• jonne@infosec.pub
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    5 months ago

    Yeah, it’s so much better to just write checks to failing companies. Obama bailed out GM without any preconditions.

    What if instead the government took the equivalent amount of ownership and put them on the path to building EVs? GM could’ve been Tesla without the Musk issue. And the public shares could’ve either been kept by the government, sold on the market later on or turned over to the workers so they could have someone on the board.

    None of this is an outlandish phantasy, other countries did similar.

    • BombOmOm@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      What if instead the government took the equivalent amount of ownership and put them on the path to building EVs? GM could’ve been Tesla without the Musk issue.

      In 2009, $/kwh prices were astronomical. There is a reason the Model 3 didn’t exist until 2017. Trying to make that car back in 2009 would have been a catastrophically awful idea.

      You guys have to stop with these suicidal ideas.

      • jonne@infosec.pub
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        5 months ago

        The Tesla roadster was released in 2008, and electricity has always been cheaper than the equivalent in petrol.

        • DdCno1@kbin.social
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          5 months ago

          This user meant the price per kWh of battery capacity. The Tesla Roadster was little more than an expensive proof of concept that was vastly inferior compared to the Lotus Elise it was based on.

          • jonne@infosec.pub
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            5 months ago

            And then the Model S came out, and while expensive was still a decent all round car. And I’m sure GM could’ve made it cheaper/better if they went that route.

            I think you’re suggesting that I’m proposing that GM would have needed to stop building ICE cars and switching to electric overnight, instead of transitioning as technology and economics allowed instead of what they did now, which was ignore the whole thing until Tesla got successful and playing catch up, first to Tesla, now to BYD.

        • BombOmOm@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          The US government forcing GM to make a $100,000 luxury EV in 2008/9 would have been so laughably bad I can’t put it into words. And yes, the $/kwh of batteries was terrible then, why do you think EVs were so damn expensive in 2009?

      • jonne@infosec.pub
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        5 months ago

        Free market is when the government writes blank checks to fix market failures.