China Has Whole Towns Focused on Making Electric Cars

Re:China Has Whole Towns Focused on Making Electric Cars by bluGill on Monday June 03, 2019 @10:16AM (#20083276)

That is also the problem with Command economies: they do really well with some things the central planners see as useful, but miss tons of little things that are important but the central planners don't have time to think about. Juiceros is in fact an upside of not having a central plan: we are willing to try things of questionable benefit to see if they are really good even though they look stupid.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:China Has Whole Towns Focused on Making Electric Cars by sfifs on Monday June 03, 2019 @10:37AM (#20083519)

What makes you think China is a "Command" economy? USSR was a command economy. In China the Government funnels money into areas that are its priority but much of the economy runs on private innovation & fairly intense competition, especially the tech and software economy.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:China Has Whole Towns Focused on Making Electric Cars by mensetmanusman on Monday June 03, 2019 @10:52AM (#20083695)

It has a large % that is command based. Evidence is in scrambling municipalities when their investments are dictated and end up going bad anyway. (Or they prop up performance numbers to not catch anyones attention, this is leading to massive shadow-banking activity).

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:China Has Whole Towns Focused on Making Electric Cars by newnewpdro on Monday June 03, 2019 @01:36PM (#20085806)

Maybe the article being discussed?

"The towns are typical of China’s command-led approach to its economy."

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:China Has Whole Towns Focused on Making Electric Cars by chvid on Monday June 03, 2019 @10:23AM (#20083364)

If you go back in the history of major car companies you will see plenty of government intervention. For China this is a part of a broader strategy to become less dependent on (imported) fossil fuels.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:China Has Whole Towns Focused on Making Electric Cars by astazangasta on Monday June 03, 2019 @10:35AM (#20083498)

The idea of a clean separation between a "command economy" and whatever we have is a myth. The US obviously had a national strategy to encourage the growth of its auto industry, like building a national highway system. Similarly for semiconductor manufacturing, aerospace, oil and gas, etc. If you are spending $1.5 trillion a year in a $16 trillion economy you have a lot to say about its structure.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:China Has Whole Towns Focused on Making Electric Cars by chvid on Monday June 03, 2019 @10:26AM (#20083388)

PS: If you wander around a Chinese city you will see plenty of products sold which seem more silly than a Juicero.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:China Has Whole Towns Focused on Making Electric Cars by magduf on Monday June 03, 2019 @02:54PM (#20086812)

They probably didn't involve a huge amount of VC investment though.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:China Has Whole Towns Focused on Making Electric Cars by AstralStorm on Monday June 03, 2019 @04:15PM (#20088075)

Indeed. These products need no R&D really and I consider VC funding them a variant scam, except with private funds.

However, try to VC say a factory manufacturing metal parts or plastics, nobody will say yes...

Heck, try making actual cars or even golf carts on VC money. VC funders are either interested in something completely not speculative and small (eg. EU VC scene) or total moonshots in badly understood markets where no actual R&D is required.

If the thing is very speculative research, most VC aren't interested.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:China Has Whole Towns Focused on Making Electric Cars by rb808 on Monday June 03, 2019 @10:20AM (#20083322)

Agreed - also the central planners products aren't that great, I'd dispute that China dominates anything except manufacturing. Juiceros are made in China and there are very few Chinese cars exported.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:China Has Whole Towns Focused on Making Electric Cars by bluGill on Monday June 03, 2019 @10:28AM (#20083409)

Taiwan and Japan held the standard for the place to manufacture cheap junk 30 years ago. They dominated that market, but nobody expected good engineering. However as their country got richer they developed a reputation for better by doing.

It takes time to develop engineering expertise, but China has some great engineers who are able to teach the younger generation thus building up a system of being great. I don't know if China is leveraging this internally, but that is lack of personal knowledge. I believe they are going to transform to be another place to get quality products in 20 years.

My guess is India will mostly skip the cheap junk phase of manufacturing: we have been developing their engineering expertise more then their manufacturing.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:China Has Whole Towns Focused on Making Electric Cars by seanmcdirmid on Monday June 03, 2019 @12:08PM (#20084732)

There are two Indias: a middle class educated one that is already heavily into services, and a poorer less educated India that would have benefited more from lower skilled but still better paying than farm work manufacturing jobs. Right now, India is developing the former but not the latter, which is going to be huge problem down the line.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:China Has Whole Towns Focused on Making Electric Cars by oblio on Monday June 03, 2019 @11:38AM (#20084333)

It's hard to predict anything, but India, in my eyes, seems headed to a mix of manufacturing (smaller percentage) and services (much larger percentage).

I see India leveraging its democracy and relative openness plus its large English speaking population to achieve this.

[ Parent | on HN ]