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this post was submitted on 23 Mar 2024
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Electric Vehicles
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Well R&D costs a ton of money
The reason why Chinese ones are so cheap is that the government is subsidizing them
thats the correct thing to do if you want to transition away from oil fast.
I agree on that, there should be more incentive for people to get EVs
BYD also owns the entire supply chain, from lithium mines to battery manufacturing to car assembly to sales. Nobody else can do that right now.
And China has the overwhelming advantage in lithium supply to the rest of the world.
IIRC it’s not R&D that is the main cost of EVs these days, but the cost of the batteries themselves is still absurdly high. It’s down to $139/kWh as of Nov 2023, but keep that in perspective of an EV: a 72 kWh battery is $10k in raw material costs alone. I think I remember seeing a quote that affordable EVs (unsubsidized) can’t become a realistic goal until lithium prices break the $100 threshold.
That and the fact that a lot of auto makers in the US only want to make luxury EVs.
It's almost like the US has spent billions developing electric cars that the Chinese manufacturers don't have to spend on.
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