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

(arstechnica.com)
249 points Jtsummers | 2 comments | 30 Oct 25 16:32 UTC | HN request time: 0.414s | source
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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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somerandomqaguy ◴[30 Oct 25 17:34 UTC] No.45762693[source]▶
There's always option 3.

Keep product lines and factories semi targetted for their individual markets. Ford discontinued the Fiesta in North America but they are still being built in the EU AFAIK. Major car markets product their domestic auto industry anyways so you're probably going to have to setup local production in any case.

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1. Marsymars ◴[30 Oct 25 17:53 UTC] No.45762933[source]▶
Doesn't change your overall point, but just to comment on the Fiesta case (of interest to me since I drove one of the first model year's return to North America - 2011 - until earlier this year) - it only survived 4 extra years outside of NA - it's discontinued worldwide as of 2023.

The surviving vehicle(s) on the platform are the Ford Puma and Puma Gen-E, which are subcompact crossovers not sold in North America.

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2. somerandomqaguy ◴[30 Oct 25 18:23 UTC] No.45763341[source]▶
Ah, I wasn't aware the Fiesta discontinued outside as well. AFAIK Ford did so to retool Cuautitlán Assembly plant in Mexico from the Fiesta to the Mach-E. Looks like Cologne Body & Assembly is going to be producing Ford's EU electric CUV's instead of the Fiesta.