President Joe Biden sketched out his vision for the future of America’s auto industry during a visit to Detroit in,” a plant that General Motors had just retooled in order to produce electric vehicles and their batteries. Factory Zero sits on the site of an oldthat during World War II supplied the “Arsenal of Democracy.
The debate over EVs hasn’t gotten much attention in the national media. In an election offering such stark contrasts of presidential temperament, and such fraught possibilities for American democracy, arguments about corporate subsidies, trade barriers and carbon emissions don’t exactly light up social media. But this debate’s outcome could have a big effect on the American economy and middle class, not to mention the planet..
The hope is that these trade barriers, along with the emission standards and subsidies, buy American companies enough time to develop the kind of manufacturing and design expertise that would enable them to compete with foreign competitors., a senior fellow at the Center for International and Strategic Studies, has studied China’s EV industry as closely as anybody in the U.S.
Push the manufacturers to hit hard EV targets, she warned, and American manufacturers will end up with vehicles they can’t sell ― a recipe for losses and eventually a dramatic downsizing of American industry. If that happens, she said, foreign competitors are likely to fill the void, and that includes Chinese companies like BYD.
Nowadays the companies focus on relatively expensive trucks and SUVs, the vehicles that generate the biggest profits, and even their EV offerings have focused on the high-end market. GM is about to roll out a line of lower-priced EV products, including a revival of its discontinued Bolt. It’s an open question how well that will go, and whether Ford and Stellantis can make inroads of their own.