The global automotive industry has been propped up by Chinese consumers for nearly two decades. While there are some smaller markets that have grown in the last few years, the old large markets (Europe, US/Canada, Japan) have generally stagnated in terms of volume. The United States, for instance, might never get back to the 17.5 million cars sold in 2016, which is way less than the record 23.7 million sold in China last year.
What goes up must come down, and The Morning Dump today is going to be about what happens when things start falling. For China, the slump comes at a time when both domestic and foreign automakers are fighting for market share, which means everyone is about to lose in a big way.
Each day brings a little more information on the deal made between Canada and the US, and the tariff rate does seem to be going down, though there’s a big question of how that impacts the effective tariff rate, which in turn will affect what happens to one of Canada’s biggest automotive facilities.
Not all downward trends are bad trends. Consumers are happy when cars get cheaper, and one Vietnamese truck maker is bringing back the Nano name in the form of a cheap electric vehicle.
500 New Cars Is Too Many Slices
My family often quotes the above TikTok viral meme wherein a guy watches someone cut a pizza into increasingly smaller pieces. In the video he yells “that’s enough slices!” For whatever reason, this has become “too many slices” in our own internal parlance.
China has entered the too many slices/not enough slices zone when it comes to new cars, offering more models for a customer base that isn’t getting bigger.
What’s happened in China is not a surprise. It’s merely the confluence of various factors. The Chinese economy has grown roughly twelve-fold in GDP since joining the World Trade Organization in 2001. This nearly $18 trillion swing in GDP created a lot of buying power for Chinese consumers. At first, western automakers (led by GM and Volkswagen) dominated China, either through imports or through joint ventures with local automakers.
In order to push electrification and self reliance, the Chinese government made it a priority to build out the local automotive industry. This resulted in an explosion of local car companies which suddenly became very competitive with foreign ones. This conflict between the two forces has resulted in numerous brands trying to out-do one another with new models.
“We have a huge number of players in the domestic market, with over 130 brands selling vehicles and more than 500 new models launched in the first half of this year,” Fu Bingfeng, secretary general of CAAM, said July 21 at an industry forum in Shanghai. “Such an aggressive rollout of new products was far beyond what the market was able to accommodate.”
Average operating margins in China’s auto manufacturing sector have declined for nearly a decade, sliding to 4.1 percent in 2025 from 7.8 percent in 2017, when annual domestic passenger vehicle sales plateaued at 24 million, Fu said.
Operating margins slipped to 3.4 percent in the first five months of 2026, according to numbers he disclosed at the event. The dynamic is pressuring profits across the board.
500 new cars in half a year is way too many slices, especially as the market dropped for the 11th straight month in July. Fewer customers and more competition means margins are getting peach fruit roll-up thin. Many traditional OEMs have pulled brands out of China and I wonder how long the car market can slide before more domestic brands start disappearing or the government steps in with more subsidies.
This also puts pressure on Chinese automakers to try to get new sales abroad in places like Canada.
Canada’s New Tariff Rate Is 15%, But Is It Really 15%?
It’s now day three of what’s-gonna-happen with Canada. On Monday, everyone waited to see if President Trump was really going to put a 50% tariff on Canadian goods. Yesterday, we heard a deal was struck to avert disaster, but with few details.
This morning we’re learning a little more. Specifically, Bloomberg reports that the tariff rate on autos imported from Canada has dropped from 25% to 15%:
For vehicles made in Canada and Mexico, the tax applies only to a vehicle’s non-US content, a measure intended to push companies to move more production to the US.
The same content provision will apply to the new 15% rate, the people said. Details of the agreement have not been finalized and US President Donald Trump in the past has made last-minute changes to trade agreements or killed them entirely.
Under the USMCA, for a vehicle to qualify as compliant (and thus avoid the previous base tariff) it had to have 75% North American content. Under the new rules, only the parts content that isn’t North American gets hit with tariffs (If it’s a $40,000 car and 75% of the car is North American, the 25% tariff that existed meant a $2,500 tariff). What if that ‘North American content’ becomes US-only content, as intimated above?
The math gets a little wonky. Let’s say that the $40,000 car mentioned above only has half its content from the US and the rest from Canada/Mexico/Wherever. The $20,000 now gets hit with a duty, which is going to be 15%. That’s $3,000, which means the tariff has gone up $500. If the new rules allow for Canadian/US content, then the tariff drops by $1,000 to $1,500.
Whether or not a car is competitive if produced in Canada will depend a lot on both the content of the car and the final details of these rules.
Brampton Assembly Might Just Make Other Stuff
When the last Challenger rolled off the assembly line at the Stellantis facility in Brampton, Ontario, it was the end of a very long era for the automaker and for the region. The facility was supposed to be a place where the company would roll out electric vehicles for sale in the United States, which is about as cursed an idea as one can imagine in 2026.
So what’s going to happen? No one knows for sure and, as the Detroit Free Press reports, the union is not happy with the constant misdirection from Stellantis since the end of Challenger/Charger production:
In the union’s eyes, during those two years, Stellantis has lied to those autoworkers with promises to revive the Brampton Assembly Plant.
The broken promises have caused a spat between the union and Stellantis and even drawn the ire of the Canadian federal government. And next month, the union and Stellantis will have it out while negotiating the union’s next contract — and they will do it all underneath a massive shadow cast by news that Stellantis may close and sell the Brampton plant to a non-automaker, despite promising to find a new product to be built there.
The news of the sale culminated in a fiery news conference on Friday, Aug. 14, when Unifor President Lana Payne said Stellantis had issued a “gut punch” to her union.
It’s possible the new tariff rules will encourage someone to start building something in Brampton. If it’s not cars, it’s hard to see how it’ll replace all the jobs lost.
The Nano Is Back And It Costs $5,650 And Also It’s From A Vietnamese Truck Company
I’m old enough to remember all the excitement around the Tata Nano, which was then billed as a cheap alternative to bikes in India, with a then-$2,000 price. The car failed, primarily because it felt too cheap. The Nano concept is back and, curiously, it’s from a company in Vietnam that mostly does local assembly for trucks from Tata (and also Sinotruk). It’s a little electric microcar that’ll cost about $5,650.
The Nano S05 will cost less than VinFast’s VF 2, currently the Vietnamese automaker’s cheapest passenger EV at 188 million dong. It is also priced close to premium motorbikes such as Honda’s SH 350i, which retails at 153 million dong, and Piaggio’s Vespa Sprint 80th 180, priced at about 121 million dong.
Measuring just 2.28 meters long and 1.29 meters wide, the Nano S05 is significantly smaller than VinFast’s four-seat VF 2 and is designed to navigate crowded streets and tight parking spaces. The model highlights a growing push to develop affordable electric vehicles tailored for Vietnam’s motorcycle-dominated cities.
TMT says the Nano S05 model is assembled in Vietnam and draws on the engineering of the Silence S04, a Spanish electric microcar made by Acciona’s EV brand Silence.
A Vietnamese-built, Spanish-designed Indian-named microcar! Who said globalism was dead?
The larger-battery option will have two removable lithium ion batteries, allowing for charging without a dedicated charging spot, which is neat.
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
I was in a situation where I couldn’t connect to the Internet, so I pulled up the older Japanese Breakfast album I forgot I’d downloaded. “Boyish” is an all-timer, and I can’t believe I haven’t played it here yet.
The Big Question
What’s your favorite Chinese car or brand?
Top photo: DepositPhotos.com
I like the BYD and xiaomi stuff that I’ve seen pics of or watched reviews. Might get to see some real livr examples soon. Stellantis can FRO IMO and take their $hitty products and stuff them up the exhaust pipe.
I’m buying Japanese made in Japan for the next iteration of our wheels. Trump and The pathetic GOP has driven another customer away from purchasing American products.
All hail the Shineray E3L.
I think my favorite Chinese brand is between xpeng and byd. BYD for vertical integration and how they take problems on. Xpeng for way outside the box thinking. For both words mean something. Geely is mess but they were always called the Honda of China when they primarily made scooters. So that fits I guess. Xiaomi is fine and make decent products. I don’t think much of nio anymore. Sort of like the Chinese lucid.
So many of the state owned have some very interesting cars I just question many things about them. Like changan and Chery are both huge with some very interesting sub brands. Like changan with the Deepal sub brand. All the models look good. Deepal L06 is a crazy good value with a very well designed car.
Chery has the icar line that turned to into a sub brand that makes these little boxy suvs. The icar v23 is another crazy value for what is a nice looking little box suv. That looks like an range rover on the inside. The v27 is slightly bigger and even more range rover. It’s no wonder JLR worked with Chery on the Freelander brand.
I think the biggest problem for Nano S05 will be licensing. Vietnam went to the international license scheme a few years ago. Price for car license shot up. It used to be very cheap for people to get a license in Vietnam. So older people that already have one for whatever reason. It might be interesting for cover from weather over a new ev scooter. But the younger people who can get an EV scooter tot $1k and a scooter license for basically nothing something like that might be a tough sell. Vf3 does very well in the smaller cities because it’s kinda like a 2wd jimney. But I guess if someone was looking at vf2, vf3 and a nano s05. Value could win. Vinfast is likey brining out vf1 if they make it like more of a car version of the Chinese old man joy like many have speculated could be very tough for the nono s05.
If worse comes to worst, VW can always rebadge Ora Ballet Cats as VWs and pass them off as the Newest Beetle…
Seriously, though, if an enterprising Chinese businessman could rope together five or six brands into one strong company, they could be the head of the GM of China.
On the other hand, if fifteen enterprising Chinese businessmen join five or six brands together, then China would have 15 GMs…
The state owned companies and byd will probably the pieces of companies. I would bet lots of alliances to come too. I don’t know that Huawei really wants full control a car company but they will likey end up with a few. I wouldn’t be surprised if CATL and some other suppliers end up with some too. Then again tons of random companies in China in tons of different industries making similar things and survive. Partly because the supply chain and how suppliers work there.
The weird Audi sub brand / JV of “AUDI” is shipping their “AUDI” s to Europe I would expect VAG to do more of that. The way VAG and GWM are going it’s almost more likely GWM just take over VAG. Leaving sort of a Volvo situation with just commerical vehicles left.
I dunno why, but it feels just right to not mention him by name. He hasn’t even done anything heinous (at least to my knowledge), but man his music opinions tend to be trash.Any who I’d love to see a map on where all those 500 new CDM cars are being built. That’s a lot of new cars for a country that doesn’t seem that big to build that many brand-new models.
They need to sell the Nano here.
Also, fuck Trump and his shitty tariffs. He can’t raise the tariffs under the USMCA. It will quickly be taken to court, and he might actually lose.
1) put tariffs in place
2) collect a bunch of money from companies that pass the costs on to their customers
3) tariffs determined to be “illegal”
4) give a bunch of money back to companies
5) put new tariffs in place
The only part missing there is the implication that Trump’s organization is getting kickbacks from those companies along the way. It’s certainly possible this is all the by-product of him having zero understanding of economics, but either way the loser here is the consumer/taxpayer and there is no reason not to take the process above and rinse/repeat for 2 1/2 more years.
There is a Chinese vehicle that’s similar bought in as an lsv. It’s called the wink as a lsv. It was $15k now $17k. Lots of other lsv that are interesting in that $15k range.
Plus all this
https://www.zelectricvehicle.com/
Used to start for $8400. There used to be a lifan enclosed micro car thing that alot of the China bikes dealer sold for around the same money.
I’m not sure what the price has to be for people to take interest. But from what I’ve seen it has to be below $8k. I’m interested in how it will do in Vietnam. But I’m still skeptical there.
The Chinese old man joy cars did so well for many reasons. Very low price ( currently $800 to $2k depending on model), no license or insurance needed. The same as the ebikes here if you think about it. So if people can bypass regulations and fees with very cheap transportation they will jump on it. The sort of middle ground nothing seems to happen. But the golf course communities along with the large new neighborhoods are starting buying Chinese lsv instead of golf carts now so I guess there is ther case too.
Probably Micro Machines.
I’m aware they were branded and marketed by Galoob, but they were made in China.
When I read Brampton, I saw Brompton, and thought ‘boy, that’s big for a folding bike factory.’
The new Nano: does it have usable air conditioning? If so, and it doesn’t have to meet US crash safety regs due to slow max speed or something, I honestly could see those selling here (not for $10K, but for $7,500.) Lots of us city folk almost never go out of town, and life is just an endless series of short trips in traffic. Work. School. Errands. Home. I know some will disagree with me, but I think there’s a market for ultra-cheap transportation, even in a ‘first world’ country like ours (as wildly dysfunctional and dystopian as it is). Plus, something like the Nano is actually big enough to hang out in with a couple pals and watch a movie on someone’s phone or tablet. Put in one of those in-car coffee makers and you’re set. 🙂
Re: China. I saw some of the recent reports about 500 new Chinese car models so far this year and knew that Matt & Co. would write about it. It IS way too many car models, and I pre-emptively feel sorry for all those car buyers who are going to wind up with short lived models from soon-to-disappear brands that were poorly built and even more poorly supported. Yes, I know some of what I’ve seen is ‘fake news’ or AI, or whatever, but even if only 30% of the reports are true, I’ve watched so many about how Chinese cars, even those from well-known brands like BYD, are basically crap after a couple of years.
The thickness and hardness of steel used for frame/body members seems to be a place where many Chinese auto manufacturers save some money, and functional rustproofing also seems to be inconsistent at best, and non-existent at worst. The actual quality of the gears in the motors and transmissions seems suspect in some models, with broken teeth and damaged splines in almost-new cars. And don’t get me started on the exquisite misery that seems to be the infotainment stuff, where cheesy animated graphics seem to have taken priority over stable code. It’s all worrying, and makes me glad that I’m not living there if I needed to buy a new car. Of course, I’m also not happy to be living in THIS market for smiliar reasons, though here we have high costs to help make the offerings less attractive too.
It seems like the only place to have a chance of getting a decent car for a modest price is to drag one out of a Swedish forest and then restore it to running. But those are all probably staged set-ups too I guess. Like ‘reality’ tv and ‘representative democracy.’ 🙁 This all makes me think that there must be some major economic crash or other drastic cultural correction coming soon. But there’s probably not… it’ll just keep dragging on like this for a good while. 🙁
Alright, I’ll shut up and cut back on the coffee.
Thanks.
AI-pacolypse coming soon to an economy near you.
Don’t worry. It’s artificial so it won’t affect you.
Srcsm
I think ebikes have shown us ultra cheap transportation with no licensing or insurance/ regulation fees. Catch on like wild fire. It’s when you add all fees people don’t think about people stop seeing the upside. For many licensing would be enough to stop. I’m not sure how many peoples would go pay the $250 for a motorcycle class even if they already have a driver’s license. Then if it’s a high registration fee, tax and insurance. Even $20 a month might put many people off. Storage of them also could be an issue in bigger cities. I guess if you have some kind of alley it might work. But that’s where bikes end up working out better.
China has a wide range of product quality. They also haven’t had the best record with standards. It was a big issues for steel and pipe they would stamp anything you or they wanted on something. Plus counterfeit everything. There is counterfeit electric wire they wrap rmb in the real stuff to help protect it. It’s also the country that counterfeit rice going to Africa. If you do that what won’t you counterfeit.
Yes, I’ve seen fake cable and wiring on big spools… looking like brand new CAT-5 or whatever, but with schmutz inside instead of copper or even aluminum. I guess the seller just vanishes after a big sale is complete? Counterfeiting is a religion over there: fake food, fake name-brand products, even fake housing (in that there are millions of units pre-purchased then partially built and abandoned before complete). It seems a chaotic free-for-all where anything goes no matter who gets hurt, and nothing is off-limits except what the government deems ‘bad’ for society (which actually means bad for the government). It’s almost madness. 🙁
I’m of mixed thoughts about eBikes, only because there are so many here. If there were some way to be sure a bike stayed (slow) speed limited, I’d be fine w/o it requiring license/training, insurance, registration. However, SO MANY get well up into the 30-40+ MPH range, and of course there’s not a license plate in sight, that I think regulation is needed, not only for safety, but also for fairness.
Why should a person with an old JUM used for commuting to work have to jump through all sorts of hoops and keep paying regularly in order to use their motocycle on the road, while a teenager with a $2K eBike is just as fast and can get away without any of that due diligence or expense? Both machines represent similar potential dangers to the public, therefore they should have to abide by similar oversight.
The way it is right now, it just seems unfair to me.
Im mixed about the kids on ebikes. If they do well fine if not they need to be trained to do better. But there needs to be a free unregulated transport. They need some kind of free training for all to know the road rules. In collage towns that have big moped scooter culture if the state start requiring registration it changes. People stop using them. People need a way to move free and ebikes seem like the way to do that. It’s like that in China. Everyone on their $150 to $300 ebikes. The old man joy vehicles also fit into that but they are trying to ban them.
There is legal and free unregistered transport. Bicycles and that includes real electric bicycles.
The problem that is just starting to see a crackdown is companies selling motorcycles as bicycles.
When the regulations no longer fit the market time to change the regulations.
The regulations work fine. There is simply a lack of enforcement. This is a repeat of the 70’s moped boom except that the current crop of motor vehicles aren’t powered by 2 stroke engines.
I see no reason to treat EV mopeds and motorcycles any different than the ICE versions.
That’s your opinion as an older person. Many other stake holders feel differently. Some states have had 500w as the same as 49.9cc others it’s 750w. Some don’t define.
It also used to be you show up a dmv on your motorcycle the guy would say I didn’t see you do that you go though their little course and $3 later you had a class m endorsement. That world no longer exists.
People get stuck in the “I had to” it’s just stupid and in the way of progress.
Counterfeit baby formula, as well. Some unscrupulous businesspeople will stoop at nothing. And then there are those that export the precursor chemicals for methamphetamines, fentanyl and other substances that addict, make psychotic and kill people.
Definitely lack of morals but that’s not unique to China. The rice is still the most shocking to me. Just because rice is so cheap shipping is probably more then the actual cost of the product. And they injected molded rice. Baby formula can be expensive and it’s just white powder that seems low effort likey high profit. So even though it’s very morally wrong I can understand the logic. Rice that’s just insane.
China stuff can get confusing because some things are fine for unbelievably cheap so I can understand why people can get scammed easy. It just shows how much the middlemen mark everything up. It’s not the same world as someone running up with a rock in a tv box saying you can have a deal right now.
Pork, chicken, and duck are quite affordable in China. Beef not so much. Vegetables are cheap too, and not choosing beef or seafood improves your chances of avoiding counterfeit product. Though I don’t watch as much stuff from China as I do Japan, in many Chinese cities, eating out at a casual restaurant, which often tend to be vegetable-intensive, can be extremely cheap… the equivalent of $2-3 here. I’d be delighted to pay that for a veggie lunch, but it’s about three times the price here or more (in SoCal).
When I was a teenager, I bought a video camera in a shrinkwrapped box from a guy on 14th street and of course, it turned out to be a box crammed full of rolled newspapers. Fraud happens everywhere, though China has been accurately/fairly described as a ‘low trust’ society, and it’s likely encountered more often there. I’m probably about to jinx myself by saying this, but I’ve lived in Los Angeles for the past 30+ years and as best I can recall, I’ve never been the victim of any kind of crime here, not even minor fraud. Anecdotal info to be sure, and the fact that I grew up in New York City in the 1970s makes me more careful, but there it is.
In answer to the original/earlier question, the Chinese-market vehicle that I’d (realistically) most like to try and maybe buy would be BYD’s new EV kei car for the Japanese market, the Racco. We talked about it before… it’s US$13-14,000. MSRP in Japan (before national/local subsidies, which favor domestic kei cars over the Racco, so a Japanese-made EV kei winds up costing less in the end). It goes without saying that I’d feel safer with the EV keis from Honda/Nissan (the N-Box/Sakura) since I’m familiar with those manufacturers.
You can eat vegetarian street food in Vietnam for easily $1 a day. Many meals are 20 cents or less. They have nice all you can eat veggie buffets for about $3. Indians can’t believe it they are coming in in droves because Vietnam has been welcoming towards them, accepts inr, and has many veggies restaurants and street food. Some are saying that will be the actual death of Vietnam. They still have enough people that will clean up after the indians it’s not yet a problem. But I can see just like Thailand getting overwhelmed and people that will clean up possibly priced out of certain areas.
China has gone sort of towards to the west in high cost cities vs low cost cities. You can go to many a tier 3 or lower city and get good food cheap. There are some places you can get decent cheap food at least for western standards in the teir 2 or higher just less and very much off the beaten path.
I think we are in a low trust era. You might trust a marketplace slightly but not completely. Certainly not sellers in that marketplace. The only reason the marketplace helps is they need people to trust them so they might help you to keep your and others business. I still know people that refuse to use eBay or alibaba because they or someone they know got scammed and didn’t get help 20 years ago.
Many people don’t trust the food for many reasons. I’ve even heard some Europeans say they don’t trust what they are doing to a lot of the food there.
The byd kei is interesting. Especially when you add up their blade cells that are the about the safest on the market. Plus add in various Japanese automakers cought cheating on kei safety. Wang Chuanfu might be byds biggest asset. He is still there. He was troubled by his products being unsafe and spent a year + countless resources to get it right even when being told it wasn’t possible. We don’t like to admit it but a company is only its self when the founder is still in control. When you have someone chasing stock prices, options, bonus, and golden parachutes. You no longer have a company you have some fools get rich scheme. Who doesn’t care about the destruction they cause. The only way to sort of get around that seems to give it to the employees or keep it in a family that believes in the family legacy. That and don’t hire mbas, promote from within.
I think for the money of the racco I would go Chery icar v23. Geely ex2 ,or the new refreshed Seagull probably out preform for less then the racco. Of course Wuling has many similar spec vehicles for half or less that also seem fine.
TBQ: The Cadillac CT6 although I wouldn’t say no to a Buick Electra
500 models sounds like a lot, but if Stellantis and VW each launch one new model per brand, that only leaves like 10 models for everybody else.
Does Matt have a spreadsheet of every TMD song to make sure he isn’t repeating himself? Could members get access to this database?
I like this idea
Chinese version of Oprah: “You get a bespoke car and you get a bespoke car and you get a bespoke car, everybody gets a bespoke car!”
Regarding the Brampton plant, DeHaviland is reporting that they can’t keep up with demand for the Canadair water bomber. It would seem like a great idea to grab that plant and workforce and get more units to market quickly.
Water-dropping firefighting aircraft is going to continue to be a growth market for years to come.
What’s your favorite Chinese car or brand?
Geeley Beauty Leopard. Oh, yes.
In the realm of Chinese cars named for an adjective and a feline, it still ranks behind the Ora Funky Cat.
Really? It looks like a late 90’s Pontiac.
Tongue-in-cheek, of course!
I’m partial to the Hongqi CA770 and its variants. One of those would like pretty good parked out next to my GAZ Chaika in the “comrade” section of my dream garage.
Favorite? Never driven one, but I’d like to try out the Chinese-made Mazda 6e/EZ-6 EV. I think it’s a damn fine looking sedan.
https://www.mazda.co.uk/cars/mazda-6e/
God damn that’s a striking car. I hate all the barriers to being able to buy from other markets that are artificially erected. The true American thing would be maximizing freedom of choice.
I saw one of those on wednesday in a carpark, it did look great
It looks even better in person 🙂 I got the range extender hybrid EZ-6 in Soul Red, handles great and gets 40MPG even when you hammer it. Only gripe is that there aren’t a lot of buttons, I want real AC switches and Mazda’s media knob back
I wish Mazda could find a volvo-sized loophole and bring it in as a US e-rev and ev.
Is there a way to average out the explosion in Chinese car models with the stagnation of US car models? 500 new models is indeed overly excessive, but seems like here there are very few options outside of big dumb truck or marshmallow mobile CUV. It would be nice to have more choice, even getting back to the variety offered 20 years ago would be a big step forward.
“Is there a way to average out the explosion in Chinese car models with the stagnation of US car models?”
No. At least not one the American manufacturers will allow. (Protectionism at its finest, unless you want GM to suffer another bankruptcy, and Ford to suffer its first.)
Couldn’t happen soon enough. Course fa changed after the last round.
Cannot really say much about Chinese cars or brands as never really looked into them. But I do like my Polestar 2. I would much prefer the Suzuki Jimny come over here in some form (maybe a Toyota) or if Mahindra could somehow import the Thar without pissing off Jeep.
Well timed to correspond with this: The Lexus LS 400 Resulted From Tariffs Meant To Protect Detroit — Revelations with Jason Cammisa
A funny side effect of the Canada agreement and the Brampton plant situation would be if Chinese car manufacturers start to heavily build out in Canada and employ their workforce so they can import cars into the US at 15%.
Yea please
Man I’d love for Renault to pick up the Brampton plant so Canada could get R4s/R5s/Dacia Springs, etc. Come on Renault!
That’s over capacity. Historically speaking, most people don’t know there were thousands of car manufacturers in the US, beginning in the early 20th century. Where are they now? Gone. Absorbed or dismantled. It’s only natural for it to whittle down to a handful in China as well. It may take many decades, but it will happen.
What’s Trump gonna do next?
Sorry to be political here but it feels like 75% of our current problems these days are TACO brain fart thinking, and in the end the average guy pays the entire cost.
I don’t mind that he falls asleep every 10 minutes.
It’s the fact that he keeps waking up that fucks with my faith in there being a God…
YMMV.
Next? After TACO, we have NACHO, which is in full swing:
Not a Chance Hormuz Opens
You can’t have just one TACO.
What’s your favorite Chinese car or brand?
I don’t have one – I am not aware of any Chinese vehicle I would actually want to own. I presume some cool cars are built in China, but almost all attention has focused on the cheap EVs. I don’t find cheap EVs interesting, mostly because I see them as generic, undesirable transportation appliances. Also, I have a hard time getting excited about products that compete primarily on price when I view that price as the result of government subsidies as opposed to innovation.
It would be nice to hear about the nice and/or interesting Chinese vehicles, though. My opinion of the Chinese auto industry might be different if I learned about the good vehicles instead of just the cheap ones.
Don’t forget the factor of slave-prisoner labor as part of this equation.
Which country are we talking about here?
I’ve competed for manufacturing work against vendors in Michigan in the past that use prison workforce; it’s not even close.
Yes, have you seen the federal minimum wage that hasn’t gone up in years? Slave labor.
Yes and well aware of this, and our own use of underhanded means of controlling costs.
I am retired and needing a bit more income to survive. Very few jobs in my area are out there that pay above minimum in my age group. By the time I figure in transportation costs, taxes, and the ever present threat of wages vs a possible reduction in my Social Security due to earnings, a job becomes almost a joke.
And the measurement of the unemployment rate is a very misleading thing.
It is said we get the Govt. we deserve.
This does not bode well for the future.
The majority of our local produce is harvested by undocumented migrants who work for next to nothing.
Some things never seem to change. But I am hopeful for a more decent and honest Government come early 2029.
Sometimes hope feels like all we have left…
I can safely predict that the next lot will be a fully bought and paid for collection of the usual suspects. Their ties may have different stripes but under the suits they are still the loathsome reptiles they’ve always been.
I’ll have you know “Lizardman in a Human Suit” is a well-respected member of this community!
But yeah, meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
No aspersions meant or intended on our fine Lacerta friend.
Im happy for the recognition. We work hard to control both sides and play everyone. Illusion of choice is best for domination without having to resort to subjugation.
Functionally nobody is paid federal minimum wage anymore workers demand higher pay, I’m sure there is a tiny slice of workers (less than 1%) but I haven’t seen any jobs in my area posted at federal minimum wage in at least a decade, probably early 10’s?
It’s been at $7.25/hour since 2009. Seventeen friggin’ years, and not likely to go up until after the mid-terms, or we get a Democrat as a president.
It’s no wonder kids prefer to play video games and watch Tiktok.
We’ve had two Democratic presidents since 2009. Neither raised the federal minimum wage because it simply isn’t worth the fight when the functional minimum wage is much higher. Anyone offering $7.25 isn’t going to get applications let alone hire workers.
We struggle to hire or retain workers in North Carolina at $20 per hour with fully paid health insurance and very generous paid holidays, vacation days, and 401K. Only requirement is GED, pass a drug test, and show up on time.
If you’re going to take the ‘government subsidies’ argument approach, you need to be 100% honest and have just as much of a problem with the US government subsidizing the oil/gas industry, which includes an extra $15B or so stationing the US Fifth Fleet in the Gulf, seeing to it that oil flows freely (not right now). Since when did the US military become the oil industry’s personal security force?
Insert hangman’s meme: “your first middle-east war?”
Always has been.
Since they made the US dollar the petrol dollar. Take that away and see what happens.
You do know many of the oil producing countries are openly discussing coming off the dollar as the official currency? Indeed, see what happens to any leverage we possessed.
I do and you’re right.
Oh, without a doubt the Jianhua JH6620 24V3000.
https://carnewschina.com/2016/12/27/old-photos-of-the-completely-crazy-jianhua-jh6620-24v3000-wedding-car/
Limo by stretching a mid-size (?) VW???!!!
Interesting read at the link, thank you!
Farther down on the page: On November 17, Exeed’s brand-new sedan called Sterra ES is now open for pre-sale with a price range of 248,000 – 358,000 yuan (34,400 – 49,600 USD), available in a total of five models. Its international name is Exlantix ES.
The Exlantix would have a real uphill battle trying to get buyers to shell out for something that sounds like a famous OTC laxative…
One large difference on the tarriffs vs CUSMA is that the rate in CUSMA is for North American content. The Cunt of Mostly Crisco’s new tarriff exemptions are on US content.
Skipping the ragebait on USMCA (which was signed and agreed at 0% before broken by the same person who touted how good it was)
When Brampton Assembly was gutted by Stellantis: I recall there was talk about the Canadian governments trying to buy it to encourage manufacturing by one of the Chinese brands.
It would be in Stellantis’ best interest to put something in there to slow down any chance of increased competition. They don’t exactly have the greatest mix of products right now.
Upvoted for your first sentence.
Leap motor seems like an obvious answer to me. People get their cheapish Chinese car. Stellantis lives for a while more..
BYD plant go Brrrr.
The Chang Li
Underrated. It is certainly the only one I follow.
This is the only correct answer.