Mike - You wrote, "When Germany cut its consumer EV subsidies, sales dropped 27%." Well, there's a good historical example closer to home of what happens when incentives disappear. In 2014, The state of Georgia had a generous $5,000 tax credit for purchase of an EV. Presumably that was to attract an EV factory that Brian Kemp was actively lobbying for. That $5K on top of the $7,500 Federal tax credit applied to a lease payment on the Nissan Leaf back then didn't QUITE provide you with a free car, but... Well, that year, more EVs were sold in Georgia than anywhere else in the US except California, with a year over year increase of over 600% according to Statista. Suddenly, Rs in the state legislature woke...err umm, awakened to that fact when they realized that the vast majority of those sales were in the Dem populated metro Atlanta area. Well, they HAD to put a stop to THAT! The Rs killed the tax credit and lo and behold, within 6 months, EV sales dropped by 90% I literally had a GOP state senator tell me at the time that "we can't be giving free cars to these Democrats. Just wanted to remind y'all.
I’ve said recently that both Trump and Musk are bad at business. Trump has six bankruptcies, I’m pretty certain he squandered all the money he inherited from his father. Musk destroyed Twitter and turned it into a right wing hellscape. His cyber truck is liable to burst into flames, his rockets fall out of the sky. These are not captains of industry. If the U.S. withdrew Musk’s contracts with various government agencies it would definitely cut into his bottom line. He’s obviously pushing the limits to see how much he can get away with. He has no understanding of what various government agencies do and as a result is damaging America’s standing around the world as well as destroying those agencies. He hates USAID because it helped bring down Apartheid. He’s a racist to his core, as is Trump, son of a man who knowingly attended a KKK rally and was fined by the federal government for discriminating against Black renters in their U.S. financed buildings.
Plus both of them are not sane people. All you need to do is look at their behavior. Looney. Musk in particular exhibits clear signs of being drunk on his own concoctions and ketamine. Some people think Trump is addicted to Adderall. The thing about that idea is that many drugs, including Adderall, do not work as they were designed to do in people over 62-65. The NIH website to check medications and their side effects, Medline Plus, added a sentence to many medications several years ago cautioning people that if you are over that age range you may get no benefit from that medication. Maybe he takes it, maybe not. But I tend to find that contention dubious. He may take something else, but given his distaste for alcohol, I wonder if he would take a medication that addicted him. He is just stupid and impulsive. He does not need addiction to explain his erratic behavior.
FT-From FT-Wealthy Chinese investors are quietly funnelling tens of millions of dollars into private companies controlled by Elon Musk using an arrangement that shields their identities from public view, according to asset managers and investors involved in the transactions.
Since Musk was named a key figure in US President Donald Trump’s drive to remake the US government, China-based asset managers have been promoting the pair’s relationship as an enticement to raise capital from rich Chinese. The money is flowing into Musk’s non-public ventures including xAI, Neuralink and SpaceX, the world’s most valuable private company.
The investments are being placed through opaque structures known as special-purpose vehicles, which have the benefit of concealing the investors’ identities, to avoid the ire of US authorities and companies wary of Chinese capital during a nadir in relations between the two countries.
Asset managers behind the deals have told investors that the entities are specifically designed to avoid disclosure.
The use of special-purpose vehicles in financing is commonplace and there is nothing illegal about the arrangements. Still, it raises concerns about the potential for undue influence and conflicts of interest at a time when Musk has unprecedented involvement in US policy, politics and business.
“How can someone in Musk’s position have so many connections to China but still be a good person to reform the US government?” said Derek Scissors, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. The influx of Chinese money into Musk’s business empire “adds to this picture that he is more interested in his reputation and his brand in China than he is in American interests”.
This graph is eye opening and alarming, especially with how quickly it’s happening. Even more so when you consider how much of our National R&D is related directly or indirectly to the automobile industry. It would probably be a good strategy for Toyota, GM, and Volkswagen to either merge or develop a very close partnership to stop the hemorrhage.
Mike - You wrote, "When Germany cut its consumer EV subsidies, sales dropped 27%." Well, there's a good historical example closer to home of what happens when incentives disappear. In 2014, The state of Georgia had a generous $5,000 tax credit for purchase of an EV. Presumably that was to attract an EV factory that Brian Kemp was actively lobbying for. That $5K on top of the $7,500 Federal tax credit applied to a lease payment on the Nissan Leaf back then didn't QUITE provide you with a free car, but... Well, that year, more EVs were sold in Georgia than anywhere else in the US except California, with a year over year increase of over 600% according to Statista. Suddenly, Rs in the state legislature woke...err umm, awakened to that fact when they realized that the vast majority of those sales were in the Dem populated metro Atlanta area. Well, they HAD to put a stop to THAT! The Rs killed the tax credit and lo and behold, within 6 months, EV sales dropped by 90% I literally had a GOP state senator tell me at the time that "we can't be giving free cars to these Democrats. Just wanted to remind y'all.
I’ve said recently that both Trump and Musk are bad at business. Trump has six bankruptcies, I’m pretty certain he squandered all the money he inherited from his father. Musk destroyed Twitter and turned it into a right wing hellscape. His cyber truck is liable to burst into flames, his rockets fall out of the sky. These are not captains of industry. If the U.S. withdrew Musk’s contracts with various government agencies it would definitely cut into his bottom line. He’s obviously pushing the limits to see how much he can get away with. He has no understanding of what various government agencies do and as a result is damaging America’s standing around the world as well as destroying those agencies. He hates USAID because it helped bring down Apartheid. He’s a racist to his core, as is Trump, son of a man who knowingly attended a KKK rally and was fined by the federal government for discriminating against Black renters in their U.S. financed buildings.
Plus both of them are not sane people. All you need to do is look at their behavior. Looney. Musk in particular exhibits clear signs of being drunk on his own concoctions and ketamine. Some people think Trump is addicted to Adderall. The thing about that idea is that many drugs, including Adderall, do not work as they were designed to do in people over 62-65. The NIH website to check medications and their side effects, Medline Plus, added a sentence to many medications several years ago cautioning people that if you are over that age range you may get no benefit from that medication. Maybe he takes it, maybe not. But I tend to find that contention dubious. He may take something else, but given his distaste for alcohol, I wonder if he would take a medication that addicted him. He is just stupid and impulsive. He does not need addiction to explain his erratic behavior.
How much US and western technology did they steal?
FT-From FT-Wealthy Chinese investors are quietly funnelling tens of millions of dollars into private companies controlled by Elon Musk using an arrangement that shields their identities from public view, according to asset managers and investors involved in the transactions.
Since Musk was named a key figure in US President Donald Trump’s drive to remake the US government, China-based asset managers have been promoting the pair’s relationship as an enticement to raise capital from rich Chinese. The money is flowing into Musk’s non-public ventures including xAI, Neuralink and SpaceX, the world’s most valuable private company.
The investments are being placed through opaque structures known as special-purpose vehicles, which have the benefit of concealing the investors’ identities, to avoid the ire of US authorities and companies wary of Chinese capital during a nadir in relations between the two countries.
Asset managers behind the deals have told investors that the entities are specifically designed to avoid disclosure.
The use of special-purpose vehicles in financing is commonplace and there is nothing illegal about the arrangements. Still, it raises concerns about the potential for undue influence and conflicts of interest at a time when Musk has unprecedented involvement in US policy, politics and business.
“How can someone in Musk’s position have so many connections to China but still be a good person to reform the US government?” said Derek Scissors, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. The influx of Chinese money into Musk’s business empire “adds to this picture that he is more interested in his reputation and his brand in China than he is in American interests”.
A Chinese guy, a European, a Japanese guy, and an American walk into a bar graph…
This graph is eye opening and alarming, especially with how quickly it’s happening. Even more so when you consider how much of our National R&D is related directly or indirectly to the automobile industry. It would probably be a good strategy for Toyota, GM, and Volkswagen to either merge or develop a very close partnership to stop the hemorrhage.
Ford’s promise is empty since any older home doesn’t have enough service. Your box has to be able to take it