Electric Vehicles

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Chinese electric car makers hit with new European Union tariffs (www.bbc.com)

submitted 3 months ago by mesamunefire to c/evs

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[–] oyfrog 8 points 3 months ago

I think a large part of the competitive pricing comes from subsidies by the Chinese government to produce these cars, not necessarily because China's innovated some miraculously cheap vehicle.

Granted, Western, Japanese, and Korean automakers placing emphasis on SUVs (at least in North America) certainly doesn't make the pricing of cars (electric or ICE) any better. It's also true that Western governments can similarly subsidize EV manufacturing, but keep in mind that a lot of hurdles that exist in the west to pull off such a task don't exist in China—there is no opposition party that might slow down or kill legislation. Add to that the access China has gained globally via Belt and Road likely makes obtaining raw materials a lot cheaper too.

This is all to say that boiling it down to an attitude problem is a little too reductive.