the US electric vehicle industry, which lags behind China not only in vehicle price but quality.
China’s lead in electrics, experts say, stems from years of investment in vehicle software, battery, and, critically, supply chain development. BYD, which briefly overtook Tesla as the world’s top EV seller last fall, has been manufacturing electric vehicles since 2003.
We’re way behind,” says John Helveston, an assistant professor in engineering management and systems engineering at George Washington University who studies electric vehicle development and policy. The tariffs, he says, will not insulate the US against competition from Chinese cars forever. “They’re not going to make us better at making things.”
Helveston, the EV researcher. “We’ve made it hard to source” electric vehicles and their components, he says. Now, unless something changes, global automakers outside of China may have to learn to build the technology by themselves.
Limiting EV components slows US EV development. It took China & Tesla 15 years to crack the solution. I am doubtful GM & Ford can speed/accelerate development significantly faster.
Last week, BMW and Volkswagen executives warned that EU tariffs might backfire by forcing the Chinese to retaliate. (China is BMW’s second-largest market.)
Earlier this year, Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Källenius argued the EU should lower, not raise, tariffs against Chinese electric vehicles to push other automakers to compete, saying that an open market will be far more likely spur European firms to improve.
Elon Musk agrees.
In other words, “Bring it on!” I don’t need no stinking tariffs!"
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/stellantis-ceo-has-stern-warning-about-chinese-ev-tariffs-as-china-plans-retaliation/ar-BB1mSdo8
In an interview with Reuters, Stellantis (STLA) CEO Carlos Tavares warned that tariffs like that enacted by the Biden administration are “a major trap for the countries that go on that path,” noting that such reactionary measures will not allow European and American automakers to find ways to meet the challenge from Chinese automakers on price.
US & EU have to play catch up. And there is a danger of creative destruction to establishment automakers because better and cheaper products demolish obsolete product demand.
This is where dreaded politics enters to fight that economic concept. Some Automakers CEOs scream about jobs. Which is quite amusing as they give a rat’s *ss about workers only their compensation. Yet their voice do reach political leaders. And some politicians in districts where those factories are located also take up the jobs argument. After all factory closures could mean a return to the private sector for those pols.