cross-posted from : https://lemmy.zip/post/63264799
And, a recent tour of one of the Asian powerhouse’s vehicle plants has proved this beyond a shadow of a doubt, at least to Honda President and CEO Toshihiro Mibe.
“We have no chance against this,” Mibe said upon a visit to a Shanghai parts factory, commenting on its seamless automation across all levels of production. Logistics, procurement and all aspects of the process were so automated, in fact, that he did not spot a single human worker on the supplier’s floor.
Ford executives saying even three years ago that China was way ahead of the game
Toyota’s CEO has likewise said regarding not just his company, but the industry in general, “unless things change, we will not survive”
Not exactly. Toyota had hybrids in 1997. Their hybrid sales are still strong. The problem is the Chinese government coordinated an effort to control raw materials and invested heavily in research to net complete control of the supply chain from mining to research making cheaper, better batteries. US just watched this happen under Trump 1.0, did nothing because they had CLEAN COAL™.
Biden tried to counter with huge investment in US battery plants, but then you guys brought back Trump who…
Killed all those battery plants.
Cut all research
Sent 10,000 PhDs out of the country, many to China.
Tariffed what tech was possible.
There was an imminent technology threat and the decision was to fight genius with stupid.
And lastly, GM, Ford and Stellantis all made EVs in the last few years no one bought.
1997 was almost 30 years ago - that’s what I call decades! And hybrids are obviously a dead end for at least 15 years now. They were a nice stepping stone but nothing you can (or should) build your future on.
And: Yes, China did a concerted effort to push for emobility - while Europe, USA and Japan did everything to convince people that fossil fueled cars are the pinnacle of engineering and greater than everything.
Turns out: it’s not. And everyone with a basic understanding in physics could see through that for many years.
We can keep blaming China, cry sad tears for the dying oiltimers - or finally put everything we still have into renewable energies, climate friendly traveling, etc.
But I guess that won’t happen.
The next industry we can gut is already starting to breath quite heavy due to ever increasing kerosene costs: air travel My prognosis: We will fuck it up exactly the same way and complain in a few years that Boeing, Airbus and Embraer are losing market share like crazy against air planes from China and Korea…
Toyota has also been one of the most active lobbyists against EV adoption since they started developing hybrids. They’ve always been worried it will cut into their market advantage.