alt Hacker NewsChina is nowhere near “free market”. Their EV sector received more government subsidies in the last 15 years than the entire U.S. automobile market since inception. The total subsidies make up half of the market cap of their entire EV industry.
250 billion in EV subsidies from China. 10 billion by the U.S.
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The US auto industry is also subsidized by all aspects of American life requiring a car outside of NYC and a few big cities.
The only serious EV maker in the US has received more US subsidizing than any single Chinese maker.
Even without the subsidies, at this point, they’re arguably making better cars.
No, it's actually 200 000 trillion for both countries.
Source: same as yours
You’re forgetting the 9.3$ billion given to us automakers to bail them out that was never recovered.
> The total subsidies make up half of the market cap of their entire EV industry.
Didn't Tesla essentially stay afloat for years via government subsidies (e.g. government-mandated carbon credits)?
Didn't the US only recently end its direct subsidies for EV buyers?
Don't US taxpayers provide an enormous ongoing subsidy to ICE vehicles by underwriting the security of the oilfields in the Gulf?
Don't US taxpayers in effect subsidize US automakers by ensuring they do not have to compete in the market with the best available vehicles?
More to the point: American free-marketeerism was never about the other side, it was about the US living its own professed values at home. We didn't shackle our press in discussions about the USSR because the USSR chose to shackle its own press. Our lockout of Chinese EVs rankles in part because it's a deviation, at home, from our own professed values.