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submitted 1 month ago by schizoidman@lemmy.zip to c/world@lemmy.world

And, a recent tour of one of the Asian powerhouse's vehicle plants has proved this beyond a shadow of a doubt, at least to Honda President and CEO Toshihiro Mibe.

"We have no chance against this," Mibe said upon a visit to a Shanghai parts factory, commenting on its seamless automation across all levels of production. Logistics, procurement and all aspects of the process were so automated, in fact, that he did not spot a single human worker on the supplier's floor.

Ford executives saying even three years ago that China was way ahead of the game

Toyota's CEO has likewise said regarding not just his company, but the industry in general, "unless things change, we will not survive"

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[-] unmagical@lemmy.ml 197 points 1 month ago

Well that's capitalism. It's what you wanted right? Competition to keep you on your toes?

Looks like the invisible hand of the market favors what the people want more than what bosses think we can take.

[-] FatVegan@leminal.space 52 points 1 month ago

Please keep buying our shitty cars, we won't survive otherwise.

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[-] drmoose@lemmy.world 24 points 1 month ago

This is not capitalism as China is net-lossing market acquisition.

This is called "dumping" and is not a feature of capitalism in any way. In fact, every single economic school that likes capitalism is against it. Generally net-loss market acquisition is very bad thing for our society as it privatizes gains and socializes losses. i.e. if EV market suddenly implodes many people would be holding the bag and if EV market succeeds then only a few people profit.

Marxists themselves classify net-loss acquisition as a failure of late-stage capitalism (which is fair) but when .ml's favorite flavor of authoritarians do it then it's ok lmao

[-] unmagical@lemmy.ml 52 points 1 month ago

Dumping is the natural end of overproduction or under consumption. It's also a tool to secure new markets. Capitalists employ it to get new customers and minimize losses. That's why Walmart exists in small towns and why previous season's stock goes on sale.

What we see here is a state capitalist entity participating in a global capitalist market using the tools available to them to secure new markets. There's more than one tool at play here too: the article talks of the advanced state of automaton as the differentiator with domestic producers. At the scale of automation described, even if not sold at a subsidized loss that's still gonna produce a cheaper product.

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[-] prole 17 points 1 month ago

And yet here we are, in a capitalist society, and it's the current reality.

Wild.

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[-] thanksforallthefish@literature.cafe 117 points 1 month ago

Good these are companies that fought the transition to EVs every step of the way. Toyota in particular. Which was ironic after releasing the Prius

[-] Geologist@lemmy.zip 53 points 1 month ago

Toyota is way too conservative. After nailing hybrid tech early on, it seems like they wasted the opportunity to put it on every vehicle they make which would have been such an amazing step forward, instead of treating it as a weird niche for so long.

Also that bz4x or whatever deserves a spot on the worst cars of all time list, just straight up ewaste.

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[-] ummthatguy@lemmy.world 74 points 1 month ago
[-] JohnnyCanuck@lemmy.ca 67 points 1 month ago

I've been wanting Honda to make an affordable all-electric car for years. Based on how BYD is selling, I'm guessing I'm not the only one.

Instead they keep making bigger and bigger, gas-guzzling vehicles, with bells and whistles we don't need, saying that's what sells and they can't make an electric vehicle they're happy with.

Well, too bad. It seems I've bought my last Honda, sadly, because my next vehicle will not burn gasoline.

[-] Mothra@mander.xyz 23 points 1 month ago

On the same boat and yes it's depressing. It's also depressing that nobody seems to be thinking about all electric small cars, or even normal width cars, at least where I live. Teslas and BYDs here are about as wide as buses. I can only dream of Honda or Toyota making an electric vehicle no wider than 70% of the lanes they're supposed to drive on.

[-] Wfh@lemmy.zip 26 points 1 month ago

They did. The Honda e was the perfect tiny EV, except for its massive price tag and small-ish range. And of course, in classic Honda fashion, as a promising but flawed attempt didn't succeed immediately, they promptly abandoned the segment instead of capitalizing on acquired knowledge, battery technology advances and price drops. Given how successful the Renault 5 is, I'm pretty sure a 2nd gen e at half the price would have been a massive success.

Of course, being Honda, they changed their mind and came back with a significantly worse SUV.

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[-] treesquid@lemmy.world 60 points 1 month ago

"We took zero action to compete and relied on protectionism and other forms of corruption to stay in business knowing that China was pulling ahead, we refused to plan for the future and harvested all the money for our owners instead and now we're fucked unless you bail us out! Not the owners, of course, who could afford to bail us out, they will continue siphoning money even though they're clearly incompetent, we need your taxes" ... How about no?

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[-] whotookkarl@lemmy.dbzer0.com 55 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

How many of those companies spent literal billions of dollars on stock buybacks to inflate share market price over the last decade instead of investing in the people and facilities and products to remain competitive. Even if there is dumping I doubt it's anywhere near the combined spent on share price inflation buybacks & savings instead of investing in the workers and business, these companies enjoy unjustified tax breaks and subsidies from their governments as well.

This is a the economy being equated to wealth/investor class problem. Workers in and around cities want cheap affordable evs & charging infrastructure for renters, mechanics and parts producers want to build and work on affordable evs. People who own stocks expecting growth returns and executive compensation want to sell 10 cars a year for a trillion dollars each if they could.

[-] BeMoreCareful@lemmy.world 25 points 1 month ago

Yeah, this is what bad leadership is. Lack of leadership really. China and the US both found themselves the manufacturers of the world.

China took the money and built an infrastructure. The US took the money and destroyed unions..

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[-] imahappyguy@lemmy.world 49 points 1 month ago

Aww man, China is dumping to gain market share for EVs? That's crazy. If only car manufacturers had adapted to EVs sooner and researched more into better battery technologies, they might not be in this position. Get fucked. This whole, every car has to be super luxorious in America is getting ridiculous. I looked at a rav4 last year and the "features" they included in the base model was mental. I just want my car to go when I press the pedal. Brake. And a CD Player. I don't need half the shit they put in American market cars. Doesn't help that I have a large family that needs to travel far, frequently. So, my hands are tied with getting an SUV. I'd kill for a better train transit in America. Next car gets to be an EV though. Cause that's the sedan.

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[-] M0oP0o@mander.xyz 49 points 1 month ago

OH NO! THE FREE MARKET IS WORKING BUT NOT IN OUR FAVOR!!!

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[-] etherphon@piefed.world 49 points 1 month ago

Well I guess your high paid CEOs and executives really fucked up then, right? That's exactly what you were saying? Because everyone else saw this coming from miles away, and we have been clamoring for these kinds of cars for a long ass time, even small gas cars are hard to find now. So what are those guys paid such high salaries for if they are so completely dense...?

[-] BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world 24 points 1 month ago

They thought they had captured the market and could get away with anything because there were no other options.

Now there are options. They fucked around, now they find out.

[-] etherphon@piefed.world 19 points 1 month ago

The stock markets have turned every company into a bunch of myopic dipshits.

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[-] Treczoks@lemmy.world 44 points 1 month ago

Good morning. You old style car companies (and it is not just the US ones, count the European companies in, too) slept through the last decades. They tried everything in the book to supress EVs, and still keep developing fossil fuel cars to be released in ten years.

And now they start to wake up, seeing that the world moved onwithout them, and they cry.

[-] VinegarChunks@lemmus.org 18 points 1 month ago

I work in a USA manufacturing plant that has nine figures worth of EV motor manufacturing lines cancelled, sitting around collecting dust since the new administration changed all the regulations and incentives.

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[-] ikidd@lemmy.dbzer0.com 42 points 1 month ago

Don't charge $100,000 for a regular fucking vehicle?

Seriously, all the useless expensive shit they add to vehicles to make them unmaintainable data miners is why they're going to get slaughtered.

Give me an electric pickup with 4WD and crank up windows. Preferably no radio. I'd buy one of those Slates in a heartbeat if it were 4WD, as much as I hate Jeff Bezos.

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[-] Endymion_Mallorn@kbin.melroy.org 40 points 1 month ago

Okay, so you're getting out-competed in the market. Pay proper wages, invest in innovation instead of executive salaries, and take a slimmer profit margin to help your customers.

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[-] No_Eponym@lemmy.ca 35 points 1 month ago

automation across all levels of production

Maybe its true. Regardless, article sounds like anti-worker propaganda to me. China is gonna eat our lunch! Better take a pay cut, and be glad you're not laid off!

[-] Zetta@mander.xyz 21 points 1 month ago

I get your perspective, but complete automation with as little human input as possible is exactly how you make cheap products.

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[-] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 31 points 1 month ago

Maybe you should have kept up and innovated instead of just trying to stifle your competition and enshittify your products idiots.

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[-] mctoasterson@reddthat.com 29 points 1 month ago

This continues to baffle me. Europe, the US, and likely even Japan was never going to be able to win the race to the bottom on price. China understands its supply chain and mineral strengths and has optimized its entire production towards churning out good (or good enough) EVs at scale.

Still, the US could continue to wall China out of its market with massive tariffs while also promoting alternative cheaper vehicle options, a large portion of which should and could be EVs. But the US hasn't even done that... Domestic manufacturers have run screaming from EVs, seemingly ceding the entire field to China.

[-] kent_eh@lemmy.ca 19 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

But the US hasn't even done that...

And continues to stubbornly refuse to.

 

This is a repeat of the '70s when fuel prices shot up, and people started buying fuel efficient Japanese cars.

The American manufacturers just continued making their land yachts and muscle cars until they came up with such innovations as the Ford Pinto or the AMC Gremlin...

And even those weren't as fuel efficient as the average Toyota or Honda or Datsun of the era.

Ford, GM and Stelantis are going to just keep pumping out SUVs as fast as they can with only the occational token EV that doesn't meet what the market demands.

Mustang drivers or pickup truck drivers aren't the ones most actively seeking an EV.

They need to come up with an EV that competes with a Corolla. Or one that is in the same ballpark as the BYD cars. Not on price alone - no North America based manufacturer can compete directly on price against a subsidizd Chinese company, but on the being a car part.

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[-] MrSulu@lemmy.ml 28 points 1 month ago

This is the very same extreme capitalism that they have enjoyed, engineered, abused. Live by the sword, die by the sword. Or, rapidly change expectations for what they charge. They cannot have it both ways

[-] drmoose@lemmy.world 27 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I've been in the market for a decent Japanese EV for like 10 years now and still drive my 2004 toyota around. Sure China is dumping but Japan has been sleeping so hard it's hard to have any sympathy here.

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[-] mrdown@lemmy.dbzer0.com 25 points 1 month ago

Are we supposed to feel bad about corporations ?

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[-] BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world 24 points 1 month ago

So what you're saying is you need Daddy Trump to bail you out with taxpayer dollars we don't have so you can not change anything to make vehicles nobody can afford?

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[-] mlg@lemmy.world 24 points 1 month ago

While Toyota and Honda at least have an acclaimed history in low cost and efficient vehicles, Ford is literally 1/3rd the the reason the US doesn't manufacture sedans anymore, with the other 2/3rds being GM and Chrysler.

I actually witnesses them layoff their entire sedan division in real time when they announced the end of the fusion. I'm pretty sure it was mostly liquidated by the time covid hit.

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[-] Greyghoster@aussie.zone 23 points 1 month ago

That’s the problem with disrupters, people are so involved with dismissing them that they don’t see what’s happening. For years it was all about cheap Chinese labour then turn around and discover that it’s really all about robotic factories and slick organisation. Throw in EVs and it’s the same but worse.

[-] CommanderCloon@lemmy.ml 22 points 1 month ago

Lmfao at the pro capitalism crybabies in this thread

  • Free market is superior
  • We're getting steamrolled by a planned economy

Pick one.

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[-] thorhop@sopuli.xyz 21 points 1 month ago

"Detroit Motor City". I.e subsidizing losses.

Of course you could apply protectionism, but that wouldn't be fair and would set a public precedent on the global markets.

But yeah, the petroleum lobby really managed to screw us sideways. All those anti EV, anti solar and anti wind campaigns.

It is perhaps the biggest, oldest, slowest moving and most fraudulent of bailouts in all of history.

We are just that stupid.

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[-] qevlarr@lemmy.world 21 points 1 month ago

"We insisted on fossil fuels and now Chinese electric car companies are eating our lunch, boo hoo"

Cry more fat capitalists

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[-] patruelis@lemmy.world 20 points 1 month ago

No, no. Build big beautiful F150, Tundras and other mastodonts running on dinosaur fuel. Fail to adapt, fail to exist.

[-] quips@slrpnk.net 19 points 1 month ago
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[-] chocrates@piefed.world 18 points 1 month ago

Herp my derp look who is mad about the "free market" now?

Don't come crawling to us for bailouts this time

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[-] theacharnian@lemmy.ca 18 points 1 month ago

Maybe pull yourselves up by your bootstraps. You know, the whole "meritocracy" thing.

[-] bridgeburner@lemmy.world 17 points 1 month ago

China will soon, or prolly has already, be the number 1 country. US oligarchs are just focussed on getting richer instead of trying to advance humanity technologically.

[-] Allonzee@lemmy.world 17 points 1 month ago

A nation can enrich it's elites in the short term at the expense of its people, or it can invest in its people (education, commons, etc) at the expense of its elites.

The west, and especially my cesspool the US has made its choice.

China has been heavily building up its commons and infrastructure in the same 40 year span the US has let its commons and education fall into utter ruin in order to sell economically segregated education and gated communities for private profit.

The US is culturally indoctrinated to be hostile towards the very concept of society. Imagine resenting paying into universal healthcare because you don't want to accidentally pay for your countrymen's "bad decisions" like... Eating food.

I go on Rednote quite a bit. The US attitude towards China, just like non pure crony capitalism is "they are evil and from hell" for being a society. Their people, not their politicians, their people, are sweet, intelligent, and mostly treat Americans with an "are you guys OK? We've heard (true) horror stories."

Thats humanity. Why would I want my schaudenfreude and greed ruled cesspool to "win?" It's not about winning, it's about the wellbeing of ALL your people. If the US dominates the world culturally, all that would mean is that humanity stands for "fuck you I got mine" at which point I have no comradery with my species whatsoever.

Actual human worth/value is measured in empathy for one another, which makes the US destitude in what matters.

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[-] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 17 points 1 month ago

That's capitalism.

¯\(ツ)

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[-] CileTheSane@lemmy.ca 17 points 1 month ago

Won't somebody PLEASE think of the shareholders‽

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[-] dan1101@lemmy.world 16 points 1 month ago

Simple affordable vehicles if they want to keep the factories busy and and sell a lot of vehicles. Greatly reduce the massive trucks and SUVs. I don't know how many people need to tell them that before they finally listen.

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this post was submitted on 27 Apr 2026
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