I feel like it’s going to be like the days of the oil crisis where American car makers couldn’t complete with the Japanese, so they worked with them to rebrand Mazdas, Suzukis, etc. as Fords, Chevys, Dodges, etc.
Wouldn’t be surprised if the next big Chevy EV is just a rebranded BYD
It’s going to be worse. I was too young in that oil crisis so wasn’t paying too much attention to politics and economy, but it really seemed very sudden. The price shocks hit instantly. The flood of cars came quickly. Legacy manufacturers attempts at scaling down full sized cars were slow and poorly done, so the market was quickly lost.
Here we have years of notice. Here we have protectionism from the beginning instead of after the fact. Here legacy manufacturers are all global so do need to be competitive outside their little protected bubbles. They’ve had years of support and encouragement to develop compelling vehicles but haven’t. They had Tesla break into their little club with explosive growth, yet spent years denying reality instead of trying to compete. Now they have a few years of protectionism, and how do they react? Slowing down, reducing production, not even trying. This catastrophe should be obvious to anyone, and legacy manufacturers have their opportunity, yet continue to not even try
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