• Not_mikey@slrpnk.net
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    7 months ago

    Doesn’t seem like they’re making better cars, the most innovative things he points out is a funky gear shifter… But that they’re making them more cheaply. That doesn’t seem to be because of any production innovation or finding some hidden efficiency that western companies overlooked, moreso heavy subsidies and state support combined with a cheap labor market. Hopefully this competition makes the west adopt the former and not the latter, but considering the current political environment we’ll probably end up with the reverse.

    • 7oo7@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      7 months ago

      Better doesn’t always mean innovative. How many new innovation have really happened in cars in recent years? Is this years iPhones better than last years? by nominal additions to the package without any real headliner, of course yes. That’s what’s happening.

      The article doesn’t even try to say they’re being innovative and you’re really trying to shoe horn your extreme dislike of the fact they’re ahead.

      • Not_mikey@slrpnk.net
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        7 months ago

        In what ways are they ahead though besides price. A new iPhone has more battery, a camera with more MP, a faster chip etc. These cars have the same or shorter range then they’re competitors, same or slower acceleration, same cargo space, charging speed etc. just cheaper because of the reasons mentioned above.

        When Japanese cars started taking off in the 70s it was because they had way better fuel economy and build quality then anything Detroit was putting out at the time, they were better at those fields. I don’t see any field where these cars are better at besides price.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      the most innovative things he points out is a funky gear shifter…

      It looks like the article is focused on the myriad styles and scopes of new EVs, production of which remains a struggle for the industry at large.

      Once the 1980s-era Joint Ventures strategy broke down, a number of independent Chinese automakers began introducing their own models. And the end result appears to be a car industry in China more akin to the pre-mega-merger US Automotive industry.

      That doesn’t seem to be because of any production innovation or finding some hidden efficiency that western companies overlooked

      The number of small-sized vehicles is notable. American Big Three car companies have all but given up making coups and sedans, in favor of SUVs and trucks. Toyota’s execs aren’t interested in full EV power train vehicles, leaving that market to Hyundai, Nissan, and whatever’s happening at Tesla.

      This isn’t radical innovation of the concept car so much as it is radical entrepreneurial in the country where you’d least expect it.

    • unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de
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      7 months ago

      What i wanna see from china is an offline bare necessities EV that doesnt record and report everything you do to the manufacturer that then sells this data. Most new western and probably chinese cars aswell currently do that stuff.

      I want publicly accessible open source tools for analyzing faults and helping with repair. From other existing open hardware projects coming from china, we know that some companies can do this very well if they want to.

  • Plopp@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    OP, how much is China paying you to post articles on how good Chinese technology is and how well it’s doing? Your post history is… fascinating.

        • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          Volvo and BYD have already said they’re committed to landing their cars here in the 30k-40k range. There has been speculation on whether that means they’re taking a loss or that means they can make them very cheaply but no one thinks they’re unserious about it.