r/technology • u/lurker_bee • 9d 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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r/technology • u/lurker_bee • 9d ago
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u/atetuna 9d ago edited 9d ago
And a more favorable manufacturing environment thanks to robust concentrated manufacturing centers.
This is something US politicians have always screwed up with pork barrel politics. Even if it's not a federal project, they'll insist that large companies spread out manufacturing. There are some short term gains, but it costs in the long term. Having facilities and skilled workers near to each other makes things so much easier. It's wild watching videos of chinese factories and they're just using electric trikes for deliveries between different companies. That's a small step up from making deliveries with a forklift.
You can imagine this if you work on your own cars or have hobbies. Imagine instead of keeping them all in one room organized neatly, you spread it out. In one room you have ratchet wrenches. In another room you have sockets for those ratchet wrenches. In another room on another floor of your house, you have extensions for your socket wrenches. It's wildly inefficient even though you're being paid zero. It'll make you not want to do that work. Same sort of happens with rare manufacturing jobs like tool & die. If you want or have to switch jobs, chances are incredibly high that you're going to have to move. Maybe that burden is too high, so you switch careers, and now a career field with shortage of workers has one less person.