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
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.
Can’t think of a single US automaker I’d buy from and I doubt that would change within 10 years.
I rent a lot of vehicles for work when traveling, I can’t say I thought “I could see myself owning one of these” or even enjoyed driving Cadillacs, Jeeps, Chevy or Fords. The Jeeps were junk, the transmissions were way out of tune with the engine and the suspension felt like I was in a horse carriage. The Fords all had huge gas tanks, turned like boats, and the computer kept glitching. The Chevy had good performance but felt cheap. I couldn’t figure out why anyone would think a Cadillac was a luxury vehicle, It was like driving a Kia but everything was loose.
Slate and Mutaniy Motors are the only ones to give me a lil hope.
Otherwise it’s Edison Motors from Canada
Everyone else is stuck in the past or China looking to revolutionize the market with checks notes slavery and public investment.
What about swasticars and Bezos mobiles?
There is one, Slate. They are offering a small electric truck that lets you fully customize it. There is also no tracking built in at all, which no other manufacturer can say right now.
Yeah, but it’s owned by Bezos, so fuck no.
It’s not.
Bezos is one of the many investors that provided funding for it at the start, but he has a minority stake in the company.At one point he had one board representative, but now even that isn’t the case any more.
Close enough. Fuck Bezos and everything he touches.
Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.
I appreciate your enthusiasm but you’re left with a really short list.
Meh. I’ll keep my hybrid until the locals go belly up or get their shit together.
Odds are he’s invested in most companies. I’m sure some portion of his wealth is in a manger fund that spreads it out across the market. If you want to avoid everything he touches, you basically have to leave the economy.
Yes. Leaving the economy is the point. This is the only way to stop feeding the beast at the individual level. Pay off any debts and don’t participate as much as possible. No person needs to shop at Amazon or anywhere else controled by private equity and billionaires. Support you local farmers and businesses. Buy used when possible.
Ok, sure. You can’t exit the economy though, as much as one might want to.
The Australian electric Cupra’s (VW subsidiary ) have no connected services, it’s the biggest grievances owners have.
Truck seems the least efficient form for a electric vehicle, who’s this car for, the kind of losers who’d want a truck purely for the aesthetics think electric vehicles are gay
I agree, trucks aren’t the ideal form, for me or most drivers. However, they are the form that is probably the most versatile. A van, even a minivan, can carry just about as much cargo (with the advantage of being internal), but a truck can even extend beyond its bed. It’s also the most sold vehicle type. If you’re only going to make one vehicle, a truck is probably the ideal one. I hope they make others, but they’re likely trying to keep costs down until they have some product out.
what do you mean? dont they all use hinese parts anywyays? what choice do you have?
Parts, but US built is sketchy. Even Japan is putting warning labels on US built cars.
