Biden urged to ban China-made electric vehicles from the US
www.bbc.com
Senate Banking Committee chair called Chinese EVs an "existential threat" to the US motor industry.

President Joe Biden has been urged to ban imports of Chinese-made electric cars to the US.

The chair of the Senate Banking Committee, Senator Sherrod Brown, wrote “Chinese electric vehicles are an existential threat to the American auto industry”.

His comments are the strongest yet by any US lawmaker on the issue, while others have called for steep tariffs to keep Chinese electric vehicles (EV) out of the country.

In February, the White House said the US was opening an investigation into whether Chinese cars pose a national security risk. At the time, President Biden said that China’s policies “could flood our market with its vehicles, posing risks to our national security” and that he would “not let that happen on my watch.”

  • tardigrada@beehaw.orgOP
    0·
    5 months ago

    The major problem here is that China is offering prices below production costs aiming to ruin foreign competition. Once the objective of a monopoly-like market is reached, they can increase the price.

    China’s domestic market has already seen a heavy price war leaving many EV companies in financial troubles (and, consequently, leaving buyers often without the possibilty of software maintenance and other after-sales services).

    Baidu’s brand WM Motor, for example, ran out of liquidity last year, as well as Tencent’s Aiways. Other brands like Levdeo or Singulato filed for bankruptcy if I remember that right.

    [Edit typo.]

    • Nomecks@lemmy.ca
      0·
      5 months ago

      The major problem here is that the US is owned by the oil industry and they will never allow competitive EVs to be built here. The US could easily match what China’s doing, but those subsidies go to oil instead.

      • Bob Robertson IX @discuss.tchncs.de
        0·
        5 months ago

        The US could easily match what China’s doing

        Not with the unions in the US they can’t. Part of the reason China is able to produce cheap cars is because they have cheap labor.

            • DdCno1@beehaw.org
              0·
              5 months ago

              I’m referring to Chinese slave labor, which is not even remotely comparable to American prison labor.

              • JayTreeman@beehaw.org
                0·
                5 months ago

                The US has roughly 0.3% of it’s population as slave labor. China has 0.4%. That looks pretty comparable to me

                • DdCno1@beehaw.org
                  0·
                  5 months ago

                  Just to check your numbers:

                  5.8 million slaves in China in 2021 (0.41%).

                  800,000 prison laborers in America that same year (0.24%).

                  For as flawed as the American judicial and prison systems are, they are not even remotely as awful as China’s - and neither is the labor performed by American prison laborers compared to China’s slaves. They are not the same. Chinese slaves aren’t even given a trial - they are just randomly picked off the street and forced to work themselves to death.