China forecast to have sold one in every 10 new cars in UK in 2025 | Hacker News Reader

China forecast to have sold one in every 10 new cars in UK in 2025

theguardian.com

9 pointsbeardyw6 comments

  China has taken a commanding lead in the global industry for electric vehicles (EVs) thanks to years of heavy government subsidies, dominance of the supply chain for lithium ion batteries, and cheaper labour.

Seems very bias. No mention of better engineering? Better talent? More innovation?

Do western governments not subsidize their car makers with tariffs, bailouts, tax cuts, etc?

> Do western governments not subsidize their car makers with tariffs, bailouts, tax cuts, etc?

Yes, but the Chinese ones are done better.

UK government essentially* self-lobotomised with civil service cuts in the post-GFC "austerity" measures, so it doesn't have a good grasp on how to solve problems.

Throwing money around without sufficient care to the precise thing being subsidised, that just promotes wasteful spending, it doesn't grow the thing the subsidy was meant to grow. Cobra effect, etc.

* this wasn't their intent, of course; the rhetoric was all the usual stuff about "bloated" and "bureaucratic" and so on.

China developed the whole ecosystem and supply chain for cars and EVs. We see it with batteries and also very recently with electronics. I think BYD supplies batteries for the Tesla plant in Berlin while also being a direct competitor...

It is easy to blame "subsidies", which is calling the kettle black, but I think the main issue is the lack of industrial policy and what are effectively "degrowth" policies in European countries and the EU at large.

While it's technically true that the UK has an Industrial Strategy (1), I do not think that this is really comparable to what China does in this regard. I'm not specifically knocking the current UK government, I think the same could be said of any UK government in the last 30 years, if not more.

Why did Chinese industrial strategy push for cars and EVs specifically is, I think touched on here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46077479

1) https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/industrial-strate...

Whoever had the idea and paid for those "Tesla: The Swasticar. Goes from 0 to 1939 in 3 seconds" "Tesla The Swasticar. Autopilot for your car, Autocrat for your country" "may be in for a Nazi surprise" billboards in London deserves a raise.

The title says "China" but then the article is actually about "Chinese brands". Some EVs from Western brands like Tesla, BMW, Mini, etc are also made in China so the terms are not equivalent.

In Europe, it can be unclear what is a domestic brand, too. In the UK for instance, most Minis are made locally (though owned by BMW) and Nissan has a large plant. On the other hand, in France Peugeot and Citroën are now part of Stellantis, which also owns Fiat, Chrysler, etc is HQ'd in the Netherlands... what's the difference at this point? "Domestic brand" is becoming a historical artifact but hollow in practice.

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