European Car Industry: Owning a Car is now only for the Rich

[Sherminator98]

2 hours ago, Biker16 said:

BTW, without barriers to entry like tariffs and Import restrictions, EVs would already be cheaper than ICE vehicles.

 

And you'd lose a huge part of manufacturing in the USA which wouldn't bode well for the country, but hey you want to buy some EV from China, so its all good...fuck everyone else. 

[Texasota]

11 hours ago, Biker16 said:

For the record, the United States developed and pioneered the lithium-ion battery that is driving the electrification of the entire planet. 

We invented it! 

The federal government of these United States funded that. 

 

Actually, Dr Whiiingham is credited with the invention of the litium Ion battery in the ExxonMobile's corporate research lab (darn those pesky petro dollars).

 

Quote

In the 1970s Dr. Whittingham was working at ExxonMobil’s Clinton, New Jersey, corporate research lab when he created the very first examples of a radical new technology: the rechargeable lithium-ion battery.

 

https://corporate.exxonmobil.com/who-we-are/technology-and-collaborations/the-history-of-batteries-lithium-ion-batteries

 

 

[Texasota]

3 hours ago, Biker16 said:

Ideal capitalism means both parties benefit equally from the Exchange of goods and Services. Profit, on the other hand, is a symptom of an imbalance of benefits rather than of balance. 

The gap between the buyer's and the seller's benefits is due to the seller's monopolistic or cartelistic behavior. I.E., Automakers have extraordinary control over prices, and barriers to prevent new entrants into the market. 

Honestly, Electric vehicles were likely the only way Chinese Automakers could overcome the advantages of legacy automakers. Similar to Tesla, it developed new technology to build cars that bypassed the barriers to entry. 

 

Complete nonsense. The Japanese followed by the Koreans were very successful in competing with the legacy automakers. In fact, the Japanese almost put the big three out of business in the 1970s. 

 

Marxism in all its wonderful flavors only brings poverty, misery and humanitarian disasters with Venezuela being one of the more recent examples. 

[akirby]

I just remembered why you were banned.  Knock off the nonsense.

[Biker16]

 

 

15 hours ago, Sherminator98 said:

 

And you'd lose a huge part of manufacturing in the USA which wouldn't bode well for the country, but hey you want to buy some EV from China, so its all good...fuck everyone else. 

I want American companies to compete, not hide behind artificial barriers That Reduce competition, and make our country less competitive over the medium and long term. 

My Fear is that the decline in  US Automaker Global sales and revenue we saw 20-30 years ago will accelerate in the age of electrified mobility, and the hyper focus of government policy on sustaining these corporations at the expense of the general welfare of the American people increases political instability and dims the future of this country. 

Am I wrong?

BTW this is How We lost our steel industry

14 hours ago, Texasota said:

 

Actually, Dr Whiiingham is credited with the invention of the litium Ion battery in the ExxonMobile's corporate research lab (darn those pesky petro dollars).

 

 

https://corporate.exxonmobil.com/who-we-are/technology-and-collaborations/the-history-of-batteries-lithium-ion-batteries

 

 

Thanks for sharing this. 

I found this online, and it seems the development was far linear. Starting at NASA in 1960s to breakthroughs in the 1980s and 90s.

Who Invented the Lithium-Ion Battery? - News about Energy Storage, Batteries, Climate Change and the Environment

 

14 hours ago, Texasota said:

Complete nonsense. The Japanese followed by the Koreans were very successful in competing with the legacy automakers. In fact, the Japanese almost put the big three out of business in the 1970s. 

 

Marxism in all its wonderful flavors only brings poverty, misery and humanitarian disasters with Venezuela being one of the more recent examples. 

I find it interesting how history keeps repeating itself, almost like people don't learn from their mistakes.

Edited November 14, 2025 by Biker16
ADDED CONTEXT

[morgan20]

On 11/13/2025 at 7:55 AM, Biker16 said:

And the main reason EVs are not taken off the market in the United States is marketing by legacy automakers and oil companies that sow doubt in customers' minds about the viability of electrification as a whole. 

 

Fossil fuel producers have funded multiple political campaigns. To continue subsidizing the production of fossil fuels, as well as to reduce environmental permitting requirements, is necessary to continue producing them. 

 

And we are at a point in this country where they have so much control over the regulatory process that we are being left behind in the electrification revolution. Not because we don't have this technology, but because our politics won't allow us to change. 

 

Didn't think about all that before reading your post.

 

Biker16, would you say the influence of legacy automakers and oil companies is keepin' EV from growing faster in Europe too? Look at how EV market share has been doin' in Planet Europe, Planet America, and Planet Red China from 2010 to 2023:

 

[Biker16]

1 minute ago, morgan20 said:

 

Didn't think about all that before reading your post.

 

Biker16, would you say the influence of legacy automakers and oil companies is keepin' EV from growing faster in Europe too? Look at how EV market share has been doin' in Planet Europe, Planet America, and Planet Red China from 2010 to 2023:

 

The most significant difference between the US and the EU is a more open/competitive market and much higher energy prices. 

Other factors are:

• Lower trade barriers
• The regulatory environment in the EU is less susceptible to capture by Corporate interests (I mean, there are 44 different Countries).
• The EU isn't a major producer of Fossil fuels
• Europeans have a higher level of trust in their governments
• Higher levels of Social and economic stability make them less susceptible to propaganda
   

[Sherminator98]

19 minutes ago, Biker16 said:

I want American companies to compete, not hide behind artificial barriers That Reduce competition, and make our country less competitive over the medium and long term. 

My Fear is that the decline in  US Automaker Global sales and revenue we saw 20-30 years ago will accelerate in the age of electrified mobility, and the hyper focus of government policy on sustaining these corporations at the expense of the general welfare of the American people increases political instability and dims the future of this country. 

Am I wrong?

 

Yes, you are wrong-in the early 1980s the Japanese had an advantage in manufacturing costs and the strength of the yen. They could sell more affordable vehicles and make more profit on them due to the weakness of the Yen at the time. 

 

 

[Texasota]

1 hour ago, Sherminator98 said:

 

Yes, you are wrong-in the early 1980s the Japanese had an advantage in manufacturing costs and the strength of the yen. They could sell more affordable vehicles and make more profit on them due to the weakness of the Yen at the time. 

 

 

They also built high quality and fuel efficient vehicles. The big three had neither at that time.

[Sherminator98]

1 hour ago, Texasota said:

They also built high quality and fuel efficient vehicles. The big three had neither at that time.

 

Yes, but the Big 3 was closing that gap by the mid to late 1980s-that was on them, its harder to compete with companies that have other inherent advantages that aren't as easily to compete against with 

[morgan20]

On 11/14/2025 at 10:14 AM, Biker16 said:

The most significant difference between the US and the EU is a more open/competitive market and much higher energy prices. 

Other factors are:

• Lower trade barriers
• The regulatory environment in the EU is less susceptible to capture by Corporate interests (I mean, there are 44 different Countries).
• The EU isn't a major producer of Fossil fuels
• Europeans have a higher level of trust in their governments
• Higher levels of Social and economic stability make them less susceptible to propaganda
   

 

Thanks for the info Biker16 my friend. Among the three big automotive markets, Planet Europe, Planet America, and Planet Red China, sounds like Planet Europe is actually closest to the private free market ideal that a lot of Americans including myself would prefer.

 

What you mentioned about regulatory capture is a big problem in the U.S., and not just with the automotive and fossil fuel industries