So far it would seem that the U. S. is tackling that competition with tariffs. OTOH, I’m not sure what it would take to get a (for example) BYD to pass crash testing, and if it would still be price-competitive.

BYD cars already get top crash ratings in European tests. For example: https://youtu.be/7ThTci70350?si=8-gTWRr1_jTdZam0.

> BYD cars already get top crash ratings in European tests

I see it coming up in the top 10 for 2023, but not 2024 [1]. Just not released yet?

[1] https://www.euroncap.com/en/ratings-rewards/electric-vehicle...

It's so frustrating that rather than treat the climate crisis as an actual crisis, we've instead decided to heavily tax EV buyers in order to support domestic manufacturers that have been dragging their feet for decades.

> I don’t know how the United States is going to compete.

If you use your brain, you'd come to the conclusion that we already are. Tariffs of 100% on China EVs is a nuclear weapon to prevent them from gaining any ground here. And the charging infrastructure?

Tesla's US Supercharger network:

"As of the fourth quarter of 2023, Tesla had 5,952 Supercharger stations in the United States with nearly 54,900 Supercharger connectors."

China:

"Tesla operates over 2,000 sites in the country with over 12,000 stalls as of July 2024."

But yeah, US = bad and stupid amirite?

A Global Times article says that China has 3,000,000 public EV chargers[0]

US Department of Energy data has the number for the USA and Canada combined as 66,650[1]

This might not be Apples to Apples as the USA numbers might be "sites" and the china number might be "chargers", but I don't think there's anywhere close to an average of 45 chargers per site to make up the difference.

[0] https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202406/1314382.shtml

[1]https://afdc.energy.gov/fuels/electricity-locations

> Tariffs of 100% on China EVs is a nuclear weapon to prevent them from gaining any ground here

Doesn't matter if Chinese manufacturers enjoy economies of scale from supplying Europe, South and Southeast Asia, Africa and South America. If American automakers are constrained to America and grow complacent, the compounding effects of learning curves and R&D advantage due to greater total profits will leave us with a fleet of Ladas.

At the end of the day we have to compete. Other than Tesla, we are uncompetitive in the mass market. The tariffs are meant to give us a safe harbor. But they don't automatically deliver us an edge.