Does it matter if cars are no longer made in the USA (or made by American companies)?

[Anonymous]

Do you think people care about car manufacturing being a thing here? If Tesla does not succeed (which seems possible), will Ford or GM put as much into batteries and research? Does it matter if we all buy BYD cars made in China? Apparently they are far superior and cheaper. What do you think?

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/28/opinion/trump-car-industry-tariffs.html

[Anonymous]

Paywall

[Anonymous]

It’s like this.
I give my dollars to anybody to make the bread I like. Whole Foods, Wegman’s, etc.

I prosper because I traded a little money for something I like, and I didn’t have to make it.

But if I like bread a certain way, I should make it at home. It’s better if I at least have the option to make it at home. While I still buy bread outside of the home 90% of the time, it’s a worthwhile skill to retain.

And if the quality or price of bread is unacceptable from WF, I’ll go to a different store or I’ll make it myself.

But I need to know the recipe, I need to have the ingredients in my house always, and I should have practice.

US should subsidize car manufacturers just to retain the recipe and ingredients. If we don’t have that… problem. (Imagine WF not selling yeast anymore.. problem). So if China alone sells the chips, etc, necessary for certain tech parts, we need to solve it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Do you think people care about car manufacturing being a thing here? If Tesla does not succeed (which seems possible), will Ford or GM put as much into batteries and research? Does it matter if we all buy BYD cars made in China? Apparently they are far superior and cheaper. What do you think?

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/28/opinion/trump-car-industry-tariffs.html

https://news.gm.com/home.detail.html/Pages/topic/us/en/2025/jan/0130-evmfg.html

"Over the last five years, no American automaker has invested more capital in battery manufacturing and infrastructure than GM. And as our recent results demonstrate, those investments are paying off: in 2024, our U.S. EV sales jumped 50%, and our share of the domestic EV market doubled.

And while we are excited about the opportunity in EVs, GM continues to invest in production of gas- and diesel-powered vehicles. Overall, GM has approximately 90,000 U.S. employees, who together generate $12 billion in taxable wages annually, boosting communities across the US. The company has invested more than $35 billion in our U.S. facilities since 2014 to support vehicle production and development.

In a report published this month titled “Tracking the State of U.S. EV Manufacturing,” the data and policy research firm Atlas Public Policy and the BlueGreen Alliance Foundation found the auto industry overall has announced $209 billion in domestic EV manufacturing from 2000 through September 2024, creating an estimated 240,000 jobs. GM alone invested $17.6 billion in EV infrastructure, creating thousands of jobs. That’s more capital invested in the U.S. market over that span than any other domestic automaker – more than Ford, more than Stellantis, more than Rivian, more than Tesla."

[Anonymous]

Heh read it as does it matter if cats are no longer made in the usa

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Do you think people care about car manufacturing being a thing here? If Tesla does not succeed (which seems possible), will Ford or GM put as much into batteries and research? Does it matter if we all buy BYD cars made in China? Apparently they are far superior and cheaper. What do you think?

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/28/opinion/tr...ndustry-tariffs.html


https://news.gm.com/home.detail.html/Pages/to.../jan/0130-evmfg.html

"Over the last five years, no American automaker has invested more capital in battery manufacturing and infrastructure than GM. And as our recent results demonstrate, those investments are paying off: in 2024, our U.S. EV sales jumped 50%, and our share of the domestic EV market doubled.

And while we are excited about the opportunity in EVs, GM continues to invest in production of gas- and diesel-powered vehicles. Overall, GM has approximately 90,000 U.S. employees, who together generate $12 billion in taxable wages annually, boosting communities across the US. The company has invested more than $35 billion in our U.S. facilities since 2014 to support vehicle production and development.

In a report published this month titled “Tracking the State of U.S. EV Manufacturing,” the data and policy research firm Atlas Public Policy and the BlueGreen Alliance Foundation found the auto industry overall has announced $209 billion in domestic EV manufacturing from 2000 through September 2024, creating an estimated 240,000 jobs. GM alone invested $17.6 billion in EV infrastructure, creating thousands of jobs. That’s more capital invested in the U.S. market over that span than any other domestic automaker – more than Ford, more than Stellantis, more than Rivian, more than Tesla."

So that article was produced by GM. Someone invested the $191 billion between 2000 and 2024. Given that Tesla was getting started around 2000 (and nobody else was) I would guess that a large part of that $191 billion was Tesla's investment. While it may be true that GM invested the most in the last two years (17.6 billion), they were behind on EV investment and need to be doing that.

Tesla has a huge battery plant in Nevada (the gigafactory). It seems like GM does not want to be directly in the battery production arena (whereas Tesla is in it). Looks like they are clawing back some of that investment money:

https://www.automotivedive.com/news/gm-sells-stake-ultium-cells-lg-energy-solution-ev-batttery-plant/734503/

https://www.tesla.com/manufacturing

[Anonymous]

Omg wake up no company is bringing car manufacturing back to the US in a Trump economy.

Americans do not want their white sons working in factories

Maga is too stupid to understand even if a company is here they get the parts from over seas.

This country will never do this.

This country can not make cars like the Japanese. They have had over 50 years to figure out that. They also do ridiculous pricing structures. American cars are crap. Ford truck maybe is decent those cost a pretty penny and maintenance is absurdly expensive.

You want American made cars stop voting in Republicans not once has one brought Autobusisness to one stare not one. You know who brings business Dems, yeah which states have revenue from
Business blue

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:American cars are crap.

+1. Every time I have ever bought a car, I do a circuit of all the available models (say mid-size suv). Nearly every time I have preferred the Japanese, or Korean, over any American product.

[Anonymous]

Omg wake up no company is bringing car manufacturing back to the US in a Trump economy.

Americans do not want their white sons working in factories

Maga is too stupid to understand even if a company is here they get the parts from over seas.

This country will never do this.

This country can not make cars like the Japanese. They have had over 50 years to figure out that. They also do ridiculous pricing structures. American cars are crap. Ford truck maybe is decent those cost a pretty penny and maintenance is absurdly expensive.

You want American made cars stop voting in Republicans not once has one brought Autobusisness to one stare not one. You know who brings business Dems, yeah which states have revenue from
Business blue

I don't think this is necessarily true. The factories are not the same as your grandfather's factory. Tesla is a new American company (relatively new) and it has turned a profit here (until now at least). So it is possible if we can innovate. But we are stuck with the gas/diesel models while the rest of the world moves ahead. We need to innovate and move ahead. That will take people voting out the dinosaurs. And Biden could have done more if he had not been afraid of the dinosaur voters. He tried to walk the line and that never works well.

[Anonymous]

When was the car made solely in the USA? 75-100 years ago?
They aren’t made here.
Who cares? I buy what is a good investment.

[Anonymous]

Slate a brand new company is launching in 2026 and 100 percent made in the US and assembled in US. All parts made US.

There you go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When was the car made solely in the USA? 75-100 years ago?
They aren’t made here.
Who cares? I buy what is a good investment.

I bought a Chevy Cruz brand new in 2017 and it was not yet built. It was just built in the OHIO plant close enough to Gaithersburg MD I got a call it is on truck and was there next day at dealership. Literally I had car withing a day or two of being built.

My Hyundai was was held up in the Shipping and Port and Customs for weeks while awaiting delivery in 2022

It anything Democratic Foreign Car buyers of last 20-40 years created Trump in a weird way. All those high paid union jobs disappeared and created angry people in fly over country

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When was the car made solely in the USA? 75-100 years ago?
They aren’t made here.
Who cares? I buy what is a good investment.

I bought a Chevy Cruz brand new in 2017 and it was not yet built. It was just built in the OHIO plant close enough to Gaithersburg MD I got a call it is on truck and was there next day at dealership. Literally I had car withing a day or two of being built.

My Hyundai was was held up in the Shipping and Port and Customs for weeks while awaiting delivery in 2022

It anything Democratic Foreign Car buyers of last 20-40 years created Trump in a weird way. All those high paid union jobs disappeared and created angry people in fly over country

Yes, your Chevy Cruze was built in Lordstown, Ohio. GM shuttered that plant and discontinued the Cruze because buyers weren't interested:
https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a29729505/gm-lordstown-ev-startup/

Most people in the US just buy a car off the lot, so shipping time is irrelevant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
"Over the last five years, no American automaker has invested more capital in battery manufacturing and infrastructure than GM. And as our recent results demonstrate, those investments are paying off: in 2024, our U.S. EV sales jumped 50%, and our share of the domestic EV market doubled.

Hah, notice they leave out % market share. In Q1 25, GM had a 10.8% market share of new EV sales in the US. Tesla had 43.5%, even with Elon's craziness.

https://caredge.com/guides/electric-vehicle-market-share-and-sales

GM has 17% overall (including non-EVs), so their EV market share in underperforming their regular car sales. GM is not offering product consumers want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
"Over the last five years, no American automaker has invested more capital in battery manufacturing and infrastructure than GM. And as our recent results demonstrate, those investments are paying off: in 2024, our U.S. EV sales jumped 50%, and our share of the domestic EV market doubled.

Hah, notice they leave out % market share. In Q1 25, GM had a 10.8% market share of new EV sales in the US. Tesla had 43.5%, even with Elon's craziness.

https://caredge.com/guides/electric-vehicle-market-share-and-sales

GM has 17% overall (including non-EVs), so their EV market share in underperforming their regular car sales. GM is not offering product consumers want.

As someone who owns a Chevy EV I don't get it. We get buttons! (I hate cars where everything is operated by screen, I don't want to take my eyes off the road to adjust things).