Welcome back to another edition of The Morning—I can’t say it. Talks over what to name The Autopian’s morning news roundup remain ongoing, but significant progress has been made in recent days; all parties involved are confident they can reach a deal soon, according to sources familiar with the matter.
While deliberations continue, today’s dispatch brings us news about what really happened to BYD in America, more complications in this country surrounding the Chinese auto industry, and more headaches for Ford over its disastrous dual-clutch transmission from a decade earlier.
Grab the keys to the BYD Han EV you (probably) don’t own and let’s hit the road!
IRA Hits BYD
A year ago, it seemed like nascent Chinese automaker titan BYD—the world’s biggest maker of “electric vehicles” ahead of Tesla if you also count plug-in hybrids—was pretty well-positioned to take on the difficult but crucial U.S. market. It was looking at setting up dealer networks and advertising campaigns. Executives were sure they had the right stuff to take on Tesla here; they saw themselves on that level, not as some budget brand like Hyundai did when it started out.
As we get 2023 well underway, it’s crickets now from BYD. What the hell happened? Reuters has the scoop today, and among other things, the answer is the Inflation Reduction Act: the new Biden Administration legislation that prioritizes U.S. EV and battery manufacturing for maximum tax incentives. That, and the generally difficult state of U.S.-China relations. From that story:
[Sources] described the study as advanced and serious, with specific recommendations from Detroit-based consultancy Urban Science on how many outlets in each state and city BYD would need, as well as formats for the brick-and-mortar stores.
The momentum was building towards an announcement at this year’s global CES tech show in Las Vegas, where BYD was planning to showcase a new generation of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrids for the U.S. market, a BYD official said.
The announcement never came. Tense relations between Washington and Beijing, anti-China sentiment in the United States and President Joe Biden’s move to prioritize home-grown production of EVs and batteries all pushed BYD to hit the pause button, one of the sources said.
BYD’s management has yet to give the project a final green light and an aggressive U.S. expansion remains unlikely for the foreseeable future, the source said.
“BYD is taking a cautious approach to the U.S.,” the person said. “Think about all the U.S.-China political tensions and then think about the craziness of the whole world now. You don’t want to jump into a big mess.”
One assumes China’s own challenging political situation at home, with surging COVID-19 rates and lockdown protests, isn’t helping either.
This is a really interesting story in that it also dives into how BYD executives knew five years ago that their EVs weren’t ready for global primetime in terms of quality and specs. That’s no longer the case, they believe, and since then the automaker has established a commanding lead in China and established big pushes into Europe, Japan, Australia and other markets.
But arguably, you haven’t “made it” until you’ve conquered North America, and the rules under the IRA already put BYD on the defensive—who would want to enter the EV game here now when so many competitors can offer $7,500 tax breaks and you can’t? It’s part of why Hyundai, Kia and the European brands are so livid about the law. And it’s made tougher for BYD, a new and unproven brand from a country whose cars American buyers aren’t remotely familiar with yet.
Don’t count BYD out forever, though. The story says America is still on its radar someday. And here’s Zhang Wei, founder of Yuanhao Capital Management and a big BYD shareholder, on why this company is such a manufacturing powerhouse:
Unlike many rivals, BYD can meet most of its battery and EV systems needs alone. It sources key battery materials in part from its mines in China and makes its own batteries and semiconductors, including the power-management chips that are crucial components in EVs, Zhang said.
“Other than windshields and tires, they can make on their own just about everything in the car. They have their own construction company that helps build factories. That’s how they can speed things up,” he said. “I would say BYD at this point is already better positioned than Tesla in the EV era.”
According to two Toyota officials who are close to Toyota’s joint R&D center with BYD in Shenzhen, BYD’s product development cost is 20% to 30% lower than at the Japanese carmaker.
If you can really go toe-to-toe with Toyota on manufacturing efficiency without sacrificing quality—and that remains a big if—you are probably not to be underestimated. [Ed note: Whenever someone mentions BYD I pop up like a genie, so I’d just add that BYD actually has a plant in America making buses with American batteries, and, well, that hit some rough patches with the Feds as well. – MH]
VA Governor Torpedoes Ford-CATL Battery Plant Over China Concerns
Let’s dive into just how precarious the U.S.-China situation is right now, especially as that country’s automotive sector seeks to become the next great global powerhouse in EVs in particular.
The Detroit News reports that Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin axed plans to build a Ford battery plant that would’ve brought 2,500 jobs to that state. Why? Because the plant was a joint venture with CATL, the Chinese battery juggernaut. CATL’s the biggest EV battery supplier in the world, basically, and a supplier to companies like Tesla. But Youngkin just can’t have any of that goofy communism stuff in his state:
“While Ford is an iconic American company, it became clear that this proposal would serve as a front for the Chinese Communist party, which could compromise our economic security and Virginians’ personal privacy,” Youngkin spokesperson Macaulay Porter said in a statement to The Detroit News.
[…It] appears to be off the table after Youngkin rejected the project in December, a decision that potentially cost one of the poorest parts of Virginia at least 2,500 jobs. The project would have been built on the Southern Virginia Mega Site at Berry Hill in Pittsylvania County, in the Southside region of south-central Virginia, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported.
The Times-Dispatch reported that the plant would have produced lithium iron phosphate batteries for Ford’s EVs. Ford in July unveiled key aspects of its strategy for sourcing raw materials for batteries, including the addition of LFP battery cells to its portfolio — a move that would help the Dearborn automaker reduce its reliance on such battery minerals as nickel and cobalt.
The battery plant may go to Michigan instead now, and probably just as well for the automotive sector in that state.
The Detroit News story wisely notes that Youngkin is a likely Republican candidate for president in 2024, so that probably influenced his thinking at least somewhat here. But the move speaks to the general wariness Americans have, especially on the political right, when it comes to China anything. Youngkin was one of several GOP U.S. governors who also banned Chinese-owned TikTok from government computers and phones.
Maybe the key issue here is motivation. Was the Ford-CATL plant a threat to Virginians’ “economic security” and “personal privacy,” as Youngkin says? Probably not? Also, this plant was going to make batteries for the F-150 Lightning and Mustang Mach-E, not a giant printing press that would put a book full of Mao quotes in the hands of every child in the Commonwealth. Jobs are jobs, too, and Virginia needs more of those.
A major goal of the IRA is to not cede the battery and EV supply chain to China. You know if automakers had their way, they’d just build everything there because it’s cheaper. But this was a Ford joint venture with a pretty huge, leading Chinese company, not the offshoring of jobs and production. Hell, Ford could arguably learn some stuff about battery manufacturing from CATL; why shouldn’t we steal their technology for a change?
If you need another perspective, here’s the libertarian magazine Reason, which thinks this move was kind of short-sighted and overtly political:
But even if CATL did share its technology with the Chinese government, it’s not clear how that constitutes a national security risk to the United States. After all, battery cells made by private companies are not state secrets. And plenty of other automakers already manufacture electric cars, meaning that China can’t have a monopoly on battery technology. Besides, if Americans are able to buy cars that don’t have to use gasoline, what does it matter who manufactured them?
More than anything, Youngkin’s decision feels like good old-fashioned economic protectionism, favoring domestic companies over foreign firms no matter the impact on the end consumer. In the State of the Commonwealth address, Youngkin also called for the General Assembly to “send me a bill to prohibit dangerous foreign entities tied to the CCP from purchasing Virginia farmland.” This is a similarly bipartisan proposition: In last year’s Georgia gubernatorial debate, Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams complained about “the rise of Chinese Communist Party-backed companies purchasing American farmland.” Notably, in each case, neither China nor the state government is seizing anyone’s land; Chinese entities are purchasing land at rates Americans are willing to accept.
That story also notes Youngkin said, “We felt that the right thing to do was to not recruit Ford as a front for China to America.” That’s… a reach, to put it politely!
Now you see why BYD wants to just sit this one out for a minute.
$58,000 For A 2013 Ford Fiesta
No, that isn’t a headline about used car prices, plausible as it may be. It’s the amount a federal jury awarded the owner of that car in yet another lawsuit over Ford’s disastrous PowerShift transmission from the previous decade.
Here’s The Detroit Free Press on the case, part of a series of cases that Ford keeps losing:
A Los Angeles federal jury ruled last week against Ford Motor Co. in the case of a 2013 Fiesta owner whose car required three new clutches and six transmission repairs in fewer than three years, dealing yet another blow to Ford in a case involving an unfixable defective transmission.
This is the third loss in a row for Ford in cases from consumers who opted out of a class-action settlement related to the DPS6 dual-clutch “PowerShift” transmission used in some 2 million Focus and Fiesta cars sold over a decade.
Ford customers have claimed in legal filings their 2012-16 Focus and 2011-16 Fiesta compact cars were built with transmissions prone to shuddering, slipping, bucking, jerking, hesitation while changing gears, premature internal wear, delays in downshifting and, in some cases, sudden or delayed acceleration.
Plaintiff Rodolfo Mejia was awarded $58,015.36 after the jury found Ford to have violated California’s powerful Song-Beverly Consumer Warranty Act by not fixing the damn gearbox for good.
I wonder what he’ll buy with that money after the lawyer’s fees are deducted. I hope it’s not another Fiesta.
The Flush (Or Whatever We Want To Call This Now)
What’s your take on Youngkin’s move to boot Ford and CATL out of Virginia? Who’s in the right here, and how does America walk the line when it comes to China’s auto industry?
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Re: new name:
North American Motoring Informational Assessment of The Autopian
This is always the answer.
I’m generally quite wary of China, but that CATL deal didn’t sound so terrible – if there are ways to bring Yuans back here, they should be explored in detail.
I never minded the “The Morning Dump”, and greatly enjoy reading it, but in retrospect maybe the name is a little corny. As for something that better passes the sniff test, I thought I’d float a few suggestions:
The Signal: On, Off, On, Off, On, Off; The Flash
Breakfast Spaghetti: Noodle1, Noodle2, Noodle3; The Shower
AM Delights: Position 1, Position 2, Position 3; The Bust (hat tip to RCR)
Autopian Morning Chow (for you AMC fans out there): Mmm, Mmmm, Mmmmm; Good
Beleuchtungsseite: lampe, scheinwerfer, blinklicht; Sehr Helles Licht!
The Guv is trying to appeal to the base and raise national stature before a 2024 run. The folks in NoVA are likely mad they got tricked into voting for a MAGA in moderate clothing, so the Guv has but one chance to make a case for a presidential run in my estimate.
There was no trickery involved. Younkin has always been loud and clear that he is MAGA and quite dumb. NoVa was strongly against him they just didn’t turn out strongly enough. Hopefully the people who voted for him will recognize how they have voted against their own self-interests but I fear that ignorance and racism will drown that out.
Yeah, he doesn’t want the 2024 primary or general election ads zooming in on an unflattering black and white picture of himself while a voiceover talks about “Youngkin even did a special deal with Communist China to build a factory, tell Beijing Glen he’s just too extreme for America”. Even worse if they had a sound byte of him at the factory opening that they could edit to sound pro-China and play over and over again. Purely political decision, bad for his state, but he’s assuming it could be used against him somehow next year and thinks that’s the bigger threat
I’m in Virginia. Everything I hear the Governor doing seems to be solely aimed at his presidential bid. Pittsylvania Co is solidly red: they voted for him. The announcement of the battery plant was very welcome, and now that’s being taken away.
Knew someone with a 13 Focus. That transmission is unsettling at speeds under 30. It would hesitate, then grab a gear. Downshifting was strange more than 1/2 the time. Software update was no help at all no matter what the dealer said
Firstly the CCP needs to cease to exist.
All Chinese companies are inextricably tied to the CCP and every one is compromised by them. Any IP you share with them should be considered no longer yours.
If CATL has any control when it comes to this battery plant if it ends up being made then the CCP has that same control. If CATL can shutter the battery plant then the CCP can shutter the battery plant.
To be frank there’s nothing stopping the CCP from taking full control of any Chinese company, it’s just a matter of whether it’ll happen or not.
So to say doing business with any Chinese company is sketchy is putting it extremely lightly.
US citizens and Ford employees will be working there, so if shit hits the fan with China (“If CATL can shutter the battery plant then the CCP can shutter the battery plant”) I don’t see any reason why we couldn’t just claim eminent domain and seize the factory and continue to use it for Ford.
I’m not saying in wartime that cannot happen, rather in peacetime it is highly unlikely that would happen, and with all the anti mining people in the US I doubt we would be sourcing the minerals needed for the batteries from anywhere besides China. So if the CCP in control of CATL force them to shut down the plant I doubt there would be much Ford could do about it.
Now if Ford sourced all their battery materials from the US then that’s a whole other situation.
It’s interesting you said that. I read yesterday in Digital Music News that the CCP is increasing it’s stake in Bytedance (TikTok), Alibaba and Tencent.
Here’s the site: https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2023/01/15/ccp-shares-alibaba-tencent-bytedance/
I suggest you read the entire article, but focus on this bit: “The Chinese government is buying shares, usually a 1% holding in a vital area, in tech companies like Alibaba, ByteDance, and Tencent to be more deeply involved in their businesses, according to a report from the Financial Times. These shares are known as “special management shares” that enable the government to make certain decisions at these companies, enacting more significant influence over the tech sector and the content it provides to China’s people.”
Everyone’s familiar with Alibaba and TikTok. Tencent, meanwhile, is a major shareholder in Universal Music Group, the parent of MCA Records, which owns the rights to Lee Greenwood’s hit, “God Bless The USA'” among other hit songs. Any bets on how Beijing forces Tencent to erase the song from its catalog?
I’m glad that we’re getting a new daily section. “Morning Dump” didn’t reflect the humour/professionalism of the rest of the site. Sounds like something that 15 y.o. me would suggest, and that guy was clueless!
You guys probably have better options lined up, but just in case, what about “The Daily Drive“? It is car related without being gimmicky, and we talk about our daily drivers all the time!
Other equally lame suggestions (I’m a data analyst, not a marketing guy!):
* The Autopian Crank Up – Pair it up with a nice Model T period picture for extra retro charm. Unless this is slang for drugs or something…
* The Pit Stop – well, English is not my first language – does this sound like “bathroom break”?
* The Fill Up (Same disclaimer as above, but worse)
* The Quarter Mile – Usually we have four facts, right? So, 1/4, 2/4, 3/4, 4/4 and The stop (current “flush”). Makes sense? I never saw a quarter mile in my life (sorry, born and raised on Metric)
* Morning Rush – now that presential work is coming back in full, we can all relate. Maybe the start of a positive connotation for this expression?
* The Ride Along – well, they are conducted in cars/trucks…
* The Roundabout – We round up news, and roundabouts are circular? Also, there is a song by that name that I like 🙂
* The Morning News Roundup – The “screw it” solution. “Clever name to be decided at a later date, for now, here are the news”
The Commute
make it Daily Driver instead.
I sure hope Youngkin’s staff doesn’t order any eggrolls or General Tsao’s. They’d be helping ChiCom destroy Murka!
Call it whatever you want, it’s a fun read to check in with during the week regardless. Also, you don’t pay me enough to do your homework, lol. ( I already suggested a spaghetti theme and that’s all the energy I have for that 🙂 )
As far as the whole China thing, well it’s not like their stamp isn’t all over most facets of our lives as it is. America as a whole seems to be pretty cool with whatever the hell Nike does and they are just one company. Are batteries all that different from tracksuits and surf shoes? I dunno for sure, but I lean to the side of 6 of one is a half dozen, etc.
I think that the bigger issue is the idea of personal privacy, which will never be protected because there is too much money involved in making the individual consumer the actual product, whether it be from a Chinese entity or from ol’ Baldy Beezees and the ilk. The privacy ship left port a long time ago. So yeah, screw it, let ’em in all the way to the knuckles. If we are all gonna go down in a ball of flames, might as well have some authentic Kung Pow for the ride.
I’ve got no interest in owning much of anything manufactured exclusively in China. You can’t help it with some things, but when you can you should.
The manual Fiesta / Focus are OK, right?
Better than OK. My 2018 Fiesta ST has been nothing short of brilliant.
You just have to understand how bad the autos were, and the experience denoted in the article was not that unusual. A friend of my son’s was on his third transmission in 50,000 miles.
The manuals are fine.
The PowerShift is an absolute piece of garbage. There’s a reason not many Foci and Fiestas are on their third owners now. The transmission died and fixing it is impossible. And it was a terrible transmission when it was operating. I had a rental Focus once with that transmission. It was not pleasant.
BYD and the other Chinese can still undercut the US, even without the IRA tax incentives and shit, and I don’t even mean the $1000 Changli 😛
All Ford had to do was stop using the PowerShit and replace it with a regular automatic. In fact, the Mk6 Fiesta was available with a 4-speed automatic in other markets. It’s the 4F27E they had been using for years.
The best part: when Ford stopped selling them here, they finally went back to a regular automatic and ditched the DCT for both the Fiesta and Focus. IOW, Ford did it on purpose to sabotage their small cars in the US so that they can only make the F150.
Ford should be prohibited from building any new F-series trucks until they repair or replace every PowerShit Fiesta and Focus with either a torque converter automatic, just replace the transmission, or give them a brand new Mk7 Fiesta or Mk4 Focus for free
“significant progress has been made in recent days; all parties involved are confident they can reach a deal soon, according to sources familiar with the matter”
Is there any chance of having a reader poll for the finalists?
While we’re at it, Shitbox Showdown could become Crapcan Conundrum.
I actually like the Morning Dump and even The Flush and I guess that says everything you need to know about me.
Yeah, I was a bit surprised to see they want to rename it, though as the first anniversary March 32nd comes around I can see it. I just hope it’s something equally irreverent.
I don’t have great ideas for a renamed Morning Dump, but I’m sure you’ll come up with something great. I’ve been thinking of car lot or junkyard crawl themes, but they feel very forced. Shifting is already taken. Something with laps might be okay, with the end being a victory lap or something. Or, I dunno, something with speeds or RPM.
Or you could call it the Autopian Heads-Up Display or something.
But I think we’re all okay reading the daily news briefs without a clever gimmick if you don’t want one, as well.
The more I think about it, the more I think that gauges and dashboards might be the direction. The Tach might work, or if you want to stay a little sillier, use warning lights. It could also sort of categorize news blurbs if you’re consistent about what kinds of things get Check Engine vs TPM vs wiper fluid or whatever else.
The Autopian HUD feels like it captures the sort of at-a-glance nature, but not the broader sorts of cars common here. But dashboards are a lot more universal.
On one of my favorite forums, there’s a thread about just wandering through junkyards to see what’s there. No tools in hand, just… walk through.
Called “Zen in the Junkyard”
There are a lot of Zen and the Art of ____ Maintenance style books out there. Maybe something along those lines?
I’m not opposed to the notion of resisting doing business with China in this case, but the thing is that plant will just move to another state, so it’s hard to see how that’s a win for Virginians.
Make up your mind.
If you want foreign competition, including the Chinese, selling cars in the U.S. give the same government subsidy to all producers of electric vehicles. That gives the most benefit to consumers as it allows them the most choice. Anyhow it’s likely that the WTO is going to punish other American companies as retaliation for what amounts to a tariff on foreign EV’s.
(see Steel https://news.yahoo.com/wto-thin-ice-metals-tariff-185430008.html)
If you feel that protecting the U.S. auto industry against the Chinese is more important than lower prices through competition on EV’s then block any EV ventures in the U.S. by the Chinese.
Patrick, I gave this a whole moment of consideration and I came up with a suggested name for this feature:
The Morning Idle (it’s a pun, get it?)
Minute 1
Minute 2
Minute 3
PRNDL or The Shift (or something like that)
Maybe the Warm Up? Kind of goes with Jason’s Cold Start.
I like the idea of borrowing Start Ya Bastard for new title.
Hey, my last ’80s BMW had that name.
That’s strange, I just realized all my previous cars had the exact same name: C’mon Baby.
Can we come up with a different acronym for the Inflation Reduction Act. For those of us around 40, the headline ‘IRA hits BYD’ instantly has us thinking something completely different.
In my head my retirement fund and the Irish were making troubles for BYD.
Suddenly a wild Roth appears! But it is no match for your electric type BYD pokemon!
Every new BYD comes with a baclava and a M16
I had to double check the headline to check if it was UK and not US, and I’m only 39!
“IRA spells trouble for EV upstart Mountbatten Motors”
Also see: Pierce Brosnan and Jackie Chan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_rSAbYyIq0
Over 40, more like it. I am old enough to remember the Troubles starting.
IRA always gets me, as does WFH, which always momentarily confuses me as WTF.
I don’t know enough to form an informed opinion on the specific partnership, but the fact that he was calling it a front for the Chinese Communist Party suggests Youngkin doesn’t know enough to have an informed opinion, either. While China is definitely amassing as much economic strength as they can through IP theft and cheap labor, they aren’t sending their companies here to make inroads for the CCP. Instead, a joint venture with Ford would mean we would likely see Chinese versions of these batteries cranked out by a bunch of Chinese manufacturers as cheaply as they can get away with.
Given that CATL is already a huge battery supplier, even that seems like a fairly minor risk. This is probably mostly a way to get CATL batteries that are US-made to meet the tax requirements. Whether that is giving a Chinese company too much of an economic advantage is certainly a question one can ask, and whether allowing a Chinese company to do business on US soil is just sidestepping the IRA is also a fair question. If we are trying to limit China’s economic power, then allowing them to do business here may be ill-advised, though at least it puts the factory within US regulatory oversight, unlike many joint ventures that take advantage of China’s cheap labor.
There are a lot of things going on here, and there are certainly arguments to be made, but Youngkin bringing up personal privacy and CCP influence leads me to believe he’s not considering thoughtful, nuanced arguments.
“thoughtful, nuanced arguments” don’t generally resonate with your average mouth breather voter. However I agree with the overall sentiment that China should not be allowed to gain an economic stronghold in the USA.
>Youngkin doesn’t know enough to have an informed opinion
Why be informed when you can be Right?
Let me try to get this straight: Ford building a JV factory in China would be bad cause “jerbs outsourcing=baaad!!”, and at the same time Ford building a JV factory in the US is also bad cause “chyna=baaad!!” So if I was Ford could I ask “where da f**k should I build a plant to be ok with you people?”
At the same time this moron not letting them build it in Virginia doesn’t mean that now CATL will just shrug and give up, they’ll build it in Michigan, or somewhere else in the US. The only difference is that Virginia had already spent $200 millions on this development site in the past decade or so, but when the opportunity arrived to get something out of that spending they noped out.
Michigan will be like, “We already have the infrastructure, and we already have the labor pool. We can do the ribbon-cutting this afternoon.”
Even if the Virginia governor’s move was made in good faith (which is a big stretch!), he had to know he was merely relocating those jobs to someone else’s jurisdiction.
It seems that the only way that certain groups want things is to completely exclude China and pivot to entirely domestic manufacturing wherever possible, which is unrealistic. And, as you correctly point out, the inconsistency in how we treat China in this country (trade partner, foreign entity of concern, economic rival, etc.) simply means that halting a deal like this hurts one state, but benefits another.
Of course, Youngkin just cares about scoring political points, and this probably won’t hurt him.
If he really cared about the Chinese partnership, perhaps he could have spoken to Ford executives about potential European/Korean/Japanese partners to try to find alternatives.
Someone else beat me to it in the previous request for new name ideas, but I really like The Jump Start.
The tax rebate isn’t necessarily the most important factor in the decision to buy or lease a new EV. If overall cost is the major decision point, then there’s no competition for the Bolt – it’s absolutely the cheapest way to get into a new EV right now. But if you’ve got a little more cash to throw around, then there are other factors to consider.
Case in point: I recently decided to lease a Polestar 2 without the tax benefit (there’s still a $1500 state benefit in CO), because it was so much higher quality and offered a superior driving experience compared to any other EV I’ve driven recently. I test drove or rented the following before making my decision: Kona EV, Chevy Bolt EUV, Tesla Model S, Tesla M3, and Mustang Mach E. It finally came down to a choice between leasing the P*2 or buying the Mach E (to get the $7500 and because Ford’s lease deals stink). Between the higher quality of the P*2 and the desire to not purchase an EV in a market that is changing as fast as this one is, I decided on the lease.
I’ve had very little to complain about when it comes to this site. However, The Morning Dump is really unfortunate. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good poop joke but this is just too sophomoric, and not in a good way. Also, I don’t have any suggestions.
In summary, I’m politely criticizing without offering any useful solutions.
How about “Good Morning, Autopia!”, ditch the gimmick (flushing, gears, etc.) and just present it straight.
“Unlike many rivals, BYD can meet most of its battery and EV systems needs alone. It sources key battery materials in part from its mines in China and makes its own batteries and semiconductors, including the power-management chips that are crucial components in EVs, Zhang said.”
Yeah. Combine protectionism with justified skepticism (you’re not achieving that level of vertical integration in China without active government involvement on your side,) plus a healthy dose of domestic and international instability? Already the appetite’s gone. And you want to compete in a high priced segment ($60k+) heading into a recession?
Yeah, ask the Jeep dealers how $70k+ Wagoneers are doing right now. Sunday paper had a quarter page ad, $10,0000 off any Wagoneer on the lot.
Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin axed plans to build a Ford battery plant that would’ve brought 2,500 jobs to that state. Why? Because the plant was a joint venture with CATL, the Chinese battery juggernaut.
You could have stopped at the first word. Of course he’s using any flimsy excuse he can find to harm the idiots that voted for him. Their only interest is in doing damage, not governing. CATL by the way, was originally ATL, which was acquired by TDK (yep, the tape people in Japan,) who then spun it back out into CATL.
And unlike BYD and CALB (who are on older technology,) CATL is on the outs with the Chinese dictatorship.
But facts don’t matter to them. Only doing damage and causing harm.
“Plaintiff Rodolfo Mejia was awarded $58,015.36 after the jury found Ford to have violated California’s powerful Song-Beverly Consumer Warranty Act by not fixing the damn gearbox for good.”
An amount that Ford should be forced to pay to every single Fiesta owner affected by this. And it’s still too low a number.
Ship known defective shit, break the law repeatedly to hide it, and the penalties should goddamn near bankrupt you. Period.
Internal documents between engineering and other departments essentially say the design of the PowerShit transmission is inherently flawed. Does Ford really expect courts and the public at large to overlook that? I hope they’re taken to the cleaners on this fiasco.
How about calling it, “The Charging Station”? You get the daily news to electrify your conversation.
This is witty, and objectively a good idea. BUT, I cannot help sniffing a bit of “let’s hire a guy who hates cars and writes articles about bicycles for our car blog” to it. Entirely possible I’m being a bit old and paranoid. Still, I hope this place doesn’t position itself among those “EVs are the only cars worth talking about (unless we are crapping on them)” websites. Keep the poop joke. Let it be a daily reminder to not get too serious about all this.
No Orlove works at Stroad and Truck now.
Because I, personally, prefer gasoline to electricity?
Call it The Filling Station, “The Flush” can be turned into the “Checkout Counter” or something similar.
When US companies are allowed to compete on equal footing in China, I’ll start to have some sympathy for Chinese companies having trouble over here.
It’s nuts that over the past few years we read all about the troubles foreign manufacturers are having in China only to be blasted with basically “it’s not fair” when the chicoms get roadblocks on our home turf. I’m convinced the contrarians of the world only want to watch it burn for their own sick pleasures.
The Inflation Reduction Act is analogous to similar import-restricting laws that other countries have used against the US for *decades*, so yeah, forgive me if I don’t buy into their pearl-clutching.