of course....tesla does all the heavy lifting and then when the average Chinese sees it costs $120,000, BAIDU or whatever company I saw steps in and says here is ours for $45,000....(just dont expect it to work the same) But not even Volkswagon....every car manufacturer is now offering an EV and tesla will lose its focus from its CEO....
As with all other aspects of competing with China, their intellectual property piracy exacerbates everything.
eh....don't be so sure. China's at least on par with most domestic OEMs when it comes to EVs and battery tech. Probably one of the few instances where they've actually been on the vanguard.
China's EV dev is quite sophisticated and Tesla could learn a few things from the various local brands offerings. At the end of the day, this is all leading to EV expansion and is a good thing. China is big and directive enough to impose the transformation of its vehicle park from ice to EV. It may not need to export, at least for the foreseeable future. The political situation with Taiwan may even prevent them not only from exporting but also from acquiring parts from foreign entities, if they need them at all. In a tragic way, this is an opportunity for western auto manufacturing to speed up their EV development while China is confined.
Well of course, it is not just about the development and manufacturing of the vehicles. It is also about the charging stations. That is an obstacle that Americans run up against. They have to think that through to understand how an electric vehicle would work for them. Not a problem in China with their central planning and control. They look at the map and see where the major routes are and where the charging stations are needed, they happen. It's bass-ackwards in the U.S. EV cars are sold and owners sort of hope that the more there are on the road, the more charging stations there will be. China is in the hydrogen vehicle game too. So some of the same issues. And same solutions too. If a hydrogen refueling network is needed they will put in place via central planning.
heavy lifting by doing all the marekt push and generating buzz off of their proof of concept and making EVs viable in the market. Once tesla opened that door and made it hip and trendy, it was quite easy for other companies to throw money at it knowing it would work.
Well yes, it the nature of the American system to let competition determine outcome. By that logic the best prevails, notwithstanding corruption and other types of non compete behaviors. The other side of that sword is that as a consequence there is much disorder in the system and evolution is particularly slow as vested interests fight hard to retain their hold. Imagine big oil, auto manufacturing, dealerships, repair shops, gas stations.... EVs simply could not compete if not with support from government decree. China and other centralized systems have planners whose sole job is to look at the future for orderly evolution. I remember when Europe decided GSM would be the cell communication standard. It became instantly quick to develop adoption and networks and providing cheap service to 570 million people. Today in America standards are still competing with one another for supremacy leading to terrible and expensive services. China's astounding success could not have been without centralized planning and autocratic decision making. Without realizing it, many Americans today are wishing for something similar in our country, and ironically those people are not from the socialist Left but the fringe Right.
centralization/standarization is great for reducing expense but terrible for innovation. Best example I can think of is apple's charging port. Had we settled for mini usb (or god forbid type B), we'd wouldn't have omnidirectional or high amperage charging or high speed transfer probably. The newest iteration had to evolve to chase apple due to their sleeker/slimmer/more ergonomic design.
Centralization/standardization is far more than cost reduction. It provides a base from which to move up. It's not always The Best (like GSM) but it helps implement across a large landscape and streamlines processes. Coming from supply chain, I can tell you standardization revolutionized manufacturing/distribution/transportation. It's ironic that Apple is now switching to the USB standard.