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Falling panel prices lead to global solar boom, except for the US

(arstechnica.com)
249 points Jtsummers | 7 comments | 30 Oct 25 16:32 UTC | HN request time: 0.733s | source | bottom
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softwaredoug ◴[30 Oct 25 17:18 UTC] No.45762476[source]▶
By not aligning economically to other country's markets, US companies are in a real pickle.

Imagine you're a US car manufacturer. You see EVs growing around the world, and stagnating in the US. Do you:

(a) Double-down on investments in EVs (billions of USD!), even with a soft US market for EVs, hoping you might compete globally.

(b) Become a parochial, US-only, business hoping to squeeze what you can out of a gradually shrinking industry

When other countries subsidize consumers to buy EVs, and the US does not, it effectively creates a self-own trade barrier for domestic companies.

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1. Sevii ◴[30 Oct 25 17:32 UTC] No.45762664[source]▶
Do US car companies compete globally anywhere? Chinese people aren't buying GM cars. The US car industry hasn't been competitive globally since Toyota started making cars.
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2. ◴[30 Oct 25 17:38 UTC] No.45762758[source]▶
3. kevstev ◴[30 Oct 25 17:50 UTC] No.45762899[source]▶
GM sold 4M cars in China in 2017, its peak year. While BYD is indeed eating their lunch, they still sold 1.8M cars in China last year: https://stockdividendscreener.com/auto-manufacturers/gm-chin...

American brands were considered prestigious as I understand it.

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4. bpt3 ◴[30 Oct 25 17:51 UTC] No.45762915[source]▶
Chinese people bought about 1.8 million GM cars last year, which is down significantly from about 10 years ago before BYD and other domestic brands started putting out competitive alternatives but far from 0.

Tesla is a US company?

5. alephnerd ◴[30 Oct 25 18:40 UTC] No.45763621[source]▶
> American brands were considered prestigious as I understand it.

For automotive, kind of but not really (excluding Tesla).

Volkswagen Group was the primary foreign manufacturer that was also a status symbol in China.

6. mr_toad ◴[30 Oct 25 18:47 UTC] No.45763723[source]▶
Some Ford models still compete with Asian cars in foreign markets. Smaller Ford models mainly, but the Falcon was popular with a certain demographic.
7. rsynnott ◴[31 Oct 25 08:12 UTC] No.45769469[source]▶
Both Ford and GM _used_ to, in Europe. GM got out a while back, with its remaining brands becoming part of Stellantis, the Dutch company who makes all the car brands that you can't quite believe still exist. Ford seems to have... faded out in the consumer space the last decade; they still make vans, and I think they still theoretically make a car or two, but you never see them anymore.