Greg Palast: Elon Musk - No Batteries Included [View all]

[RussBLib]

Fairly long and fascinating article by Greg Palast, published 12/1/24. Here's a few snips...

In Texas, where Musk moved his headquarters to flee California’s safety and pollution regulations, a Wall Street Journal investigation discovered that Tesla’s Austin plant has been secretly dumping poisons into the Colorado River, the city’s water supply. Skol!
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How to Put Musk Out of Business: End Tariff Terrorism
How would you like to own a new Tesla Model 3 that can go 353 miles on a charge, jump from a standstill to 62mph in 3.8 seconds — and costs less than $25,000? Sure, you’d buy. But you can’t. Because Tesla doesn’t make one. But Chinese manufacturer BYD does. How do you get one? You can’t. Because the US imposes a 100% tariff on all Chinese EVs.
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Willing to give up some range and size? You can get a BYD Seagull EV for $10,000 — just $2,500 after the $7,500 federal EV rebate. Let me repeat that: without government-imposed tariffs and restrictions, you could buy a 100% electric compact for $2,500. (Note: It’s estimated that transport and changes to meet US safety rules would add $2,000 — offset in many states by tax rebates and utility subsidies.)
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Yes, I am aware that opening the gates to dirt-cheap Chinese cars would lead to closures of US auto plants. But we keep claiming there’s a climate emergency. Either we have an emergency or we don’t. If this is a real emergency, we should welcome a nation helping us get to “net zero” by Thursday. Then, we should help auto workers as FDR did in the 1930s — create jobs we need at full union wages. (But that’s for yet another column.) Instead, Biden purchased the UAW’s endorsement by making Americans wildly overpay for cars. But, in the end, that didn’t work out too well for Joe nor Kamala. Nearly half of union households voted for Trump. I must note that, recently, days after BYD announced new price cuts, Trump said he’ll add an additional 20% tariff (to 120%!) on Chinese EVs to make sure you are pushed into buying a Musk-mobile.

https://www.gregpalast.com/elon-musk-batteries-not-included/

It's an excellent article, delivered in classic Palast style. It just might light a fire in some of you.

Oh, and btw, I am emerging from my sabbatical. Getting the old band back together...rearranging some old hits...if I'm lucky I'll have some guest editorials from some interesting people...

https://russblib.blogspot.com