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Comment by fvdessen | Hacker News Reader

The latest batch of chinese EV looks really excellent, with exciting and practical vehicles at incredible prices. I’m afraid the whole European car industry is going to get nokiaed. Maybe not on our home market due to protectionism but abroad I don’t see why someone would buy a renault when you can buy this

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The EU did it to theirselves. The manufacturers keep pushing 50k+ euro SUVs while ignoring customers that can only afford something like a seagull. The EU destroyed the domestic market by mandating more and more "safety" features so that you can't make a affordable car anymore.

Renault makes the vast majority of its money in Europe anyways: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1129046/revenue-by-regio...

Cheap EVs are good, I personally don't care if they're american, european or asian. Europe could do it instead of focusing on 40k+ euros gadget bloated piece of shit that nobody can afford

The Peugeot e-208 starts at £22k and you can pick up one thats less than 2 years old for about £10k. The idea that there aren't any affordable EVs hasn't been true for years.

I'm seeing the e-208 start at £29950. The only one that even comes close to 22k is the petrol one at 23.7k.

When I search for it I find a starting price at 36,325 € - is it really that much cheaper in the UK?

UK wages are also lower than half~ of western europe, especially when you venture outside of London.

Why would the EU introduce import tariffs then?

From what I can see the lowest cost 208 is petrol - which is ~£23K and the electric models start at ~£30K.

https://offers.peugeot.co.uk/choose-your-peugeot/configure-2...

My dad's regular 208 (new, a few years ago) was <10k euros after they took his old beater

22k is a lot of money

Volkswagen got what they asked for and it will be their undoing. More lung disease and kindercrusher SUV's for all!

It’s not just VW, there aren’t many companies and countries that are able to compete with China when it comes to manufacturing commodity products

True, but vw’s kicking and screaming against electrification has only doomed them. I’m sure typewriter companies would welcome tariffs on computers too.

Ironically it was the Chinese market that saved the Germans in the 1990s.

EU car industry is toast as it's already being protected by tariffs starting today. This will hit other, relatively healthier, industries as China retalliates with its own tariffs.

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/eu-sla...

If China enacts tariffs on European dairy and pork, that would actually be good for the environment.

Those are also heavily subsidized in the EU to the point that they are usually cheaper than plant based alternatives

We’ll get farmer riots and extreme right governments who on top of being racist have extremely self destructive economic programs

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