And, a recent tour of one of the Asian powerhouse’s vehicle plants has proved this beyond a shadow of a doubt, at least to Honda President and CEO Toshihiro Mibe.

“We have no chance against this,” Mibe said upon a visit to a Shanghai parts factory, commenting on its seamless automation across all levels of production. Logistics, procurement and all aspects of the process were so automated, in fact, that he did not spot a single human worker on the supplier’s floor.

Ford executives saying even three years ago that China was way ahead of the game

Toyota’s CEO has likewise said regarding not just his company, but the industry in general, “unless things change, we will not survive”

  • ikidd@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    5 hours ago

    Don’t charge $100,000 for a regular fucking vehicle?

    Seriously, all the useless expensive shit they add to vehicles to make them unmaintainable data miners is why they’re going to get slaughtered.

    Give me an electric pickup with 4WD and crank up windows. Preferably no radio. I’d buy one of those Slates in a heartbeat if it were 4WD, as much as I hate Jeff Bezos.

    • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca
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      52 minutes ago

      Don’t charge $100,000 for a regular fucking vehicle?

      Chevy Bolt was under $25,000. No one bought them. Total sales in Q2 2025: 33.

      But they sold hundreds of thousands on $100K pickup trucks.

      • rockandsock@lemmy.world
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        27 minutes ago

        I didn’t even know the Bolt was around in 2025. Perhaps they should’ve done a little more to let the public know about them. I think they really wanted to use them for tax purposes, not take away sales from vehicles that make them much more money.

    • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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      4 hours ago

      I don’t think that’s why they are too expensive.

      China is pumping out nice cars for like 15k and I guarantee you it has all sorts of data mining. China could probably make one of those Slate things for like $5k.

      • boonhet@sopuli.xyz
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        23 minutes ago

        They all have data mining, regardless of country. China subsidises EVs even when they’re sold abroad, to kill the competition. Of course most legacy manufacturers have also lost the plot when it comes to affordability. To make matters worse, many of them also have to deal with expensive union labour. Chinese labour is still much cheaper.

      • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca
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        51 minutes ago

        China could probably make one of those Slate things for like $5k.

        That’s dumb.

        No, Chinese EVs are not $15K in export markets, they are over $25K.