China has become a powerhouse in electric vehicles. Its automaker BYD recently topped Tesla in global EV sales, with Elon Musk warning of Chinese carmakers, “If there are no trade barriers established, they will pretty much demolish most other car companies in the world. They’re extremely good.”
On Friday, the Alliance for American Manufacturing sounded the alarm, issuing a report entitled: “On a Collision Course: China’s Existential Threat to America’s Auto Industry and its Route Through Mexico.”
The report, which lists policy recommendations to combat overcapacity and unfair trade practices, notes that BYD is building factories in Thailand and Hungary designed to be regional export hubs. It then adds:
“More alarming, however, are Chinese firms’ heavy spending on plants in Mexico, through which they can access the United States by way of the more favorable tariffs under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). This strategy is, in effect, an effort to gain backdoor access to American consumers by circumventing existing policies that are keeping China’s autos out of the U.S. market.”
Uh… maybe get Tesla to improve their product? Y’know like in the spirit of competition and all that?
Competition isn’t how we do things in America anymore. You either buy them outright or you get the government to prop you up until you’re too big to fail.
This isn’t a Tesla quality thing. This is about traditional companies like GM and Ford who are still playing catch-up and won’t be able to compete.
This gets into a hairy situation because it’d be another manufacturing segment “lost” and kind of plays into the whole “without unions…” argument.