'A deluge of electric vehicles is coming'

BYD electric cars waiting to be loaded onto a ship are seen stacked at the international container terminal of Taicang Port in Suzhou, China

(Image credit: STR / AFP via Getty Images)

By Harold Maass, The Week US

published 27 February 2024

'China's electric vehicles are going to hit Detroit like a wrecking ball'

Robinson Meyer in The New York Times

America's Big Three automakers — Ford, General Motors and Stellantis — are in "big trouble," says Robinson Meyer. They're getting "outmaneuvered and missing their goals for electric vehicle sales" as "a new crop of Chinese automakers," especially EV and plug-in hybrid specialist BYD, prepare to "flood the global market" with affordable EVs. The good news: If foreign companies can achieve the goal of "making electric cars popular and cheap," U.S. automakers "can do it too," with "grit and good-faith effort."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Former President Donald Trump told South Carolina Black conservatives his indictment on 91 felony charges was like the "historic discrimination" African Americans have faced, says Eugene Robinson. This "con-man hustle for the African American vote is cringeworthy," and it won't work. Remember how he advocated the "racist 'birther' conspiracy theory" against Barack Obama? "In election after election, the African American vote has been fool's gold" for Republicans because they have "faced African Americans with cluelessness or outright hostility."

"Wisconsin may be stepping back from the abyss," says Bill Lueders. The clearest sign "is that the GOP-dominated state legislature has approved, and the state's Democratic governor, Tony Evers, has signed into law, new voter boundaries" making more legislative districts competitive. The old GOP-gerrymandered maps gave Republicans huge legislative majorities even when Democrats won statewide. Now Democrats could win a majority if they get more votes. "What a concept." This "tiny act of courage" could spread.

The left is panicking about President Joe Biden's re-election odds, says Robert Henneke. Biden has no plan to step aside. Vice President Kamala Harris's low approval ratings might make it even tougher for her to beat former President Donald Trump. But "Plan B is in the works." With "the tide of think-pieces on Biden's mental fitness" rising, progressives want Biden to bow out at the convention so "Democrat power brokers can anoint a new nominee."

Explore More

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.