What is the US behind on? Access to healthcare, maternal mortality rate, access to abortion, minimum wages, paid time off, public transport, walkable cities, ...
Theres a video on YouTube of some people who got to drive a bunch of Chinese EVs/hybrids in Alaska and aside from some quality and i18n issues, the US is absolutely cooked here.
Simple, the US Fossil Fuel Industry + Political Contributions, or as all other countries call these contributions, bribes.
Also, I heard today the last remaining law that restricts these bribes is up before the US Supreme Court. We all know how they will rule, soon anything goes. Soon in the US, getting elected to a Federal Office will be much better than winning a lottery. Free Dinner, Free Vacations, Free Housing and a padded bank account can be fully legally had by any US Congress Person.
Edit: forgot, getting elected as President pretty can much makes you a billionaire.
i'm amused they compare 20000 uk pounds to 30000 us dollars without mentioning exchange rates - the two values are close to the same, but raw numbers makes thing look worse for the us.
Tariffs in a rapidly growing and innovative industry always makes the country with lots of protectionism end up with less competitive products because they’ve removed the competitive pressures from everywhere else in the world.
We were left behind because we shelter our own car companies in a gentle cradle where they don’t have to compete. Both parties did this while saying they wanted to “level the playing field” but chose rates that were protectionist and made competitive products prohibitive not rates that actually created a level field.
We were left behind because we tried to protect our companies from facing the future. People in this country expect that one can stand on the shore of a beach and vote on whether the tide should go in or out, and that’s just not how the world works.
Tesla's marketing strategy is to have one brand with essentially only two models (the two >100k ones and the silly truck are rounding errors and hardly count), thus each individual model will tend to sell more units. BYD has more models and a bunch of sub-brands, as does VW AG and Stellantis.
Love the doomerism, while millions of people would love to move to the US and others are currently fighting deportations into their local paradise tooth and nail.
So what is it now? Best country or totally behind?
I assume you're thinking of China. However, if anything the US subsidises car manufacturing _more_ than Europe (in particular it's always ready with a cheeky bailout, whereas European countries have been more prone to just let failing car companies die or merge), and, for all the talk about BYD (understandable; the media likes novelty, and "scary Chinese upstart is making lotsa EVs" is more media-friendly than "Boring old VW AG is making lotsa EVs"), the European manufacturers are also doing far better here than the US legacy manufacturers.
> But President Donald Trump, who recently called climate change a "con job", has pushed to scrap many of those measures, including the $7,500 credit, arguing that they were pushing people to buy cars they would not otherwise want.
There is a significance portion of the US populace that is vehemently opposed to the very concept of electric cars, claiming to be "Dark MAGA" isn't going to fix that.
I live in Puerto Rico. Electrics don’t make a ton of sense here cause our grid is very strained. I got a used plugin hybrid Lincoln aviator for like 25k. I only got the plugin hybrid because it and electric vehicles are exempt from import duties. I basically never use gas cause the island is so small. I think it’s the best option for island life
... I mean, Europe _has_ its own Tesla, in VW AG, Stellantis, BMW, Mercedes, etc; their combined global BEV sales are similar to or slightly greater than Tesla's global sales. Why are you expecting one pseudo-monopoly manufacturer? While that _is_ kinda the case in the US, that's more a function of the US car market being pretty broken than anything else.
(It's not even the case in China; while BYD is big, and gets a lot of press, China does have other significant manufacturers.)
I don’t understand the analyst comment about whether electric is really the next big thing. She didn’t list alternatives though the main thing I can think of is a major investment in green public transport.
I think that a large part of the puzzle that is missing here comparing to other countries is the US is massive in terms of size, it's not much smaller than the whole of Europe including European parts of Russia and quite a bit larger than Europe without Russia. In the Chart, China is pretty large, but I don't know that there is that much travel in terms of distances away from metro areas for its EV owners or what the infrastructure inland looks like.
But the US is simply a big place, and there is a lot of value assigned to being able to drive across it. I've done road trips where I'd drive for 8-12 hours a day for a few weeks as part of vacation routines. It's a really nice way to break away from daily stresses. I couldn't have done that with an EV... I'd have to plan for several additional stops and cut my daily travel distances to quite a bit shorter for the "stretch" days. I'd also have had to be far more careful in terms of going off-route to see a national park, or catch a touristy spot unplanned.
And while there are EV models with longer ranges, you still have to face the relatively limited infrastructure in place. It's gotten and continues to get better though. That said, it's still a massive country and will vary a lot by travel patterns.
I don't find the "what about road trips" super compelling. First, because there really are enough EV chargers for most road trips with a small amount of planning. And second, because so many households have two cars and could have one gas vehicle to cover road trips if that really is a priority for them.
It is true that if I was in Europe and wanted to go somewhere 400 miles away I'd take a train. But I don't think that road trips explains everything.
23 comments
[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 50.3 ms ] threadSimple, the US Fossil Fuel Industry + Political Contributions, or as all other countries call these contributions, bribes.
Also, I heard today the last remaining law that restricts these bribes is up before the US Supreme Court. We all know how they will rule, soon anything goes. Soon in the US, getting elected to a Federal Office will be much better than winning a lottery. Free Dinner, Free Vacations, Free Housing and a padded bank account can be fully legally had by any US Congress Person.
Edit: forgot, getting elected as President pretty can much makes you a billionaire.
We were left behind because we shelter our own car companies in a gentle cradle where they don’t have to compete. Both parties did this while saying they wanted to “level the playing field” but chose rates that were protectionist and made competitive products prohibitive not rates that actually created a level field.
We were left behind because we tried to protect our companies from facing the future. People in this country expect that one can stand on the shore of a beach and vote on whether the tide should go in or out, and that’s just not how the world works.
So what is it now? Best country or totally behind?
With that, good luck moving to China.
There is a significance portion of the US populace that is vehemently opposed to the very concept of electric cars, claiming to be "Dark MAGA" isn't going to fix that.
The US is #2 in the world in EVs behind China. Tesla leads the US in EVs, and is #2 in the world.
A sample of more reasonable titles:
1. US is #2 in EV manufacturing and sales, can they catch up to China?
2. How did BYD catch up so quickly to Tesla?
3. Why can't Europe create its own Tesla?
... I mean, Europe _has_ its own Tesla, in VW AG, Stellantis, BMW, Mercedes, etc; their combined global BEV sales are similar to or slightly greater than Tesla's global sales. Why are you expecting one pseudo-monopoly manufacturer? While that _is_ kinda the case in the US, that's more a function of the US car market being pretty broken than anything else.
(It's not even the case in China; while BYD is big, and gets a lot of press, China does have other significant manufacturers.)
But the US is simply a big place, and there is a lot of value assigned to being able to drive across it. I've done road trips where I'd drive for 8-12 hours a day for a few weeks as part of vacation routines. It's a really nice way to break away from daily stresses. I couldn't have done that with an EV... I'd have to plan for several additional stops and cut my daily travel distances to quite a bit shorter for the "stretch" days. I'd also have had to be far more careful in terms of going off-route to see a national park, or catch a touristy spot unplanned.
And while there are EV models with longer ranges, you still have to face the relatively limited infrastructure in place. It's gotten and continues to get better though. That said, it's still a massive country and will vary a lot by travel patterns.
It is true that if I was in Europe and wanted to go somewhere 400 miles away I'd take a train. But I don't think that road trips explains everything.