EU car manufacturers have the same conundrum too as far as I know.
Or, to put it in another way; better and cheaper options for consumers.
> in every country that doesn’t have domestic car industry or huge tariffs against them.
Not every country needs a local car industry. Having a small number of efficient manufacturing countries means that everyone (both the consumers and the manufacturing countries) are better off.
As a non-American, there is nothing special or magical about the US economy besides its size. American cars are generally sub-standard and are increasingly unpopular in my country as they are either too large/loud or saddled with US politics.
Maybe you live in an apartment where you can't charge overnight. Or don't have many options for fast charging. Or you drive enough that the range is an issue and you don't want to plan around that or have to own a second car for long trips.
There are many places and use cases where EVs work great. And there are many where they do not.
I should have added hybrids in my original comment.
Really wanted an EV, especially a newer depreciated Tesla, but I just can’t get past the idea of what the car will be in 12 or 15 years. My prior car was a 2005 CRV.
Ended up going with a Corolla hybrid. Gets over 50 mpg and travels a lot under electric power. I think chances are pretty good it’ll still be viable transportation after a decade.
The factories that existing ICE engines are made in, both their build and every retooling has a cost; being able to maximize the saleable product from that cost is in the best interests of the balance sheet.
This is a challenge for both the US as well as Japan which is why you see each doing different weird things to try and kick the can down the road or ignore it. But that's a deeper part of the rabbit hole.
The difference is about one order, that makes it a difference of kind when mercantilism is the current successful strategy.
Good thing Covid revealed how weak countries have gotten relying to heavily in critical industries.
it is not like every four/eight years we get to decide what is being subsidized - america is just as socialist as china when it comes to this shit :)
An internal combustion F-150 costs less than an electric one, I believe the same is true for the Maverick though to a lesser degree. The hybrid Maverick does gangbusters with similar prices; if the electric F-150 cost the same as the gas one and there was a hybrid one at the same price I'd wager that you'd see a lot more uptake than you do of the current Lightning.
Electricity cost is on par or exceeds cost of ICE fuel (gas or diesel) in most of the western world and beyond. Also EVs have much lower resale value.
That's assuming you have to pay for it. I charge my car from my roof top solar, so it costs nothing.
The resale value for EV's isn't good, but the reason is battery prices are dropping, and batteries are the primary cost of an EV. They dropped 30% in the last year. If that continues, it's all over for US car makers once the tariffs go away.
The resale values on used EVs are poor because things are improving so fast. The new ones are better and cheaper, which isn’t really the case for ICE models.
The only exceptions are the first few years of Leaf’s, since they ate batteries, and teslas because of the non-removable MAGA bumper stickers.
I bought my ev used for 16k, with a basically brand new battery (mandatory recall) still under warranty. I'm not gonna resell it, I'm probably gonna keep it till the wheels fall off.
Doubt.
The emissions standards reward larger vehicles that generally start around $35k-$40k. Americans just love going immediately underwater on a $100k Grand Wagoneer.
Heavily vehicles may be cheaper for whatever reason you cite. But they are still much more expensive than smaller sedans. People still buy the heavier vehicles.
If money mattered you can look at the toyota corolla for much less than the cheapest f150.
But perhaps most importantly, we must transition from fossil fuels to avoid the most dire possible outcomes of climate change. It doesn't matter if you enjoy a pipe after dinner, you can't smoke in a family restaraunt because it would harm the well-being of the other diners.
I can buy an electric car now, I can buy an ICE Car whats the difference?
Meanwhile, American manufacturers will lazily enjoy comfortable margins guaranteed by the protectionist tariffs without needing to make meaningful investments in new technology. They will fall even further behind and become even less competitive. But the American people will be told--truthfully--that if they do not continue buying overpriced, technically inferior vehicles, the entire domestic auto industry will fall, with dire consequences for thousands of American workers.
We bailed out the auto industry in 2008. The bipartisan tariffs on Chinese EVs is effectively another giant domestic auto industry bailout at great cost to American consumers, though they by and large are oblivious to this. But an argument could have been made that these tariffs were a necessary and temporary measure to give the US auto industry time and space to catch up to their foreign competition. With this change, these tariffs will need to be a permanent ball and chain on the American consumer. The US auto industry will never be able to exist without them.
As an example, Australia has lifted many of the import barriers to entry to the car market and is flooded (in a good way) with cheap, reliable, and safe electric vehicles. US cars, once heavily dominating under local branding, are vanishingly rare (except in the "light truck wanker" marketplace).
Where they'll save money is chasing edge cases like cold start in certain ambient conditions, during shift points and whatnot. Most people don't really appreciate how much effort goes into emissions compliance in those sorts of transient conditions.