It would mark the first time the Chinese firm has outpaced its American rival for annual sales.
  • boonhet@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    1·
    6 days ago

    Were those UK grants only available to them, or were they available to all EVs regardless of country of origin?

    Because the Chinese subsidies are only for Chinese EVs. That’s what makes the whole situation so unbalanced.

    Federal interest free loans and state tax credits are, of course, subsidies that the US used to protect its auto industry. But here in the EU we’ve had tariffs on American cars this entire time too.

    No nation or bloc of nations wants to lose its own industry to competitors that can literally afford to sell their products at a loss. That’s the issue. It’s the tech enshittification model all over again: Offer something for free or cheap, get entrenched, enshittify to make profits.

    In fact I think it behooves any country to tariff cars that are heavily subsidized by their manufacturers’ origin countries, and then use that money to offer an origin-neutral EV subsidy. Use China’s money to make all EVs cheaper instead of having really cheap Chinese EVs.

    • TroublesomeTalker@feddit.ukEnglish
      2·
      6 days ago

      Just them. I wasn’t really arguing for or against subsidies though, just the absurdity of it being called out so often when Tesla et al got subsidised too. You can split hairs all you like on the nature of those subsidies, but they absolutely did get them. They also didn’t have to give up a share of the company to get them, unlike all the Chinese automakers, but again that’s another complex issue.