Ford drives a fucking Xiaomi SU7. If he wont drive a Lincoln, then Ford deserves to die.
Instead of giving themselves buybacks when money was good, they should have been innovating.
Bye, Ford.
FORD is just an acronym for: Found On Road Ditch
Rightfully so too.
Fix It Again, Tony
That’s a Fiat, Dale.
Found on rubbish dump.
An Italian rubbish dump.
Fucked over rebuilt Dodge
Found On Road Dead
Fix Once Return Daily
Fix Or Repair Daily
Fucked On Race Day is an aussie one
Oh no! Here comes capitalism from a communist country. It’s like we built infrastructure to exploit cheap labor for short term gains and it’s backfiring! Who could have ever seen this coming?
China is just state influences capitalism, the workers don’t own the means of production, but it turns out if you invest in your means of production you can easily beat those that don’t.
Except China has advantages in supply chain integration and way cheaper labor that’s kept artificially low by it’s government playing games with it’s currency exchange rate.
Translation: our workers are paid better, our companies follow relatively strict environmental law (or used to) and our government hasn’t helped spy on other countries’ technology advancements and given it to private industry to beat the other guys.
That’s a pretty steep advantage to China.
Your government hasn’t spied on other countries’ technological advancements?
The US government has:
- Hired actual nazis,
- Systematically attacked other nations to keep them out of the way of their private business,
- Attacked and kidnapped the president of Venezuela for oil companies,
- Mercilessly beaten down Cuba while many pharma leaders visit and take Cuban medical advancements back home,
- And absolutely participated in a huge number of heinous shit I’m not even aware of.
And better pay? I mean, yea, but c’mon. The US is a dystopian nightmare dressed up in juuust enough personal comforts to keep most people from doing anything, and with so much of the country below the poverty line I would hardly call that a win. On the topic of artifical impacts to the cost labour, the governments of the US allow for all kinds of labour and human rights violations which keep people struggling and always playing catch-up.
Environmetal law is a huge nothing. How many people have been poisoned by US chemical companies, like 3M and Dupont, with barely any consequences handed out? The US doesn’t give a fuck about the environment and it never truly has. US-based oil companies release all kinds of highly doctored and misleading reports to try to greenwash their shitty behaviour while laughing behind closed doors(and sometimes out in the open).
I’m not going to say that China is a Utopia, or even decent by many standards, but if you think the US has anything to be proud of you need to sit down and shut up. Fuck the US.
Hey now, Werner Von Braun seemed like a nice enough guy and did some really cool work, even if it was all a front for ICBM development
They could do it tomorrow if it were legal
With this administration it is just takes a couple of bribes to enter the market.
Australia is currently saturated with cheap, shotty Chinese EV and ICE cars. Weird brands I’d never heard of last year.
I suspect many of them will probably pump and dump in 5 years, and exiting the AU market when their shit starts to break down and they become obligated to fix it under robust and well enforced Australian consumer law. If consumer law isn’t nerfed by then.
It’ll be very interesting to see the longevity of those new chinese cars. They certainly have saturated the market, and by all accounts appear to be reasonably good value, but who knows what their long-term reliability will be like
Said like anything from legacy manufactures is better quality.
American cars suck.
“And instead of improving our offerings we will spend tens of millions “contributing” (bribing) politicians to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
Don’t threaten me with a good time! I’d be driving a BYD right now if I could
I was blown away by this documentary on the Chinese EV industry. Can see why the old companies in the west can’t easily adapt, mostly due to mindset and sunk cost fallacy. Roboticics everywhere and cutthroat competition driving innovation.
Watching S2026 China’s EV Revolution in iview https://iview.abc.net.au/show/foreign-correspondent/series/2026/video/NC2604H012S00
It would be nice to be able to consider more asian brands than just japanese and korean when next replacing a car and ignoring everything American.
They should enter now
Boo fucking hoo, I hope ford GM and Chevy all sink
good. maybe people can afford to buy one. unlike overpriced ford ipads on wheels.
Farley talks a good game but has always been full of shit. If he agrees that ford needs to turn around to compete with new technology, he should talk to the CEO about it
Where’s that conviction when you gave up on EVs instead of trying to improve your own technology? Where have their ever been ford EVs that normal people could buy? What about those for employees eager to jump to new technology when you shut down their factories?
And seriously, they’re competitive with Chinese cars in Europe because they resell Geelys (Chinese cars)? What kind of bs is that?
Correct me if it’s worth it to you. I am doing gut math, but isn’t a Ford vehical only like 20% fewer made in China parts? They might even be equal parts, just 1 assembled in Mexico.
