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There's a story behind the story re: Tesla's scaling difficulties. America has lost its manufacturing base and with it the skill set to build large scale manufa
by api 8y ago
There's a story behind the story re: Tesla's scaling difficulties. America has lost its manufacturing base and with it the skill set to build large scale manufacturing easily. Tesla is going to China because that's where the expertise is.
- jonknee 8y agoNo, it's because China is the largest car market in the world (yet is not a significant automobile exporter because that's not where the expertise is). Also, this: > Last week, in response to tariffs imposed by the United States, China increased the import duty on U.S.-made cars to 40%, prompting Tesla to raise prices. A plant in China also would reduce shipping costs and could make sourcing components more economical.
- jessaustin 8y agoTIL tariffs are good for the environment.
- stcredzero 8y agoAmerica has lost its manufacturing base and with it the skill set to build large scale manufacturing easily. There's a reason why the NUMMI factories failed in the first place. The Hawthorne factories were located in the wrong place. The region's culture and human capital couldn't support the best efforts and know how of Toyota. It worked in Brazil, however. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NUMMI#Makeover https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NUMMI#Makeover
- mywittyname 8y agoI love this excerpt from your link: > the need Toyota had to start building cars in the United States, a requirement due to the possibility of import restrictions by the U.S. Congress. So much irony.
- stcredzero 8y agoIrony for whom? I think free trade should be the norm.
- mywittyname 8y agoIrony in the sense that this entire thread is dedicated to complaints about Chinese protectionism in the automotive sector through forced joint ventures, IP-sharing, and import tariffs when the NUMMI plant was built specifically as a joint venture between American and Japanese manufactures to share production techniques with American companies and skirt or head-off import tariffs.
- stcredzero 8y agoI see. Quite astute.
- gamblor956 8y agoNUMMI failed because it was located thousands of miles away from the automotive parts supply chain centered in the Midwest. The distance made the logistics too expensive for the plant to be cost effective during the recession. If not for the recession reducing demand for automobiles, it is likely that the plant would have remained open and led to the development of a supply chain on the West Coast. Meanwhile, the numerous aerospace factories in Hawthorne and the LA South Bay seem to be doing fine, largely because LASB is the center of the private aerospace parts supply chain.