US should block cheap Chinese auto imports from Mexico, US makers say

MakunaHatata@lemmy.ml to News@lemmy.world – 77 points –
reuters.com

The U.S. government should block the import of low-cost Chinese autos and parts from Mexico, a U.S. manufacturing advocacy group said on Friday, warning they could threaten the viability of American car companies.

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They're not, its just that decent electric drive trains are kinda expensive. Old 4 cylinder engines with simple transmissions are actually pretty cheap to manufacture in comparison. There are some that work fine (Mini Cooper Se for example), but they usually have a fairly short range of under 100 miles.

Yeah, the closest example might be the Chevy Bolt (which seems to get very positive reviews).

They were not getting high enough margins on the Bolt so they planned to kill it off in favor of the Silverado and GMC Sierra EVs. They got a lot of shit for it since that is by far their best selling EV so they backpedaled and said they were only taking a year off and it will be back on the Optium platform. Unfortunately that likely means they will be using GM's garbage infotainment system that has led to tons of their EVs being recalled.

I sometimes wonder what happened to that car.

BYD is selling a low end EV in China for $12k. They have nice cars in the $30k range. They have built out a supply chain that makes this possible (cheaper labor, too).