I assume the $6 billion refers to their recent stock buyback? Stock buybacks should be illegal, but I don't see where that's ripping off the government. It's actually notable that the government took a massive ownership stake in GM in exchange for the COVID bailout.
US corporations have been "massively subsidized" to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars a year, for most of the last century. Now that they can no longer compete against the monster they financed the last 40 years, all you simps jump to their defense instead of blaming them for turning their backs on, and impoverishing, the domestic workforce, and endangering national security.
This is what happens when you let your corporations outsource their operations to authoritarian states; chasing the lowest paid workers, circumventing labor and environmental regulations, and devaluing the domestic labor market for generations. They had no problem "competing" when they had the strategic upper hand and were generating more profits.
I absolutely blame them for what they did to workers, particularly in manufacturing, Bill Clinton was especially bad, though later presidents did little to nothing to fix it. However US subsidies are far less than China's, and the bulk of them work differently.
It's relevant how the subsidies are applied. Most of the US subsidies for electric vehicles are applied to the price of purchase and, until recently, were as available to foreign manufacturers as domestic. That means those subsidies don't apply to US manufactured vehicles being sold outside the US. China, applies far more subsidies directly to manufacturing than the US does, meaning they apply equally to vehicles sold both domestically and abroad.
It's not a matter of which countries subsidize their industries and which do not. All countries subsidize their important industries to some extent. What China has done is far beyond accepted norms, and that provokes response.
You know those hundred's of billions in fossil fuel subsidies, the US has stolen from the people and given to planet killers like the Koch bros for decades? All of those could have gone to domestic renewable energy projects, and the US might not have only been able to compete, but could have been works leaders. This exact scenario was predicted when China started to heavily fund clean energy.
The US has applied far more subsidies than China ever has; except it did so to maintain the status quo and enrich its wealthiest fossil fuel oligarchs, instead of listening to scientists and switching to clean energy. Now the same corporate oligarchs who corrupted the government to hamstring renewables for decades, are again pulling the strings and trying to further hamstring renewable adoption in the name of "national security" and "jobs" — both problems THEY willfully created for their own profit — and instead of turning their narrative against them, you continue to do their bidding and defend actions that will (conveniently) continue to enrich those same oligarchs. They are acting in their own best interests. Not yours! They never have, and they never will. Yet still they ask you to jump, and you say how high.
Well gosh, I agree with almost every word of that, except for the part about the US subsidizing more than China does. You really seem to be making a whole lot of assumptions about me. Go touch grass.
After all, it took nearly 50 years of advocacy from groups like Mothers Against Drunk Driving to stigmatize driving under the influence. And it took nearly that long for drivers to get on board with wearing their seatbelt
So, change will come when the respective generation of drivers dies.
Polestar was the performance division of Volvo, similar to amg. Geely(chinese company) bought Volvo 15 years ago and spinned Polestar into its own brand.
Polestar and Volvo still share many things but all Polestar cars are made in China(only some Volvo are made in China), though that is about to change soon.
Generally Polestar is kinda the hip version of Volvo.
So... Is it going to be impossible to get parts or service for Fisker cars now? Obviously warranties would be worthless, but if the vehicle can be had cheap and wouldn't be difficult to maintain without the company, maybe a good deal?
The entire point of the current and the classic pandas is a small car with four wheel drive that is popular with farmers and rural people and in snowy mountain regions in Italy (and less popular with me being stuck behind one on the motorway). And they're indestructible. This seems to just be a random electric car that has borrowed some visual design elements from it 😐
An actual electric panda would be great. Small, cheap, fast enough, but can trudge across difficult terrain when needed. Forever. My mum would buy it.
Is nobody else going to mention that the Chinese government is subsiding the hell out of their electric vehicle manufacturers? Their goal is to win the majority market share and then raise prices when there are no other options.
If there were no subsidies and they followed the same environmental and human rights practices as the rest of the world, they'd be in line with everyone else.
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