Tariffs on China aren't the way to win the EV arms race – getting serious on EVs is
Tariffs on China aren't the way to win the EV arms race – getting serious on EVs is
Yeah the US isn't even close on the race for EVs with China. Heck, going price for LFP batteries is $70/kWh. The United States is still trying to figure out how to not have conflict cobalt in their batteries. China is just skipping all of that and using iron since we've got tons of that lying around. In fact, we're on a giant ball of the stuff.
The United States is so laughably behind China on tons of technologies related to solar, storage, and EV motors. China is producing sodium ion powered cars with 60 mile ranges because of the various efficiencies in motor design. You can get a nice little around town car with that. They're using fucking SALT to power cars. SALT! You know, the shit that's in the ocean that we've got a bit of that also lying around. And the end cost to consumer is around $6,000 USD, that's the fully tricked out model. The US can't even produce a sub $12,000 car using fuel technology from the 1800s. And you can't even use the human slave labor argument, because the US cannot get children into factories fast enough apparently.
There's not a competition with China on EVs. There's not an arms race with China. China won biggly. The tariffs are just trying to prevent US automakers being laughed out of the room. And the thing is, the cars are so damn cheap, even with the stupid tariffs, they're cheaper than any US EV out there. That's what is so stupid about all of this.
The US is trying to prevent those cars coming here and even the best sacking and jacking the price tag upwards they can do, and no US car is still price competitive. Not even close. That is how amazingly bad the US auto industry has gotten. There is no fight, everyone else won, and the US auto makers are just running on fumes like the coal industry, and greasing the wheels in DC to stay relevant.
And the reason it got so bad isn't because pensions, or unions, or whatever they'd have you believe. It's hardheadedness and inertia by car CEOs, oil execs, and policy makers. It's what happens when you have decades of really bad decisions by a variety of people and the people who made those calls don't want to admit it to themselves. They just didn't want to believe that the oil cash was over. They thought all the automation would make them insanely rich and not actually owners of shit that would go out of date before their return on investment. They thought that keeping Congress would always keep them safe from international pressure. They were going to fight tooth and nail to keep that cash flowing in. They are dead set to sink this goddamn ship we are on before the admit they steered right towards the iceberg at full steam. And every second of hesitation, every moment of denial, every dollar to prevent the inevitable has cost the US auto industry massively.
And you can't even use the human slave labor argument, because the US cannot get children into factories fast enough apparently.
A few factories, none of them owned by US manufacturers, non of them unionized.
It's also impossible to sell for the same prices as Chinese manufacturers without the shit load of subsidies they get and underpaid labor from beginning to end.
People want workers to have good conditions and to lower the carbon footprint of the things they buy, but are unwilling to pay the price that comes with it and would rather buy crap made by workers that are basically slaves halfway across the world instead.
There are mid Sodium Ion based EVs that do 150 miles and they are maybe $10k. Sodium Ion wont be able to get to the 300+ mile mark as they are heavier and bulkier and longer ranges will be dominated by li-ion and the upcoming almost solid state li-ion but that 150 miles covers a lot of peoples usual daily scenarios. The extra topping is the batteries last a lot more cycles too (6000) so after your car has long fallen apart you can use it in your home to buy cheaper night power or for solar storage.
Iirc sodium ion is more akin to LiFePO4 in energy density. Sodium ion battery tech is also fairly immature compared to lithium ion batteries, so we have lots of room for improvement
Thats simplifying the problem. You know what helps with getting better with EVs? Subsidies and cheap credits. And China does that. We can now start to race which countries and tax payers give EV manufacturers the most money or we can ban companies who aren't playing fair.
So yes, get better at EVs is a valid damand. But if your competitor gets an unfair advantage, you simply can't reach his level, no matter how hard you are trying.
Or public transport might be nice too?
Yeah, but that would cut into short term profits! :'(
America will progress like we usually do -- kicking and screaming, saying how unfair everything is while we are pulled by the short-hairs into the new century. If America wants to stay relevant, we should be leading industries, not trying to stifle innovation so our increasingly stale auto manufacturers can continue to deliver the same bullshit they've been shipping for years. In a "free" market plenty of people would afford to choose Chinese EVs, which are rapidly gaining in quality. Since Detroit can't compete on a level playing field, they bribe our federal government to implement protective measures against competition and our congress critters eat it right up.
Honestly why make better cars for less money to be competitive when you can just prevent competition entirely. Smells like a cartel to me.
I don’t see similar tariffs being announced on South Korean or European auto imports. Maybe because those cars aren’t being sold at a loss?
It's very unlikely that Chinese cars are sold at a loss. There is no reason for that to happen when they can be sold at a profit, and quite easily.
But even if they are, that's not necessarily a bad thing. It means Americans can buy cars at far cheaper prices since the price is subsidised by the Chinese government. As the article states, that's equivalent to a wealth transfer from the Chinese taxpayer to the American taxpayer.
What it does do is change the dynamic of winners and losers. The American car buyer would be a winner while the American car maker would be a loser. Now, there are a lot more car buyers and the total boon to car buyers is higher than the total hurt to car makers, meaning the wealth overall in the American economy has increased; it's just that not everyone comes out ahead.
This essentially means protectionist lobbying is usually nothing more than rent-seeking and will usually reduce the amount of total surplus in the economy. Anyone who's taken an Economics 101 course in university can point to the black triangle and say "deadweight loss!"
BYD cars are sold for much more profit in Europe than in China
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/eu-unwinnable-price-war-chinese-104847336.html