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The Chinese automaker BYD reminds me of the famous phrase attributed to the sci-fi writer William Gibson - “The future is already here – it’s just not evenly distributed.”
Future EV cars will be cheap to own and run. Self-driving tech will lower insurance costs. You can charge them with your home solar setup if you want. They’ll last far longer with lower maintenance costs thanks to simple electric engines with few moving parts. As their construction gets more roboticized it will lower their costs further. The batteries that make up a huge chunk of their current costs are falling in price too. CATL, the world’s largest EV battery maker, is set to cut costs in half by mid 2024.
Some people still think gasoline and ICE cars have a long life ahead of them, and don’t realize the industries behind both are dead men walking.
If future means public subsidies, I’m all for it.
Chinese EVs are cheaper because they are prepaid by Chinese tax payers. That also includes taxes levied from our internet purchases for products made in China.
The secret ingredient is
crimeslave labor.
hired by the west in droves
No, the way this usually goes is that a Western firm will order parts from a company in China, which then subcontracts to a firm that uses slave labor. This obfuscation isn’t always easy to find out about, especially if you don’t have knowledgeable people on the ground.
if you are telling me they use slaves, then its pretty naive to think they don’t know.
could have been you know, not outsourcing their shit to bangladesh or other east asian places known for their sweatshops, thats always an option.
Sent from my iphone.
We in the US would never provide a corporation with state aid!!!
RHEEEEWhataboutism isn’t an answer.
But restricting competition is?
To benefit price gouging US companies?
They aren’t price gouging, they have to pay actual living wages, have higher energy costs (China uses almost entirely cheap coal) and can’t as easily use slave labor as Chinese automakers.
They aren’t price gouging
I trust u bro
GM has negative margins on EVs:
As does Ford:
This takes seconds to research.
Whatabout whataboutism about what
Is there any evidence for this?
It’s very public knowledge. China doesn’t hide it.
https://www.npr.org/2024/02/18/1225653773/china-electric-vehicles-byd-nio-geely-vw-europe
ETA: you’re right to ask for a source
In a funny way this sounds like prescription drugs, cheaper for the world due to US tax payers.
…the sci-fi writer William Gibson…
For those who dont know:
If the quote sounds very cyberpunk (techno futuristic corporate dystopia) it is because William Gibson is the father of the cyberpunk genre.
And did it by boldly having no understanding of computers at the time which is why all the tech is so different from a lot of other scifi. I recently got through my decade long Asimov kick and am slowly working through Gibson now
I’m an ev fan but I don’t agree that they have more longevity than ICE cars. The current battery chemistries simply don’t allow for it.
Either battery chemistries with 20 years of guaranteed performance would have to be developed, or battery replacement and refurbishment costs will need to come down to say the cost of replacing a head gasket.
This will eventually happen, but current generation of EVs are essentially a recyclable consumable compared to their ICE counterparts.
Current cars are not scrap because of the moving parts. It is rust on the body that kills them.
If this makes it to American shores they will not be able to keep up with demand.
I do not think this will ever make it to the USA.
Isn’t the staying power of Toyota vehicles their build quality and longevity, not their cheapness? Wouldn’t this be a Kia killer?
It is now, but not when they started taking over back in the 1980’s. They started off by being cars that were cheaper. Their prices rose as they started to get a positive name for themselves.
I remember Kia coming into the US market with a somewhat similar playback, but they entered back when many other makers weren’t having poor quality/lifespan vehicles. Mid 90’s kias were cheap as snot so they got some sales. But it didn’t bode well for them as people started to notice they weren’t built to last very long, and then they started to go bankrupt (Korean financial crisis) and Hyundai bought them/bailed them out. Then they still stayed cheap as snot in the US, but gradually improved in quality. As they started getting a slightly better name for themselves they’d keep upping the price and keep upping the quality. Nowadays they aren’t much cheaper at all than a lot of manufacturers, but they also aren’t much behind in quality, either. Had they been able to enter the US market a decade sooner, they could have really had a leg up.
If I can get easy replacement parts access and a Hayne’s manual for one of these, I’m all for it. I have both of those for my current car, along with a full toolbox for basic mechanic work.
Seeing EU and US auto maker get bent out of shape at the idea of having to compete on price… they want the state to step in to protect their captured market. clown capitalism for ya.
And before we start talking chinese state aid for their EV industry, let’s not forget that we also provide state aid to our daddies of the industry and they still punk us on price 🤡🤡🤡
I’m buying up vhs-c and hi8 camcorders and so many end user manuals have fucking schematics, parts lists, circuit diagrams, pcb layouts, timing charts, …
I’m old enough to remember owning things but never really to the extent you could build a whole new one from scratch and I don’t think those days are coming back, especially with the voltages involved in EVs
I want an electric Subaru Outback or Forester. Something that can be driven off road to a campground, pull a trailer if needed, and has enough range to get me from Ann Arbor to the upper peninsula with minimal charging. Seats and trunk that I can hose out after a muddy dog park excursion would be great too.
It’s going to be a little while before we get realistic options for outdoorsy uses of BEVs. If you want the range to get there AND get back (or even just to a charger) then they’re too dang heavy for offroad use. If you want to pull a camper, then the range absolutely tanks.
Airstream is trying to address this by making a $120,000 (lol) camper that has its own battery and traction motors to assist the pulling vehicle. I think its a pretty good idea but of course they’re going to lock it down in patents for 20 years and prevent anyone from offering something affordable.
Maybe we’ll get lucky an a revolutionary battery technology like those frequently talked about glass batteries will come out and just outperform the status quo by every metric.
Thank you for the informative comment, much appreciated!
Just wait until you learn its cloud based
If it ever gets sold here
That’s about 261 miles
Capitalism at work.
I WANT THAT