• hark@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    The US had to make the change to only vehicles built in the US because up until recently, it’s mostly only been the US and allied nations making the vast majority of EVs that could be sold in the US. Tesla has been sucking at the teat of the government through various subsidies, including the tax credit on purchases, carbon credits, cheap loans, and other programs.

    I don’t have a problem with the US subsidizing the EV industry, it’s something that should absolutely be done. I take issue with people claiming it’s only a problem because China has been doing it too. The fight against climate change should be a global one, we shouldn’t be sabotaging it just for the sake of keeping local industry fat and happy when they’ve been dragging their feet this whole time.

    Note the timing of these two events:

    Apr 8, 2024 - Tesla Is Reportedly Canceling Plans to Build a Sub-$30K Compact SUV

    May 22, 2024 - US says tariff increases on Chinese EVs, batteries and chips to start Aug. 1

    Clearly Tesla knew the US was going to jack up tariffs on China and thought it safe to cancel the sub-$30k vehicle they had planned since the anti-competitive tariff kept his profits safe.

    • ShepherdPie
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      4 months ago

      Tesla has been sucking at the teat of the government through various subsidies, including the tax credit on purchases, carbon credits, cheap loans, and other programs.

      The $7500 credit is industry wide and available to any company that manufactures here, carbon credits are available to any company as well, and cheap loans were also available to any company because the interest rates were at historically low levels until the Fed finally raised them up in the past couple of years from the recession-level rates they’d been at since the 2008 recession.

      China, on the other hand, is solely subsidizing their national companies at unsustainable levels and doing so to undercut prices in every foreign market in order to put competitors out of business. This is also aided by the fact that they have extremely lax environmental protection laws and don’t shy away from using slave labor domestically. Once built, these cars would then be shipped halfway across the planet on some of the most heavily polluting methods available, container ships. What exactly is environmentally friendly about this? People just want cheap crap regardless of the outcome which is why companies like Walmart have been allowed to expand so large to become the largest employer in the world at the expense of millions of small local businesses that actually pay their employees well. This shit isn’t good for anybody except those that run the show like the Waltons, and in this case, the Chinese government.