• @Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world
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    3811 months ago

    They’re not wrong.

    “Focus on your core,” Murphy said, speaking at an event organized by the Automotive Press Association where he presented the bank’s annual Car Wars report. “And China is no longer a core strategy to GM, Ford or Stellantis.”

    Every American brand car in the past decade looks and acts like shit and is wildly overpriced. Foreign cars continue to outperform. And a few years ago, I would have gotten a Tesla until Musk revealed he was bat shit insane.

    • Brave Little Hitachi Wand
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      11 months ago

      I wish it was as simple as that, because I want the same thing. I just hate how American and Chinese auto industries seem very hand in glove with the government, albeit to varying degrees and with differing dynamics. It’s unsavoury in either case.

      Edit: Everyone who responded to me had good opinions, I have nothing to add or take away

      • @filoria@lemmy.ml
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        511 months ago

        Car infrastructure has always been funded out of public coffers. The personal automobile is not inherently a profitable enterprise to a country. It serves primarily as a way of improving personal mobility and thus second- and third- order economic productivity.

        Subways and trains are vastly more efficient systems, but unfortunately they don’t have the same military logistics benefits.

        In terms of actual companies, we’re seeing a bit of a renaissance with EVs because EVs are inherently simple, easy to commoditize, and don’t require as significant amounts of government support. China has basically cut government backing out of their EV industry, which has led to some consolidation but somehow has not ended the price war.

        • Ghostalmedia
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          511 months ago

          Transportation in general usually has a lot of public funding and government involvement. Tend to be common for air, sea, rail, and car transport solutions.

      • @istanbullu@lemmy.ml
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        411 months ago

        Auto industry can’t survive without government support. It’s a taxpayer subsidized industry.

      • @Fedizen@lemmy.world
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        411 months ago

        why is this a surprise? The roads these cars drive on are also publicly funded. There is no “car market” without public money. The main problem in the US is that the government isn’t pushing automakers in a useful direction by allowing heavy, wasteful vehicles to be the most profitable.

  • Anarch157a
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    1211 months ago

    I read this as “We’re not competitive on a global market anymore, so let’s retreat into an shrinking niche, until we’re gone or someone buys us”.

    Sure, they can’t compete in price, considering Chinese subsidies, but how about competing in the upper market, with quality and sophistication… Oh, wait… those are US car makers. They wouldn’t know quality if it smacked them in the face.

    Well, then. Leave the low end to China and the high end to Germany and Japan then.

  • @kinther@lemmy.world
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    1111 months ago

    Surprise, surprise. Bank who wants infinite growth of stock prices tells companies to lower costs to be more competitive. Guess where that will come from?

    Either quality or labor costs. It isn’t coming from the CEO’s pockets.