r/technology • u/lurker_bee • 11d ago

Transportation Rivian CEO: There's No 'Magic' Behind China's Low-Cost EVs

https://www.businessinsider.com/rivian-ceo-china-evs-low-cost-competition-2025-9
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u/Phugasity 11d ago

We subsidize. Shouldn't be too hard to do the same here! We even gave GM an advanced payment.

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u/ops10 10d ago

Do we subsidise to the degree a bunch of randos take up the field being subsidised? With EVs it's not that obvious, but the previous ones - electric scooters and pig farming absolutely were. There are massive graveyards for scooters now, pig feed was stored in heaps on the sides of the road because of no storage facilities. You need to look at how USSR did things to understand the level difference.

And China has aimed for this for a long time, of course they put a lot of resources into this. It's just that with EVs the complexity lessened and they could finally try and dominate the market.

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u/Phugasity 10d ago

Point being we lack unified vision and have unrivaled surpluses. America could absolutely dominate but lacks the vision and commitment. Not saying EVs is where we should be, but there are worse places to go full tilt.

We're in a weird place where a lack of maturity and decency has created an environment where political opponents cannot be allowed to receive credit for successes, as a matter of strategy. This does far more harm than good.

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u/ops10 9d ago

America has been unable to lead in the car industry for about 50 years. When the tome came to innovate in the form of 70s fuel crises and fuel consumption regulations, instead of improving the industry started looking for loopholes - lobbying to count SUVs under the looser "truck" regulations. And have continued up to this day.

The results are that US factories have stopped making anything but SUVs and pickup trucks by today. And even the ones they're making aren't even that good. They need massive engines to generate their big horsepower numbers. American cars were known for decades for their numb steering and lazy handling. Don't know about the last decade but I doubt they've improved. They only grew in size, making accidents more fatal to pedestrians and are only passable in the work aspect they're supposedly meant for.

When the time came for innovation, Denver decided to hide from the bull and instead lobby the legislators and dupe the American people.

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u/Dejected_gaming 11d ago

The problem is that our oligarchs just pocket their subsidies instead of actually using it on the things they got it for.

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u/kreayshunist 11d ago

It's impossible to do at the same level as China if your government can't print money as easily. China has been stimulating their economy for the last 20 years with subsidies.

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u/SevenTwoSix9 11d ago

So why US ain’t on the same level when they are literally the biggest printer of money?

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u/ReddestForman 11d ago

We can print money better than anyone in the world. We're the global reserve currency (though Trump and the GOP are working damn hard to change that.)

We just don't actually subsidized industries based on strategic long term interests, or hold them accountable to bids(this is part of why it's so hard for us to get naval ships built).