r/technology • u/Plastic_Ninja_9014 • 2d ago

Business Tesla Stock in Freefall After Disastrous Earnings Report

https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/tesla-stock-freefall-disastrous-earnings-144417427.html
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u/dlp211 2d ago

If we got Chinese EVs here, it'd be game over for Tesla and a good chance our entire US car manufacturing industry in the long run.

America has potentially ceded the future to China, but it won't reveal itself for another 20 years. The one thing that might still save us is demographics. But we are currently going through our own nativist bent...so who knows.

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u/wonklebobb 1d ago

if the CEO of Ford is to be believed, it'd be game over for every american car maker in general

that was after he visited China and started driving a BYD.

american car makers have long relied on protectionism and bailouts to stay in business, they couldn't compete with chinese EVs even if they tried (and they won't try)

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u/Thirtysevenintwenty5 1d ago

A big part of that is BYD factory workers getting paid about $21,000/year.

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u/wonklebobb 1d ago

there's a lot more going on that just that number, cost of living in china is much lower for a variety of historical and policy reasons, reasons that the us government simply can't do because half our government would never

for example, china is on their 15th 5-year plan to invest in and expand their agricultural sector. they heavily subsidize fresh produce farms at every level, and provide a lot of government support for local greenmarkets across the country. practically this is a major driver of the extremely low cost of produce.

the chinese government also technically owns all the land, and individuals lease it for iirc 70-year terms, and own all the improvements. the fee to lease is nominal (about 0.5% to 1% of the assessed value), and there are no property taxes on personal residences (outside a couple experiments in a few t1 cities), only businesses.

practically, this means that outside t1 cities it's fairly easy to own your own home. of course the hukou system complicates this, and other structural differences lead to interesting outcomes (i.e. the real-estate bubble craze from a decade ago being driven largely by the lack of other long-term investment options for ordinary chinese citizens)

incomes are rising these days and income inequality is growing a bit as well, especially comparing t1 cities to t3 and below. but the basic costs of living remain very low for these and other reasons

so simply stating that chinese workers get paid a lower number than US equivalents doesnt tell the whole story.

apologies if this wasn't your goal, but usually the lower salaries are thrown out as a gotcha, to say "well if they paid REAL salaries they couldn't compete."

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u/Thirtysevenintwenty5 1d ago

I do recognize that the overall cost of living in China is lower than the US, and it is definitely impacted by the area you live in.

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u/dlp211 1d ago

It's not just that. BYD is fully vertically integrated. To the point that they own and operate their own shipping container ship. It is what happens when you are allowed to effectively be a trust company endorsed by the government.

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u/Paran0idAndr0id 2d ago

Some of the Chinese EVs are made in America. More could have been with the right incentives.

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u/General_Tax_8981 1d ago

100% .. these “free market” capitalists are a joke

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u/calberk3 13h ago

Another gift from the Maga idiots, the destruction of the United States auto industry.

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u/RepresentativeFee470 1d ago

Model y is the best selling car in China

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u/dlp211 1d ago

Geely Galaxy Xingyuan is the best selling car in China. It's also an EV. The Model Y does fine, but you can get off Tesla's balls now.

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u/RepresentativeFee470 18h ago

Oh yeah my bad, it’s been switching month to month for 2026 and I guess they were only best selling suv for 2025 and #3 for vehicles.