Tariffs on China aren't the way to win the EV arms race – getting serious on EVs is

Yeah the US isn't even close on the race for EVs with China. Heck, going price for LFP batteries is $70/kWh. The United States is still trying to figure out how to not have conflict cobalt in their batteries. China is just skipping all of that and using iron since we've got tons of that lying around. In fact, we're on a giant ball of the stuff.

The United States is so laughably behind China on tons of technologies related to solar, storage, and EV motors. China is producing sodium ion powered cars with 60 mile ranges because of the various efficiencies in motor design. You can get a nice little around town car with that. They're using fucking SALT to power cars. SALT! You know, the shit that's in the ocean that we've got a bit of that also lying around. And the end cost to consumer is around $6,000 USD, that's the fully tricked out model. The US can't even produce a sub $12,000 car using fuel technology from the 1800s. And you can't even use the human slave labor argument, because the US cannot get children into factories fast enough apparently.

There's not a competition with China on EVs. There's not an arms race with China. China won biggly. The tariffs are just trying to prevent US automakers being laughed out of the room. And the thing is, the cars are so damn cheap, even with the stupid tariffs, they're cheaper than any US EV out there. That's what is so stupid about all of this.

The US is trying to prevent those cars coming here and even the best sacking and jacking the price tag upwards they can do, and no US car is still price competitive. Not even close. That is how amazingly bad the US auto industry has gotten. There is no fight, everyone else won, and the US auto makers are just running on fumes like the coal industry, and greasing the wheels in DC to stay relevant.

And the reason it got so bad isn't because pensions, or unions, or whatever they'd have you believe. It's hardheadedness and inertia by car CEOs, oil execs, and policy makers. It's what happens when you have decades of really bad decisions by a variety of people and the people who made those calls don't want to admit it to themselves. They just didn't want to believe that the oil cash was over. They thought all the automation would make them insanely rich and not actually owners of shit that would go out of date before their return on investment. They thought that keeping Congress would always keep them safe from international pressure. They were going to fight tooth and nail to keep that cash flowing in. They are dead set to sink this goddamn ship we are on before the admit they steered right towards the iceberg at full steam. And every second of hesitation, every moment of denial, every dollar to prevent the inevitable has cost the US auto industry massively.