World News

China doesn't need to subsidize the entire supply chain because the reason Chinese EVs are so cheap is literally hyper-capitalism. China has had an immensely competitive EV market for years, and they're been getting into price wars without government intervention. That's forced innovation at a pace that Tesla cannot match alone because they have no need to compete at such a pace. Here's a list of national EV subsidies and their status:

1. In 2022, the 12600RMB consumer incentive to buy a BEV vehicle was ended. This is rather similar to Biden's EV tax credit.

2. China has waived the consumption tax for the EV market, which is a tax designed to target environmentally-unfriendly products. The consumption tax is commonly applied to automobiles, but they're being explicitly waived for the EV market for what is hopefully an obvious reason.

3. Currently, the tax-free allowance for an EV (the portion of an EV purchase that is not charged VAT) is 30000RMB (@13% VAT, = 3900RMB). This subsidy is being reduced in 2025 and phased out entirely in 2027. This is also rather similar to Biden's EV tax credit.

4. Costs of EV charging/battery switching on the grid are borne by the government because the government manages electricity on the supply-side, including finding producers and managing distribution. This is not unusual of crown corporations in other countries.

While there are provincial incentives for companies to set up shop in one province over another, they're smaller scale, not received support at the national level, and not unique to China (see: subsidies to Tesla for their production and to Amazon for their HQ2). The most unique element of China's subsidy regime is the elimination of excess consumption tax in the EV market, which has created a huge marginal advantage for developing EVs over developing ICE automobiles. Importantly, that subsidy is simply reducing the excess tax charged on automobile manufacturing over that charged on typical consumption.

Subsidiaries enabling a more rapid transition away from fossil fuels by lowering the cost to consumers is a great thing, and what's even more impressive is they're also using subsidized projects to install high-speed or low cost rail lines all over the world.

It's great that there's a country working so hard to help is turn the corner on climate change especially as they're focusing on making life better for the working classes. The country has lots of problems but we all do, they're also doing great things which I think we could learn a lot from them.

And don't underestimate, that Human Right Violations are a competitive advantage, too. You don't even need to argue with slave labor from Uygurs, but not allowing unions and having really low labour standards brings the costs down.

The American car companies haven't exactly been stellar with regards to quality, reliability, and safety lately either.

Maybe you haven't looked into just how badly Teslas are made, it's become a meme.

That view is unfortunately out of date. Many Chinese products are of equal or superior quality to their global counterparts. Think Lenovo laptops and OnePlus smartphones. Chinese stuff can be cheap and high quality.

As if Tesla was famous for its quality and durability either.

That's what the British car industry said in the 60s and 70s about Japanese cars. Everyone bad mouthed anything made in Japan as being poor quality.

The Japanese succeeded through good products and their domestic rivals (in Britain) being arrogant, xenophobic and letting standards slide thinking they were great and couldn't be beaten.

I've a Japanese Honda CRV (ironically built in UK) and a Chinese built MG5 EV. The EV is best built car I've owned in 35 years.

Many established car brands are going to disappear Tesla, I believe, being one.

Your iPhone / Samsung is manufactured there. So no, that's a bad take. You get what you pay for, and good quality is still cheaper than made elsewhere.

They produce a lot of quality and durable products in China. Apple and Tesla are both producing there, as do many thousands of other companies.

The BYD cars they sell in the West are pretty decently build. I’d be more worried about the aftersales services. Chinese electronics companies always have shitty customer service. Like Lenovo and Huawei. And since a car always needs some repairs during its lifetime I will never buy an EV from a Chinese brand unless they have proven to have good aftersales service.

You gotta be a special kind of innocent to think Americans make quality automobiles.

Not to mention: I’ll eat my hat if the CCP isn’t providing some sort of subsidization, for no other reason than the fact that it’s a national pride thing for them

furiously typed into their Chinese Assembled IPhone....

BYD is better quality than the shit Stellantis puts out