Perhaps it’s just because the election is only a few months away, or perhaps it’s because President Trump’s trade and economic policies toward China were always the right approach for the USA. Whatever the reasoning, the Biden administration is now proposing to use tariffs against China just like President Trump.
There’s a hidden dimension to the Chinese EV angle that makes this claim a little dubious, I will explain after the topline big story.
Overall, the New York Times is reporting [SEE HERE] that Joe Biden and USTR Katherine Tai are likely to trigger massive tariffs against imported Electric Vehicles (EVs) from China, perhaps as much as 100% due to the low cost of Chinese production. Additionally, the Biden administration is considering increasing the tariff regime against imports of Chinese steel and aluminum in a bid to protect the American industry.
On the EV issue, this tariff approach is politically duplicitous by Biden against the backdrop of massive investment in Mexico by the three largest Chinese EV automakers. Last December the three Chinese auto manufacturers, MG, BYD, and Chery, announced they were going to spend billions building new EV manufacturing plants in Mexico. Each Chinese auto manufacturer was going to spend between $1.5 to $2.0 billion.
Those Mexican built Chinese EV’s would pass into the USA market under current USMCA trade rules and regulations, as long as they technically meet the material origination rules. This can make tariffs against the Chinese imported EVs a moot point, because China will be making them in Mexico (North American trade agreement).
One of the reasons President Trump said the U.S. auto industry would suffer a “bloodbath,” is specifically because the current Chinese auto companies are targeting these EV’s in the $10,000 or less range. If you want to see what it looks like when cheap Chinese EV’s start to flood a consumer market, visit Russia – the western sanctions have only increased this flow. I can see it clear as day.
China plans to pump out thousands of cheap, what I would consider semi-disposable, electric cars into the USA market. That’s why they have invested so heavily in Mexico. Keep in mind, Blackrock (a Biden benefactor investment firm) is enmeshed with this Chinese move.
This tariff claim by the Biden administration on “import Chinese EV’s” is optics only for political benefit. Whereas the 100% tariffs proposed by Donald Trump specifically target Chinese EV’s made in Mexico.
(Via New York Times) – The Biden administration is set to announce new tariffs as high as 100 percent on Chinese electric vehicles and additional import taxes on other Chinese goods, including semiconductors, as early as next week, according to people familiar with the matter.
The move comes amid growing concern within the administration that Mr. Biden’s efforts to jump-start domestic manufacturing of clean energy products could be undercut by China, which has been flooding global markets with cheap solar panels, batteries, electric vehicles and other products.
[…] The long-awaited tariffs are the result of a four-year review of the levies that President Donald J. Trump imposed on more than $300 billion of Chinese imports in 2018. Most of the Trump tariffs are expected to remain in place, but Mr. Biden plans to go beyond those by raising levies in areas that the president showered with subsidies in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.
That includes Chinese electric vehicles, which currently face a 25 percent tariff. The administration is expected to raise that to as much as 100 percent in order to make it prohibitively expensive to buy a Chinese E.V.
[…] Mr. Trump has said he would escalate his trade war with China if re-elected and said this year that he was considering imposing tariffs of 60 percent or more on Chinese imports. In March, Mr. Trump said he would impose a 100 percent tariff on cars made in Mexico by Chinese companies.
The scale of the Biden administration’s tariffs, which are expected to be applied to Chinese electric vehicles, batteries and solar products, is not clear. The new tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles are not expected to apply to traditional gasoline-powered cars that are made in China, according to a person familiar with the plans.
[…] “My U.S. trade representative is investigating trade practices by the Chinese government regarding steel and aluminum,” Mr. Biden told steelworkers in Pittsburgh, referring to Katherine Tai, who heads the office. “If that investigation confirms these anticompetitive trade practices, then I’m calling on her to consider tripling the tariff rates for both steel imports and aluminum imports from China.”
The president added: “I’m not looking for a fight with China. I’m looking for competition — and fair competition.”
The U.S. solar industry has also been lobbying the Biden administration to impose new tariffs on Chinese imports as an influx of cheap solar panels and components has caused prices in that sector to drop by around 50 percent over the last year. (read more)
Stand back and elevate your thinking on this Chinese EV issue; the substance of it is a consequence of a much larger dynamic. It is somewhat of a self-fulfilling prophecy.
There is a cleaving underway, a dedollarization that continues in global trade. Nations are no longer relying (dependent) on dollars as the baseline for trade parity; they are determining their own nation to nation trade valuations outside the use of the dollar as a benchmark.
The result of this dedollarization taking place is massive inflation inside the USA that continues as the dollar (yellow zone) is weakened against the increasingly non-dollar-aligned world (grey zone). The frequency of dollar use is lessening as alternatives are being used.
Trade into the yellow zone still requires a benchmark of dollars, but bilateral trade within the grey zone increasingly does not. This is the root of the global financial and economic cleaving.
China is trying to position their transportation sector (auto, planes, trains and mass transit manufacturing) as Apple manufacturing is to cell phone use. Some of these Chinese electric vehicles are actually impressive, which makes sense when you consider that China steals the engineering and design elements from knuckleheaded western corporations who use China for industrial manufacturing (see Tesla etc).
I don’t care how cheap the electric cars are because I will not buy one. They are not practical. Charge time, range, cost of maintenance, home charger (?) are all issues. Long term the cost to charge them will go UP. I want a vehicle that gets me where I want without hassle.
When ICE vehicles are banned you won’t have a choice!
Heh, they can have my ICE vehicles right after they pry that smoking machine gun out of my cold dead hands. 🙂
Seriously though, you’ve underlined the contours of the battle. It’s about freedom, liberty and choice. Not EV’s. They’re simply a manifestation of the war.
This country won’t let them do that. If they do it will be at their own peril. Is this the problem these days? No fight for what is right from our youth.
Most of the time, EV (Tesla, not others) makes sense. I have Model3 and couldn’t be happier. My cost is about $4-50 per month, no more. I drive a lot.
Charge time is overnight, at home. It’s routine. Rarely I charge it at a station, and then it’s something like 10-15 min. A home charger is like $200 (if I remember), and you plug it in a dryer plug. I used a normal plug too, but that’s just very slow.
Range is fine for everyday business.
I travelled across US with no problems. You do have to charge every 2 hrs for like 20-25 min, and time does add up. If you’re in a hurry, that’ll impact you. If you have kids, like me, I welcome a break every 2 hrs…
There is no cost for maintenance.. no oil change.. no busted transmission, etc.. only change tyres at Costco.. that’s pretty much it. Oh, and add water for windshields..
Cost of repairs is high.. so accidents are costly. But if it’s not your fault the insurance covers it and you’re fine.
I find the Model3 Tesla practical and love how it handles. I wouldn’t not go back to an ICE car.
I’m not driving Tesla for the environment. I drive it because it’s fun, costs less in the long run, and it’s practical.
When people hate on the Tesla cars, I think it’s because they haven’t test driven one or calculated the accumulated costs of cars over a 5-6-7 year period. M3 costs more upfront but you save in the long run. I ran the numbers. My M3 is from 2020 and runs great.
PS. EVs are worse for the planet. The batteries are literally poison whenever the car is thrown away.
PS2. I’m only talking of the Tesla cars. Other EVs suck, based on people I talked to.
What is the estimated useful life of a Tesla Model 3?
your not paying any road tax at this time so big govt give you an advantage along with subsidies.all that goes away in the real world if we ever get there.
I ran the numbers and at $0.25 a KWH inside a weak electrical infrastructure of this state it’s more expensive than an ICE vehicle even with the maintenance costs. Plus resale value of the EV’s is so low you wind up keeping it till it dies. I am surprised that there are not more EV rear end collisions due to the regenerative braking though.
You also have ball joints, Stabilizer bars, Hime Joints, shocks, Brakes, And a bunch other wear parts in the suspension that are wearing out. Battery is your engine and will cost $29,000 when it reaches its cycle time determined in amp hours. The Transfer Gear boxes are your transmission they all wear out just because they come up with a different power source dont think it wont wear out. My guess 200,000 nickel dime stuff will staRT 250,000 major stuff will break. No different than the gorilla truck I drive. Some day in the near future you will want to do something but they will be able to tell you no simply hitting a button. The Gorilla truck they cant keep me from hauling fire wood with my deer carcus on top with some potato’s for dinner.
EVs ( all) not cheaper in the long run just the opposite. EVs are poisonous for the environment ( batteries yes) and devastating to the many children in slave labor who are forced to secure the lithium used in them. And most significantly the power stations used to recharge EV batteries use the boogeyman energy sources coal and gas- to provide the most of the electricity
Bottom line, the US has been the guinea pig for whatever lame-brain idea that comes down the pike, and such an experiment comes on a huge scale with unreal amounts of $$$, all paid by us!
Whatever happened to the “laboratories of democracy” that let experiments proceed at a state level without huge taxpayer risk? I hate this crap.
I insist that if the experiment involves taxpayer $$$, that it must be insured for the amount of taxpayer $$$ invested, to be paid to the gov’t upon issuing a grant. If Solyndra (which went bankrupt very shortly after getting a huge gov’t grant) had been responsible for such a bond, we wouldn’t be out that huge grant.
You forgot to say where you live, so somewhere where it is 72 degrees year round, you never mention turning on the heat or AC,and of coarse it is light 24 hours a day. You should be a car salesman, if you are not now .
I won’t buy one because the US government wants me to.
If golf carts were legal to drive I’ll bet a lot of people would use them to run up to the corner market for a loaf of bread and a gallon of milk instead of firing up the Suburban. The $10k EV’s being discussed are competing with bicycles and walking – not ICE SUV’s
Move to a small town like I did and the police let you drive golf carts and side by sides around town.
All Staged BS…eliminate the known election fraud maneuvers and the nightmare ends.
👍 👍 👍
Nice compilation.
TY
There goes China’s help for stealing the election again.
It’s only temporary if Biden can cheat his way in again. China must be in agreement to help Biden win. They will come off if he is “re-elected.”
If you want to see what it looks like when cheap Chinese EV’s start to flood a consumer market, visit Russia – the western sanctions have only increased this flow. I can see it clear as day.
Off topic: SD, any chance you will be able to meet with Edward Snowden?
I admire your research and wonder if he knows things that may fill in any known and unknown gaps. Considering the bag the criminals threw over him and Assange, I suspect there is more to the story.
Lets see, electric vehicles were created in the early 1800’s. So, why were they not the dominate mod of personnel transportation to this day? Over 180 years of research & development should have made EV’s the dominate transportation vehicle. But they are not!
We see why by the examples of the EV’s running around on the roads of today. The list of their problems are to long to go into and it has always been a very long list of problems. A little research you will find the list is growing longer.
Basically, when you peel away the hype Tesla’s are simply glorified electric golf carts! However, in densely populated cities like they have in China small electric cars are practical.
This glorified golf cart goes 0 to 60 in something like 3-4 seconds.
I beat down on a Porsche or Audi or your most aggressive Mustang with my glorified golf cart and left them in the dust… for some reason they always get mad when that happens.
I am surprised they never put an external speaker on a Tesla so you could pipe muscle car sounds as you tore down the street…
Like in the movie with Kevin James and Vince Vaughn – The Dilemma (2011). That’s exactly what they were designing and supposedly did by the end of the movie. Required heavy duty speakers that projected the sound outside of the car, and an onboard high level power amplifier to create the ear-deafening sound of a V8 engine from idle all the way up to full throttle.
They have external speakers, but the repertoire is limited to songs and sound effects – flatulence is seemingly a favorite, but there are others.
They do have speakers that make car sounds a mandate for deaf.
Golf carts go pretty fast, too!!! So what. It’s an electric motor and, BTW, a Tesla takes 10 – 12 hours to charge and maybe only 80%.
That’s strange. While driving my Dodge Challenger I have had absolutely no EV’s of any sort passing me on the long winding stretches in the boondocks of Colorado and Wyoming in summer or winter. I am just a bit curious as to how long you can maintain a speed over a 100 or if you’re feeling frisky perhaps over 160.
Nothing better than getting to the next set of traffic lights. Wait till the mileage tax kicks in. And it is indexed.
My nephew has a Tesla S. At the time I had a VW Jetta Sportwagen diesel. I told him I’d race him from Richmond VA to Dallas TX in the summer. He could go whatever speed he wanted and I’d never go over the posted speed limit.
I don’t think I’d have any issues beating him by quite a margin.
Other MAJOR issues – EVs stink in temp extremes (hot, hot & very cold) and heavy loads. Can you imagine a massive hurricane bearing down on FL at the height of the summer heat and an evacuation order given. How many of these EVs would be littered on the side of the road or worse, blocking the road, as their charge ran out.
I think I’ll stick to my trusty gas or diesel vehicles. After all, God gave us the wondeful liquid for a reason…
Actually it makes me mad just listing to your ad .
Consider that China is the country that has the most cities with a population of at least 1 million.
Some might posit that Rockefeller and his ilk tilted the playing field to ICE but Teddy Roosevelt kinda threw a wrench into that narrative. What if Henry Ford had thrown his production line at electric vehicles? Interesting.
The discussion of the history of energy in America would be a fascinating one. I’ve been watching a lot of historical films lately to see both the propaganda and the underlying realities of it.
From my perspective working for both oil and electricity as a vendor, I think both have their positives and negatives. So far, it’s hard to compete with hydrocarbons for affordable and, especially, dense energy. The two are also closely tied as they each play a role in the production of the other.
IMO no easy answers. My position is throw it all at the wall and let the market decide. None of this picking winners and losers with the force of government. It is an age-old battle though. If it’s not gas and electric, it’s something else. Human nature.
The problem was always batteries. How much charge can they hold.
The battery revolution it’s what led Tesla win.
Batteries will get better, and continue to increase range.
The batteries weight more than the car and the electric to charge them comes from oil and natural gas anyway.
The question that seems to be avoided is that if renewables are so great why does the Governments have subsidise them. The answer is not that fossil fuels are subsidised. Did Henry Ford, Boeing, Gates get Gov subsidies years after.
The term “cheap Chinese semi-disposable EV’s” reminds me of the East German produced Trabant cars (1957-91) which were popular in Eastern Europe. When I moved to Poland in 1989 for a four-year period of time the standing joke among the Polish people was the Trabant came with a broom, as standard equipment, so if you ever got into any kind of fender bender or slight accident you could just sweep it to the side of the road.
Cheap Chinese = Electric Yugo’s…. (which itself was an old Fiat design that Yugo bought and used)
“6-pack cars use and throw away.”
🤣
Tatra’s were great, every so often just go and get updated panels fitted.
The bodies were made of Duroplast, similar to bakelite: Hard but brittle. The Trabant used a 2 – cylinder 2 -stroke engine for nearly its entire production run until the final 2 model years when a 4 – cylinder 4 – stroke engine was phased in.
Would YOU buy an EV made in China?
No, and I try to avoid buying anything from China. It’s hard to do since they have flooded the US market with cheap stuff but I try. Check the labels on your new clothes…China or Vietnam almost always.
They are strategic and crafty whilst we are ideological and principled with our minimum wages and employee benefits. The US sets itself up for failure, almost by design.
Part of the problem is so many American corporations manufacture in China. With that segment, it’s not the Chinese making it rather Americans making it with Chinese labor at American factories in China. It’s so pervasive that it’s nearly impossible to find some segments of consumer goods made in the U.S.
Those of us who eschew consuming are outliers and will likely remain so. Why? Because conspicuous consuming is, in developed countries, a key part of life and, generally, our vanity demands we appear as successful as possible. That’s not an indictment, rather a function of human nature and our id (psychology).
It’s why one guy (or gal) buys a Tesla Plaid and another buys a Porsche Taycan. Then someone who can easily have both owns neither, rather a resto-mod 1909 Baker.
It’s hard to do because they have a monopoly on so many basic necessities.
So many Western countries sold out 40years ago. Nothing comes for free.
Absolutely, if it is a good value and makes economic sense. I do not buy into the “China bad” hype
so many people parrot.
It is akin to the pot calling the kettle black. The USA government has been the leading terrorist
nation in the world for a good long while. When China does as we do, we act like spoiled brats
and begrudge them the effort.
I say before you point that fat finger of accusation towards others, look to your home front first.
Remember the YUGO car of the late 1980s early 1990s!!! Total piece of junk you threw away after two or three years? Most of the junk now manufactured over there is basically low quality crap and that is why you see these companies now moving their manufacturing to Southeast Asia and other such places because they allow a little bit of quality control to be exerted unlike China where the Government has total control and you have to take what is produced!!! 🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮
The real problem with EV’s come in 10-15 years when millions of lithium batteries are rotting in junk yards, empty lots and other assorted dump sites. The environmental impact will be epic.
Yeah, and the Politicians and Bureaucrats will be long gone with their insider trading profits.
OMG! Detroit is toast…
GAME-CHANGING Chinese Cars at 2024 Beijing Auto Show!
And here we see the insanity of the Chinese innovation and manufacturing juggernaut. What is our governments reaction?
Instead of competing, we slap on tariffs.
The net result is the double edged blade, the American consumer has to pay our government an extortion tax to own one of these highly competitive autos or we agree with the tariffs and underwrite a sluggish, bloated, unimaginative, overpriced car.
Either case, the USA consumer looses, and our country looses.
Pure insanity, and just plain stupid.
Biden wouldn’t be upping tariffs if he wasn’t doing so poorly in the polls
Did JOE get Xi Jin Peng’s permission to talk tough.
Makes sense. All those illegals pouring over our border will demand a car. The US govt will subsidize those cheap EV’s sales
to the illegals with the excuse they’re saving the taxpayer billions.
Too little too late you stupid, senile fool in your💩stained Depends!!! You think we are all idiots, huh!!! 🥴
Wonder why it is always a close vote. Election after election.
F-R-A-U-D, that no one does anything about or tries to remedy!!! 😝
Europe’s not going to be a part of this ‘cleaving’ you speak of, with the US. They’re going with the rest of the world, and will blame the US heavily for them being ‘bamboozled’ and more. 1984, maybe. But not the way it describes it.
There will be a lot of Americans willing to buy a -<dependable electric vehicle, just to get around town, if it sells for only $10,000 dollars. … Dependability will be the issue. … The famous inexpensive Yugo car and others went kaput, because they weren’t dependable.
The American stores are full of products made by Chinese communist Slave Laborers (They don’t have union jobs, good wages, and the country is a police state.).
…… The issue will be dependability. …… [If anyone is curious, I bought an inexpensive Ford made in America a few years ago. I try to buy American made.]
The Communists HAVE TOTAL CONTROL OF THE MANUFACTURING and don’t allow any quality control by the Company selling the product thus all the 💩you get from China these days!!! Other Countries allow a quality control function by these companies so that the product isn’t trashy junk!!! 😝
Greed has always been the final nail in any Society.
Scotty Kilmer on YouTube has been a mechanic for over 50 years and spells out further problems w EVs:
1. No spare parts
2. No mechanics know how to work on them
3. HEAVIER – we’ll see more fatalities from car crashes
4. 20% of EV owners won’t buy another
5. Ability to catch on fire
6. Tires & brakes more expensive – bc they’re heavier!
7. Limited raw materials
I don’t believe this has anything to do with OBiden putting China in its place, but rather how much more destruction he can do to America’s economic engine and Americans ability to afford to live with any semblance of dignity.
So if there is less trade in dollars, there is less demand for dollars and the dollar becomes weaker/cheaper.
The Chinese can buy dollars for less, and the tariffs don’t matter as much.
Thank you , Sundance, for keeping us all informed.
Biden has never had an original idea ever…so he HAS to steal from others..it’s remarkable that this man, who is incapable of telling the truth, who was known as “the dumbest Man in Congress” BEFORE he was senile has gotten this far…who is running this country, because it sure isn’t senile corrupt Joe. I find it remarkable that the left finds Trump unacceptable but ignores the fact the Joe and “dr’ Jill head a criminal enterprise, that they raised TWO drug addicts, that they denied their own grandchild and and allowed Commander to bit 26(!) Secret Service agents before they thought to rehome the dog. They are the ones who are despicable. Historians will have a filed day with Joe Biden.
I can’t wait for Biden’s state funeral. The outpouring of public indifference will be EPIC.
Remember Ted Kennedy’s funeral? “The Lion of the Senate” and liberal icon was given a president’s funeral. The cognitive dissonance of the news people covering what to them was the end of an era and a national tragedy seeing the funeral procession roll through mostly empty streets with only sparse crowds was delicious.
I bet Biden doesn’t even get that turnout. But when he passes at least he’ll be with his staunchest voter demographic.
I’m happy to see China sinking billions into the bad tech of battery powered EV’s. Burn that money!!!
AMLO has violated the terms of the USMCA on so many fronts, for so long, illegally expropriating companies with contracts w/the MX gov’t (think Talos Energy), and Air Liquide (a hydrogen company with a 5-year contract legal under MX law) & others, that it’s evident that you can’t trust a Mexican politico to refrain from STEALING.
AMLO has refused mediation thru the process specified under USMCA. So it’ll be interesting to see how AMLO and/or his successor will deal with the Chinese. Very interesting.i don’t think that Mexicans are better at the game than the Chinese.