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Mexican government unveils a prototype for a new homegrown, ultra-affordable EV
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Re: Mexican government unveils a prototype for a new homegrown, ultra-affordable EV
#72My first thought when looking at it is that I doubt the vehicle could pass US safety regulations. Maybe I'm wrong.
Based on similar vehicles in Europe, it's probably not a car but some sort of motorcycle.
Re: Mexican government unveils a prototype for a new homegrown, ultra-affordable EV
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
The tariff route is what happened in the 1970s under the "chicken tax", which still exists today to protect the US light truck industry, and is pretty much the reason why SUVs reign supreme in the US market. SUVs are classified as "light trucks", which has caused a Galapagozation of the US car industry/market.
I see this take on SUVs all the time, and I can't help but think it's wrong. Americans just like bigger vehicles and will downsize if gas gets too expensive. There's a reason almost all electric car companies start off with a CUV/SUV/truck, and it's not because they're allergic to sedans or coupes.
- Tesla, the most prominent and successful EV company, didn’t start with a truck.
- Neither did all the attempts at EVs from other competitors in the 2010s, like the GM Bolt/Volt or the Nissan Leaf.
- But you’re not wrong, that today EV companies usually start with SUVs/CUVs, but that’s because a larger chassis makes it easier to include a large enough battery.
Re: Mexican government unveils a prototype for a new homegrown, ultra-affordable EV
#74The Ford CEO is not wrong. Allowing foreign imports into the country at prices far below what US producers are able to make will decimate the local car industry in the US. There are 4 possible solutions to this problem; a) convince Americans that it's worth paying more for a locally built product. This is the simplest approach, but there's only so much margin here that the consumer will tolerate. At the moment this g…
The playbook to study is South Korea. Protectionism and subsidies for nascent and transitioning industries with a clear ex ante timeline to full liberalization to force international competitiveness. Absent the latter, American car companies’ inefficiencies in design and labour structure have zero incentive to change, and American consumers get stuck with shitty, expensive products. For cars, this would mean federall…
I feel like the "clear ex ante timeline" is a big problem for us in the US. A prominent feature of US politics (and indeed culture) is constantly setting such targets and then chickening out and moving the target back as the time approaches. That in turn creates a sort of moral hazard where no one feels an urgency to meet deadlines because they know they'll be loosened up later.
Re: Mexican government unveils a prototype for a new homegrown, ultra-affordable EV
#75The Ford CEO is not wrong. Allowing foreign imports into the country at prices far below what US producers are able to make will decimate the local car industry in the US. There are 4 possible solutions to this problem; a) convince Americans that it's worth paying more for a locally built product. This is the simplest approach, but there's only so much margin here that the consumer will tolerate. At the moment this g…
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Re: Mexican government unveils a prototype for a new homegrown, ultra-affordable EV
#76The Ford CEO is not wrong. Allowing foreign imports into the country at prices far below what US producers are able to make will decimate the local car industry in the US. There are 4 possible solutions to this problem; a) convince Americans that it's worth paying more for a locally built product. This is the simplest approach, but there's only so much margin here that the consumer will tolerate. At the moment this g…
>This is one of those "the internet is a fad, it'll never catch on" moments. EV's are here to stay. Not saying you're one of them (there are other people here who fit the bill much better) but like with anything else the people on the internet peddling grand narratives lacking of nuance are delusional fanboys, malevolent liars or some combination of the two. EVs are absolutely going to win certain market segments and…
Yes, it won't happen all at once. And some use cases will survive longer.
I'm not sure size is the qualifier though. Electric busses are becoming more and more common. I think city vehicles make good candidates for EV - they don't typically go far from home. They are cheaper to build and buy, and much cheaper to run.
The reason I think EVs win is because of the "support system" ICE vehicles need. And as ICE share decreases that support system also starts to dwindle. So those services get more expensive. I'm thinking gas stations, mechanics, parts and so on. It becomes a death spiral.
It's not unlike the switch from mainframes to PCs. At the beginning there wasn't a contest, but now mainframe skills are hard to find and hence very expensive. So the market for them goes down. Indeed most mainframe suppliers (DEC, SUN et al) died off ages ago.
Re: Mexican government unveils a prototype for a new homegrown, ultra-affordable EV
#77The Ford CEO is not wrong. Allowing foreign imports into the country at prices far below what US producers are able to make will decimate the local car industry in the US. There are 4 possible solutions to this problem; a) convince Americans that it's worth paying more for a locally built product. This is the simplest approach, but there's only so much margin here that the consumer will tolerate. At the moment this g…
Why is decimating our local car industry a problem? Why not build something else with the resources if cars are now a cheap commodity?
You can't really assume the prices will stay low forever and removing local competition exposes you to supply chain issues.
Re: Mexican government unveils a prototype for a new homegrown, ultra-affordable EV
#78The Ford CEO is not wrong. Allowing foreign imports into the country at prices far below what US producers are able to make will decimate the local car industry in the US. There are 4 possible solutions to this problem; a) convince Americans that it's worth paying more for a locally built product. This is the simplest approach, but there's only so much margin here that the consumer will tolerate. At the moment this g…
There should be a time limit to protectionism and a scale where tariffs on imports come down overtime. Otherwise you will get what you currently have in the US ie huge cars that cost a lot of money to make and run. US supposedly the free economy is the country where almost every industry is an entrenched virtual monopoly or a duopoly and with it's political finance system they are eating into every industry.
Re: Mexican government unveils a prototype for a new homegrown, ultra-affordable EV
#79The Ford CEO is not wrong. Allowing foreign imports into the country at prices far below what US producers are able to make will decimate the local car industry in the US. There are 4 possible solutions to this problem; a) convince Americans that it's worth paying more for a locally built product. This is the simplest approach, but there's only so much margin here that the consumer will tolerate. At the moment this g…
Why is decimating our local car industry a problem? Why not build something else with the resources if cars are now a cheap commodity?
This reminds me of a quote from Peter Schiff, circa 2008 housing crash. To paraphrase,
“too-big-to-fail eventually becomes too-big-to keep alive"
Re: Mexican government unveils a prototype for a new homegrown, ultra-affordable EV
#80The Ford CEO is not wrong. Allowing foreign imports into the country at prices far below what US producers are able to make will decimate the local car industry in the US. There are 4 possible solutions to this problem; a) convince Americans that it's worth paying more for a locally built product. This is the simplest approach, but there's only so much margin here that the consumer will tolerate. At the moment this g…
What’s interesting is that while most cars imported into Mexico (except for those from the NAFTA region) face stiff tariffs or outright bans (if you move to Mexico from the US you can only bring your car if it was manufactured in Mexico/Canada/US, other cars are not allowed at all), but electric cars have no tariff at all which means that, e.g., Chinese EVs are widely available there. The BYD Seal sells for MXN888000 in its AWD/big battery configuration which translates to USD51,184¹ which is comparable to the Tesla Model 3 price in Mexico (and a bit lower than the equivalent price in the US). Mexico is going at the EV transition with a two-pronged strategy: Building a domestic industry and encouraging imports at the same time. This seems to be the exact opposite of the US strategy.
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1. Worth noting two key differences between the Mexican and American car buying experience: First, prices are fixed. There’s none of this negotiating with the dealer about the price or upselling you on undercoating stuff. You can look on the website and know what the price is. Second, instead of sales tax, Mexico uses VAT to achieve the same purpose. As a result, the price you see for a product is going to be the actual price you pay walking out the door and not the price before sales tax (at my current residence, the total sales tax is currently 10%). As a consequence, some things that might appear to be slightly more expensive in Mexico, depending on where you live, may actually be slightly cheaper.