this post was submitted on 03 Nov 2026
87 points (96.8% liked)

News

39947 readers
3945 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person or their instance. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on. Keep on-topic


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious biased sources will be removed at the mods’ discretion. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted separately but not to the post body. Sources may be checked for reliability using Wikipedia, MBFC, AdFontes, GroundNews, etc.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source. Clickbait titles may be removed.


Posts which titles don’t match the source may be removed. If the site changed their headline, we may ask you to update the post title. Clickbait titles use hyperbolic language and do not accurately describe the article content. When necessary, post titles may be edited, clearly marked with [brackets], but may never be used to editorialize or comment on the content.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials, videos, press releases, or celebrity gossip will be allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis. Mods may use discretion to pre-approve videos or press releases from highly credible sources that provide unique, newsworthy content not available or possible in another format.


7. No duplicate posts.


If an article has already been posted, it will be removed. Different articles reporting on the same subject are permitted. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners or news aggregators.


All posts must link to original article sources. You may include archival links in the post description. News aggregators such as Yahoo, Google, Hacker News, etc. should be avoided in favor of the original source link. Newswire services such as AP, Reuters, or AFP, are frequently republished and may be shared from other credible sources.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
 

A group representing nearly all major automakers on Monday, Nov. 2 urged U.S. lawmakers to pass a permanent ban on Chinese vehicles when they return next week for a quick session after the midterm congressional elections.

In September, the Senate sponsors of the bipartisan effort to ban Chinese vehicles agreed to delay an effort to fast-track the bill until November despite overwhelming support.

Some congressional aides and auto lobbyists think if Democrats win control of Congress there may not be enough time to approve the Chinese vehicle ban before this session ends in December.

top 27 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] stumu415@lemmy.zip 3 points 16 hours ago

Except for the Ford CEO who is refusing to give up his Xiaomi SU7. Because in his words, 'the best car he's ever driven'.

Another US fail where they have been passed by the rest of the world. But by all means, keep building giant gas gusslers. It's not like fuel is expensive or anything.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/byd-sold-over-300000-evs-in-october-more-than-the-us-sold-all-quarter/ar-AA2gKe3U

[–] badgermurphy@lemmy.world 4 points 22 hours ago

You know what they say: "if you can't beat 'em, pay the government to beat 'em."

[–] Radical_Socialist_t00t@lemmy.ca 1 points 16 hours ago

Sure right after the tesla ban

[–] Stormy@thelemmy.club 3 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago)

I really want one. This isn't right.

[–] Greyghoster@aussie.zone 1 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Now the Democrats have got control in Jan where does this go now?

[–] wpb@lemmy.world 1 points 13 hours ago

Same direction? Why would it change?

[–] gridlock@lemmy.blahaj.zone 53 points 2 days ago (4 children)

They can’t make cars under $20000 and only Slate can potentially make an EV under $25000. They can’t handle higher fuel economy standards. They can’t figure out how to sell anything other than trucks.

So why do they need to ban cars that they have no appetite to build?

[–] luckybart@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 16 hours ago

My 2¢ on Slate: if $25k is meant to be cheap they missed the mark. I'd have one for $15k, maybe.

I know the whole sector is inflated in the US, but that's also why bringing in Chinese EVs is not a bad idea.

[–] Ariselas@piefed.ca 19 points 2 days ago (1 children)

you answered your own question, they cant compete

[–] StabbingSky@lemmy.zip 17 points 2 days ago (2 children)

No, they can compete, they just refuse to and chose to go the regulatory capture route insteae.

[–] CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You're telling me these companies can compete against the deep pockets of the Chinese government? This is like arguing that mom and pop stores can compete against Walmart "but they just don't want to."

Care to detail exactly how China is able to build and sell cars so much cheaper than any other car manufacturer in the world, especially when they're so new to it? Do you think its some secret sauce that nobody in the world has yet to figure out or just a temporary ploy to seize control of an entire industry before transforming into the very enemy you speak of now.

[–] badgermurphy@lemmy.world 2 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

The domestic automakers have become hopelessly addicted to American oligopoly profit margins, and have entirely forgotten how to compete for business and win on merit.

If they went back and read one of those old boring economics textbooks, they would learn that you can successfully operate on a reasonable margin and lock in repeat business by establishing a good reputation and overall being desirable.

Competing nations subsidizing their industry is what tools like trade restrictions and tariffs are for, of course, but they are tools meant to level the playing field, not to pick winners and losers. Banning the sale of products like the Toyota Hilux and the whole BYD product line is simply naked cowardice manifested through regulatory capture.

[–] CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works 1 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

There are only three remaining domestic manufacturers (Ford, GM, Tesla) and they only make up a minority of sales in the US. It really puzzles me why so many people think the US automotive market is entirely made up of American companies when it so obviously isn't. No other automaker in the world is able to build and sell vehicles as cheap as these Chinese brands are doing and that's because the Chinese government is paying the difference. That isn't a sustainable model long term. These prices can't last forever. Some people think we should do what China is doing with subsidies, but do you think sending even more of our tax dollars to Elon Musk, Mary Barra, or Jim Farley is the answer? That's what that solution looks like.

As far as margins go, you can Google this information. GM's net profit margin for 2025 was 1%, Ford's was -4%, and Teslas was 4%. What room do they have here? If they drop them even further, where do they get the money to further develop EVs?

I do agree that an outright ban is too far, but I do support heavy tariffs at the least as anything less is just sacrificing some of the few remaining manufacturing jobs left in this country and shipping them overseas all for an extremely temporary benefit.

[–] badgermurphy@lemmy.world 1 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) (1 children)

I think that this inability to compete stems from a cultural aversion to reinvestment among those in the business world.

If these cars are making them those tiny or even negative margins at these prices that look like mortgages, they would benefit from evaluating themselves from top to bottom:

  • Would our costs diminish over time if we invested in our build infrastructure more?
  • Are we including features, amenities, and adornments that negatively impacting margins, affordability, and overall sales volume?
  • Do we have institutional inefficiencies from previous mergers and acquisitions that we have never completed and reorganized even decades after they were complete?
  • Are we as competitive on quality, safety, and other influential metrics as we could be?
  • Are we innovating in ways people are influenced by?
  • Is our executive pay reasonable for the value they bring to our company?
  • Are our advertising, secondary business units, and other costly programs generating the return on the investments that we hoped for?

I believe that companies that grow to the size and influence that these have, they uniformly develop pathological behaviors and methods centered around maximizing value extraction from the business entity and dictating terms to the market they "serve". Soul-searching questions like those above, and really any sentiment toward genuine investment and betterment at all become foreign, radical, and distasteful to them and their supporters. They then shuffle along for potentially decades after they have essentially died, persisting on critical mass alone until the market is finally disrupted enough where that alone can't save them. BYD may be heavily subsidized, but they're also comparatively new and young, able to innovate and respond to market demands, fundamental practices their older monopolistic competitors have long ago lost interest in doing.

[–] CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works 1 points 14 hours ago

Those are all fine questionsn but until you actually have the answer to them, who are you or anyone else to pass judgement or make proclamations about them?

BYD may be heavily subsidized, but they're also comparatively new and young, able to innovate and respond to market demands, fundamental practices their older monopolistic competitors have long ago lost interest in doing.

They're not able to innovate and respond quickly because they're new. They're able to do this because they have a blank check to do so with plenty of local 'competitors' in the same situation; the whole 10,000 apes sitting at typewriters scenario. We can see the same thing here in the US with venture capitalists funding all sorts of startups and look where that has gotten us. Tesla is also new and young but we haven't seen any innovations from them in about a decade now, just to demonstrate my point.

What new innovations are you referring to specifically by the way? AFAIK the appeal of Chinese EVs is that they're selling for 1/4 the price of any other nation's EVs. This wasn't accomplished through innovation. It was accomplished through deep pockets. I don't know of any feature present in Chinese EVs that someone else hasn't already figured out.

[–] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 0 points 1 day ago

They really can't actually compete. The upfront costs to make a factory and assembly line and all that automation {or human labor) is astronomically higher in price and slower in build in the US, compared to China. There really is no way the US can compete with China on pricing in manufacturing vehicles.

Which is why it should just be left to die off instead of propping up the industry that moved half their plants to Mexico, anyhow.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 7 points 1 day ago

only Slate can potentially make an EV under $25000

by assembling it from Chinese parts.

[–] Malica@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 day ago

Because they're fat cats that need to rig the game to get people to accept how awful they are, when they're the only choice.

[–] bagsy@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Because fuck the consumers who just want a cheap reliable car and not a $100k f-900 maga truck.

[–] mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca 1 points 16 hours ago

you want an economical, practical, reliable car that you're happy with and that will develop brand loyalty?

too bad, best I can do is something that has a touchscreen cockpit you won't be able to use in sunlight and without taking your eyes off the road, headlights that will blind oncoming traffic at all times but especially some of the most dangerous times, and reliability that will have you back in the dealership every few months for issues that are overly complicated to fix!

[–] Corvidae@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago

Politicians don't talk about free markets anymore.

[–] GoTime@lemmy.world 26 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Yay the power of the free market! Capitalism survival of the fittest… oh wait.

[–] Triumph@fedia.io 7 points 1 day ago

I get what you're saying, but capitalism and free markets are different things.

[–] Kaligalis@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago

It really doesn't get more invisible hand of the market than this.

[–] voxthefox@lemmy.blahaj.zone 19 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Fuck off, maybe should have spent all that lobbying money to prop up a dying industry on innovating your product, may you all join Kodak & Blockbuster down the road to obscurity.

[–] nastronot@lemmy.zip 11 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Easier to ban than innovate.

CEOs aren’t innovators. MBAs aren’t engineers. We’ve got highly complicated companies run by people who can’t print to pdf.

[–] Malica@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 day ago

Our system is built to enable and promote abusers, they don't make for good decision makers. They're good at making cruel decisions and that makes the line go up, that's why they're in charge. They will still make terrible decisions though.