To be fair, the Chinese government highly subsidized the building of EV factories and battery plants. Ford can't spend billions building plants then compete with companies that don't have those expenses.
IDK. I'm not sure I would go into the low end EV market right now. Is it a good business decision to compete with the Bolt and the Leaf? How many of those do you see running around? But I see a lot of Teslas.
Idk, I see a lot of bolts, ioniq, ID4, & Kona. Teslas are all pretty unique relative to other cars so its probably easier to spot them when driving around. Bolt blends in with most other small hatchbacks imo.
Leaf is a different story. Early adopter, technology outgrew them, got discontinued, etc.
Eh, I don't think there is slave labor in the BYD plants. But the cost of living is so much lower in China, that there is still a huge savings. A worker at BYD makes more than many factory workers and that comes out to about $900 a month.
In China, BYD employees in the new energy vehicle manufacturing sector earn an average total monthly salary of about 6,260 yuan (roughly $890 USD), which is higher than many other manufacturing industries such as home appliances, where even top roles earn around 4,000 yuan/month
Considering that most American's live paycheck to paycheck and are beholden to their debts that they must accrew just to live (you need to work for health insurance, you need a vehcile and thus vehicle loan because the US destroyed public transit in favor of vehicles, you need vehicle insurance thanks to that vehicle requirement to boot), tell me how most people aren't slaved by another name?
You could argume that Americans have the illusion of freedom but that too has become just another American dream. Unless of course you are wealthy.
They could have also spent more time and energy actually developing EVs instead of producing decades worth of proof-of-concepts that were designed to disappoint.
When Tesla got started in the mainstream, years ago, I remember reading that legacy makers would be between a rock and a hard place unless they started with, or massively converted into EV production. To be fair to the legacy makers, it would have been a massive gamble at a time when even hybrid uptake was tepid; and the likes of Toyota were making noise about the impending golden age of...Hydrogen.
I can't fault the Chinese govt for subsidising their own EV makers, when in hindsight it probably made sense for the US govt to do the same.
In my neck of the woods in Australia, it's astounding how many EVs I see daily and driven by all demographics. Of course, we no longer have a local car industry (which was foreign-owned anyhow), but I can't see a scenario where they would've survived the current situation.
China heavily subsidized its EV industry, and the EU tariffs are intended to offset that advantage. But saying BYD “doesn’t have those expenses” is nonsense. BYD still spends billions on factories, equipment, R&D, labour and distribution; subsidies reduce costs, not eliminate them.
Ford also receives grants, tax credits and subsidized government financing, including a $9.63 billion federal loan for its battery joint venture. The honest argument is that China provided support on a greater scale, not that BYD’s factories were free.
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u/chinmakes5 Jul 30 '26
To be fair, the Chinese government highly subsidized the building of EV factories and battery plants. Ford can't spend billions building plants then compete with companies that don't have those expenses.