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If you got upset at me for pointing out that more people died of Covid under Biden than Trump, in large part because Biden rolled back common sense restrictions that were in place under Trump...

Then you'll hate me pointing out that Trump introduced a 25% tariff on Chinese EVs, and Biden is upping that to 100% tariff.

insideevs.com/news/719283/chin

We can't allow the US to get off of fossil fuels... unless US billionaires win! 🤡

Fear the BYD Dolphin! (an EV car for $12K)
m.youtube.com/shorts/T3nfyO_UH

@mekkaokereke

If the US industry is allowed to pay Chinese wages, have Chinese government subsidies, and Chinese environmental and labour regulations, they could also produce EVs at Chinese prices.

The Europeans are currently looking into tariffs on Chinese imports under their anti-dumping laws.

reuters.com/business/autos-tra

@Sir_Osis_of_Liver

🤔
1) The US has ridiculous things like "medical bankruptcy," "working homeless," and "school lunch debt." If you lined up all of the world's people by net worth, with Elon and Bezos at the front of the line, and the least wealthy people at the back of the line, the only country with more people at the tail of the line than the US, would be India (farmer's debt).

Most Chinese workers couldn't understand how you could be $300K in debt without a gambling problem.

mekka okereke :verified:

@Sir_Osis_of_Liver

2) The US subsidizes our car industry more than anyone else by far. We just choose to subsidize fossil fuels, big trucks, and car culture. We can't get mad at China for being smarter about what they choose to subsidize (EVs and public transportation). We could do this too! AOC tried to get us to do it as part of the Green New Deal. We compromised, and got a weak half effort as part of Biden's infrastructure bill. It's not enough for us to compete.

@Sir_Osis_of_Liver

3) On tariffs, we need to decide what's really important:

a) Getting off of fossil fuels

Or

b) Getting off of fossil fuels, but only if US billionaires win! 🤑

Choosing "B" means delaying getting off of fossil fuels. Rather than tariffs, we should be doubling down on our post carbon transportation investments and incentives.

But we won't do that.🤷🏿‍♂️

@mekkaokereke

It's not a binary choice.
All of the major automakers offer or will be offering EVs, they're just not going to be dirt cheap Chinese imports.

GM had the Bolt, which was very good and and fairly reasonably priced. But the American public largely ignored it, because they aren't interested in small hatchbacks regardless of drive-train.

They took the same car, jacked it up a bit and changed the trim, called it an EUV and it sold much better.

Both have been put on hiatus for now as GM shuffles production facilities and rationalises their product mix. The Malibu and Camaro are done, and those plants will be producing EVs in the near future.

@mekkaokereke
It's not a question of being smarter. It's a difference in history.

The US has a legacy transportation system that needs to be reformed.

China has only had widespread private car ownership relatively recently. Public transportation was more entrenched because of this.

Having said that, Chinese passenger rail, especially high speed rail has been losing money as operating costs remain high, and usage on many routes has been overestimated. It's only a matter of time before some of these lines end up dropped.

@Sir_Osis_of_Liver

I was almost going to disagree with you, but your last paragraph includes the part that I agree with! 🙂

With developing public transportation, legacy infra has nothing to do with the difference between China and the US. Most of China's rail infra was built in the past 20 years. They've *added* more miles of commuter rail, than the US *has total*.

In terms of underutilization, one way to look at that, is that they've invested in the infra, and hope to grow into their shoes.

@Sir_Osis_of_Liver

I wish that California had a completed rail system between San Diego, LA, San Francisco, Sacramento, and Las Vegas*, that was clean, safe, and fast, but was "suffering" from low ridership. I wish that each city also had a London underground or Tokyo subway quality subway system, that had the same problems.

(* Yes I listed Las Vegas as California. Don't ask me to explain! 🙂 No, I didn't "forget" Fresno or Barstow! Build a tunnel and let us zoom past and skip them entirely.)