When Reuters reported in April that Tesla had scrapped plans for a long-promised, next-generation $25,000 electric vehicle, the automaker’s stock plunged. Chief Executive Elon Musk rushed to respond on X, his social-media network.

“Reuters is lying,” he posted, without elaborating. Tesla’s stock recovered some of its losses.

Six months later, Musk appears to have backed into an admission that Tesla dropped its plans for a human-driven $25,000 car. He said in an Oct. 23 earnings call that building the affordable EV would be "pointless” unless the car was fully autonomous.

  • CmdrShepard42@lemm.ee
    8·
    24 days ago

    So instead of healthcare or housing, you’d rather our tax dollars go to Ford and GM so that you can buy a cheap new car every year or two? At what point in history were new cars ever obtainable for most people? I make decent pay and even I have never owned a brand new car because buying used is a much better value.

    You’re arguing for the Walmartification of the auto industry and all it’s workers, where locally made goods are replaced with a bunch of cheaply made goods from an overseas sweatshop and all the local businesses go under. This isn’t good for anyone but the Chinese government.

    • ByteJunk@lemmy.world
      9·
      24 days ago

      Wow, you totally misunderstood the whole issue?

      The point of China subsidizing their industry and their universities isn’t so that their people can “buy a new car every year or two” because they’re cheap.

      It’s because that way they progress their technology and manufacturing infrastructure so much that no one else can compete. They chase everyone else out of the market, while their companies pull in massive profits and keep the high paying jobs for their citizens.

      Well paid workers can buy their own housing without government assistance, but what happened to all those tax benefits the US gov handed out for EVs? They catapulted Musk’s wealth, while the workers are nowhere closer to affording an EV, or a home, or even healthcare.

      • CmdrShepard42@lemm.ee
        2·
        24 days ago

        The point of China subsidizing their industry and their universities isn’t so that their people can “buy a new car every year or two” because they’re cheap.

        Oh yeah?

        https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2023-china-ev-graveyards/

        It’s because that way they progress their technology and manufacturing infrastructure so much that no one else can compete. They chase everyone else out of the market, while their companies pull in massive profits and keep the high paying jobs for their citizens.

        And you want to unleash that on one of the few remaining manufacturing sectors left in the US?

        Well paid workers can buy their own housing without government assistance, but what happened to all those tax benefits the US gov handed out for EVs? They catapulted Musk’s wealth, while the workers are nowhere closer to affording an EV, or a home, or even healthcare.

        Auto manufacturing workers are mostly all well paid union jobs, but it sounds like you’d rather put those people out of work so that the Chinese government can grab a little more power and influence and you can buy a dirt cheap car.

        Musks wealth catapulted because he owns some very successful companies that are valued at/worth a lot of money either privately (SpaceX) or publicly (Tesla) and have nothing to do with EV subsidies. I do know companies like Ford have jacked up their MSRPs to absorb much of these credits, but then it bit them in the ass because sales slowed and they had to reduce prices again. By your logic, every automotive CEO should be amongst the wealthiest people on the planet since they are grifting the government so bad.