This is entirely because manufacturers thought they saw a way to pad margins and then US politicians added tariffs to Chinese EVs to protect them from lower-cost competition.
As the other reply mentions, this isn't an issue in China.
And now that the bet on expensive EV growth allowing manufacturers to have fat margins forever isn't panning out, they're all freaking out about cheap Chinese models and pivoting to design cheap EVs.
You see this more in Europe than the US because Europe doesnt have the same protectionist tariffs the US does.
The Chinese EVs are very unsafe. Many many fires are happening with them, but you don't see it reported due to the journalistic repression there.
The sales numbers of Chinese EVs also look good because they'll buy hundreds of cars from their own stock and then park them in a field to rot, just to make the numbers look good.
IMO there shouldn't be a tariff on Chinese EVs but an outright ban.
> The Chinese EVs are very unsafe. Many many fires are happening with them, but you don't see it reported due to the journalistic repression there.
Wonder if it's just carelessness, or it's there is an inherent cost to make them safe. As in, did they just not bother because of laziness, or that extra safety to prevent fires takes up the 2x-3x price markup and there is simply no way around it.
As the other reply mentions, this isn't an issue in China.
And now that the bet on expensive EV growth allowing manufacturers to have fat margins forever isn't panning out, they're all freaking out about cheap Chinese models and pivoting to design cheap EVs.
You see this more in Europe than the US because Europe doesnt have the same protectionist tariffs the US does.
https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/fear-c...