It’s hard to compete against Chinese labor costs and the Chinese subsidized battery industry. Western automakers have to buy Chinese batteries with a massive markup while these Chinese automakers can buy them below cost because of the subsidies.
Either we choose to let these cheap cars on the market so we electrify quicker but at the cost of destroying the local auto industry or we protect an entire industry but electrify slower. It happened in the solar panel industry. The flood of cheap Chinese solar panels meant that panels became affordable for more people but western solar manufacturers are basically non-existent nowadays. You probably think “Who cares?” But COVID has shown what Chinese dependency can do to our economy if another global disaster strikes. Also the more we depend on China the less likely our politicians are willing to put pressure on them when Xi will eventually initiate his plan to take over Taiwan and the South China Sea.
And scientifically we will fall behind when their is no industry to fund research anymore.
It’s hard to compete because our government doesn’t want to do what it takes in order to incentivize competition.
The Chinese subsidizes the market? So should the U.S. Oh, but it costs billions per year? Oh no, no, we can’t do that… that would make a dent on the tens of billions spend every year on military stuff.
