Iconic products that aren't boring combined with innovation and organizational agility are what will help Ford compete effectively in the affordable cars market in U.S., Australia, China, and EU.  

MME's rear cargo area is quite serviceable, compares favorably to Model Y and Ioniq 5 and only spacious than the '09 Edge my wife used to own. Plus, there's additional storage space in the frunk.

if you read the entire report, no it does discuss export and the ramifications the findings of the study have for that. It also links to another study dedicated to examining how this works with Europe imports https://rhg.com/research/aint-no-duty-high-enough/   Most of the subsidies from the $230 bn number you cited earlier (https://www.csis.org/blogs/trustee-china-hand/chinese-ev-dilemma-subsidized-yet-striking) is local exemption from China’s 10% sales tax. This obviously doesn’t carry over abroad or even make Chinese OEMs profitable domestically, and is less aggressive than the $7,500 rebate we had until this year.    China’s government is definitely providing advantages to its OEMs that the US is no longer providing. Subsidies do not explain their foreign success in markets like Australia, given the bulk of them don’t really apply to exports (study I originally referenced calculates it out to a couple hundred $’s depending on OEM). It also probably isn’t labor either because western OEMs also benefit from low Chinese (or Thai or Indian etc) labor inputs. They aren’t really dumping or something, they have just overcooked their domestic demand in a price war and have an overcapacity issue (part of why things are so god damn cheap!). Its not hard to see how they got to that point, we also developed an overcapacity issue our OEMs just made products nobody wanted in general so exporting isn’t a solution.   the point of all of what I am saying is that Chinese OEMs are scary competitors more because they made smart choices (vertical integration, essentially a full-stack EV design both w.r.t. hardware and software, they seem to have more control over suppliers but the float thing seems risky) rather than some predatory subsidy/dumping scheme. The onus is on Western OEMs to just do better, precisely like Ford is at least outwardly trying to do.

I already bought everything for 60a circuit for the 48a Tesla deal, but it's not a big run if I need to upgrade in the future. 

I don’t think it rises to predatory but definitely going after customers by delivering loads of stock ready to buy. It’s also about legacy brands not moving fast enough with the times and what customers want. I should have more to share on Friday but I do agree with your sentiment, China is out to own the Aussie market 

That article is about oems selling in china.  And it doesn't account for all of the various subsidies including battery production and other suppliers and raw materials.  They also inflate sales with artificial demand which lowers unit costs.  When 35% of your income comes from the gov't that's huge.   Selling in China is one thing.  Selling in foreign countries is entirely different and nothing is stopping the chinese govt  from doing more subsidies on top of what they were already given.   That's not to say they don't have cost benefits from other things as mentioned, but that is clearly not the entire picture.

There is also the issue of Chinese forced labor. Construction of the BYD manufacturing plant in Brazil is one small example of that.

Did you read the report I linked? It breaks that down concretely.

Oh but they've already gotten over $230B in subsidies from the chinese govt who has also encouraged massive overproduction. Combine that with China's subversive activities and it's easy to see where they might try to take over foreign markets by selling at or below cost.  And the govt would gladly apply more subsidies to help with that.

Honestly I would argue it is not primarily predatory trade practices. Most of the cost advantage isn’t subsidies, its vertical integration + lower overhead and R&D costs in China (which non-Chinese companies can take advantage of, and Ford does take advantage of). see this report: https://rhg.com/research/why-are-chinese-evs-so-cheap/   Australia doesn’t have local production so this advantage carries into that market.   The other big issue I see rather than predatory trade practices is that China is specifically and deliberately strong in segments where Western OEMs don’t offer competitive products. We’re getting there, especially I think BMW, Hyundai, and if UEV works Ford. But short of that when you have a half dozen Chinese OEMs with a $4,000 structural cost advantage, great EV/PHEV offerings, and a need to export due to a totally saturated market at home, you will make headway in places like Australia.