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Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
Electric vehicles may become a new front in America's tech war with China after a US senator called for Washington DC to block Chinese-made EVs to protect domestic industries and national security.
Sherrod Brown, senator for Ohio and chair of the Senate Banking Committee, penned a letter to President Biden, claiming "there are currently no Chinese EVs for sale in the United States, and we must keep it that way."
He warned that "Chinese EVs, highly subsidized by the Chinese government, could decimate our domestic automakers, harm American workers, and give China access to sensitive personal data," insisting the US government must ban Chinese-made EVs as soon as possible, calling it "a matter of economic and national security."
The move comes as the dispute between the two economic superpowers over technology rumbles on, with the US last week sanctioning four more Chinese companies, claiming they were involved with providing chips for accelerating AI to China's military and intelligence users.
Among those added to the Entity List maintained by the US Department of Commerce was Sitonholy (Tianjin) Co, understood to be one of the largest distribution channels for Nvidia's datacenter products in China, thus cutting off supplies of Nvidia GPUs to many Chinese companies.
[...] The number of Chinese cars purchased by US customers is understood to be very low as these are subject to an extra 25 percent tariff on top of the regular 2.5 percent import duty that DC applies to imported vehicles.
However, Senator Brown notes in his letter that BYD already sells an electric hatchback named the "Seagull" for the equivalent of less than $10,000. This compares with the $28,140 that has been reported as the starting price of the current cheapest electric car available in the US, the 2024 Nissan LEAF S.
There is also a national security twist as Senator Brown claims that data collected by the sensors and cameras in Chinese EVs could pose a threat. "China does not allow American-made electric vehicles near their official buildings. To allow their vehicles freedom to travel throughout the United States would be foolish and highly dangerous," he stated.
Senator Brown also claims in his letter that nearly 20 percent of all electric vehicles sold in Europe during 2023 were made in China, citing this as a cautionary example.
The European Commission last year announced an investigation into subsidies in the Chinese EV industry, but there are said to be misgivings in Germany and elsewhere that a ban on Chinese EVs could backfire, with Beijing retaliating by locking Western carmakers out of the lucrative China market entirely.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday April 18, @04:45PM (4 children)
It's a market. Knock out some of the stuff that inhibits market corrections. For example, not allowing banks to sit on repossessed housing. You want to put a real estate valuation on your folio? Then rent or sell it.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday April 18, @05:55PM (3 children)
>Knock out some of the stuff that inhibits market corrections. For example, not allowing banks to sit on repossessed housing. You want to put a real estate valuation on your folio? Then rent or sell it.
The banks that operate in Florida have pretty rigid guidelines about disposing of repossessed properties, basically a decreasing minimum offer limit over time. We ran into a crooked broker who was "playing the system" with an investor buddy of his, the minute we came in with an offer on a bank-owned property it triggered his investor buddy to make the (known to them) minimum offer required to get the property. I suspect if we hadn't wandered into the deal they would have waited X time and gotten the property for a few dollars less...
Banks 'round these parts are not landlords.
The unsold premium housing is owned by developers, they'll hang on to it hoping for a market rebound for a long, long time - they can afford to.
Another problem in this market is Zillow.com - they bought up a bunch of houses on spec to resell at higher values and basically cornered the market for middle-class real-estate for over a year. Houses were getting five and six offers above asking price on the day they were listed for many months - triggering the overbuild reaction.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday April 18, @06:20PM (2 children)
So what? I speak instead of the value of that property on the books not what price the bank will try to sell their property for.
They are in your parts huge holders of property.
Sounds like the overbuild shouldn't have been consider "over", if it was that easy to corner the market.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday April 18, @07:17PM (1 child)
>They are in your parts huge holders of property.
Not by choice, they tend to lose money on repo operations.
>Sounds like the overbuild shouldn't have been consider "over", if it was that easy to corner the market.
Read for time sequencing and try again: First Zillow corners the market, then developers overbuild.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday April 18, @09:52PM
You just confirmed what I wrote. Market corrections are reactive.