this post was submitted on 31 Aug 2024
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Foreign investment would be an economic boost for Mexico. The company has claimed that a plant there would create about 10,000 jobs. A Tesla competitor, BYD markets its Dolphin Mini model in Mexico for about 398,800 pesos—about $21,300 dollars—a little more than half the price of the cheapest Tesla model.

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[–] [email protected] 94 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Provides a better product at half the cost.

/Capitalists lose their minds.

[–] [email protected] 50 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Said it a while ago, the US is losing at capitalism for the first time in modern history and doesn't know how to cope

[–] [email protected] 36 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Oh it knows how to cope, it’s why it’s pushing the neo-feudalism.

They want a class of slave labor to use like China, not those pesky workers with rights like they have now. It’s a race to the bottom and China has the lead.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago

Idk, Chinese workers might have it better than they did in decades passed.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Yes we do, we ban their sales here in USA! And add tariffs!

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 months ago (1 children)

China builds the cars in Mexico, that forms a tariff free zone with the USA. And USA can't exactly just ban sales from Mexico because a lot of USA companies moved their operation to Mexico for cheaper labor.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Yeah. The real issue is passing safety standards. Which I'm doubtful China can do.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Somehow the likes of BDY manage it in the EU were they are selling their cars just like all other car companies (including TV adverts and everything)

Last I checked the EU invariably has tighter regulatory standards when it came to consumers (not just on safety but also in terms of consumer rights) in just about everything than the US.

It seems a little strange that "safe to drive cars" per EU regulations wouldn't be "safe to drive cars" per US regulations.

Granted, plenty of Chinese companies (basically the poky little manufacturers) might not manage to fullfil Western Auto Safety Standards, but some of the bigger one already have overcomed that hurdle.

Lets not have certain Prejudices cultivated for Political Reasons blind us to hard-nosed Business and Technical Facts.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Chicken tax 2 no Changli for you

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago (2 children)

It's glorious to watch. Even from within. Even knowing I'm boned when this house of cards finally tumbles.

I'm sure there's a German word for that.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

Maybe Galgenhumor? Or Schadenfreude? But if both, I guess.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago

Even knowing I’m boned when this house of cards finally tumbles.

You probably have time to prepare. 🙂

[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 months ago (6 children)

Is it a better product? How is the quality, the maintainability? How do they treat the environment and their workers? These are all factors I think about when considering a purchase.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Is it a better product? How is the quality, the maintainability?

I'm guessing it's like 80% as good for half the cost. That's usually how it goes with Chinese stuff.

How do they treat the environment and their workers?

Now that's just commie talk. /s

[–] [email protected] -2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The Teslas from Shanghai are straight up better than the ones from Fremont... And if we're being honest Shanghai probably has better quality of life than San Jose.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Teslas are anomalously bad to start with, so I can't write that possibility off. I would definitely buy BYD before Tesla just as a consumer.

Shanghai being better than San Jose seems unlikely, though. America is definitely a lot richer, despite the warts.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Wealth does not necessarily improve quality of life.

Notably, electricity (among other things) is substantially cheaper in Shanghai.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

On an individual level, sure there's sad rich people, and happy slum refugees. On a population level it makes a huge difference.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Why won't the Americans let in the chinese manufacturers to find out? Surely if the cars are trash they have nothing to worry about?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

That's the thing about economics. Humans are not rational actors. And even if they were, they don't have perfect information.

For example, there's a thing going around in the US right now about raw milk. It's not allowed to be sold because of the risk of disease. But people are idiots and seek it out anyway, and get themselves sick.

For cars, assume one of them is an absolute lemon and deathtrap. It constantly needs maintenance, and if you get in a crash, you die. You won't know about the former until a few years after you've bought it, and if the latter happens, you can't seek any recourse because you're dead.

Now, I'm not saying that this applies to the Chinese EVs, exactly, but we haven't seen them shaken out in the US yet, and China doesn't have a very good track record with consumer safety in the recent past.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

To counter those vague negative "maybes" of yours, I just want to point out that the EU, which have much more tight regulations on just about everything than the US, especially when it comes to consumer protection, allows the sale of BDY cars.

If a regulatory regime which is more strict when it comes to consumer protection than the US allows such cars to be sold, then claiming or implying that the reason for the US to block their sale there is that they might be dangerous is quite the flight of fantasy.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I mean, it's not what OP was arguing, but the main reason they don't want the cars let in is just to stop China from becoming more powerful. It has little to do with the products themselves.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Surely if the products were shit, then there would be nothing to worry about with respect to China's power. No?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

If they're shit today, they probably won't be tomorrow. They're just as capable of bootstrapping as the next person.

Back in the 90's Clinton was quoted as saying that with capitalism and development, democracy would inevitably follow in China; trying to stop it would be like nailing jello to a wall. Nobody thinks that way anymore.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I don't really understand your point... I wasn't making any comment about democracy in China. That's absurd.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

To clarify, the reason China was allowed to gain that amount of economic influence in the first place was because it was thought they'd be part of the democratic West. Without that, nobody wants an authoritarian superpower.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

What? Literally nobody thinks that. The entire Belt and Road Initiative is pretty much open expansionism

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

Belt and Road is waaay more recent than what I'm talking about, being declared in 2013. The Cold War ramped down in the 80's and ended around '90 or so, and then the triumphalist narrative that "history had ended" and democracy had irrevocably won was influential in the 90's and arguably 2000's.

Also, I'm not really sure "expansionism" is the right word for peacefully growing one's economy and soft power. Otherwise, the West is expansionist as hell, and that undersells actual territorial expansionism like in Taiwan or Ukraine.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

In Canada, Teslas from Shanghai are by far preferable to the ones from Fremont. Something about those Chinese factories man

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

If you cant afford anything else than it is the best product.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

It is much better. US car brands look like they are stuck in the 90s. Still, I don't get the preoccupation from the US, almost all cars in Mexico have been from Asia for at least a decade or maybe more. And before that it was all Volkswagen.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Don't get upset when capitalists beat you at your own game. Does it matter if it's better if we're talking about a "free market" (lol)? It's not like capitalists in the US give a shit.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago

I was going to say something about Chinese vehicles not entirely being the greatest quality, but then I remembered we're comparing it to American vehicles.

Better product, half the cost. Can't go wrong.