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Incomplete from the get-go.

There is very good reading out there on why China goes from one excessive bust to the next one. It is top-down directives combined with the incredible pressure put upon the regional and city leaders to make their allotted numbers, or else. Makes Glengarry Glen Ross look like a Grateful Dead cover band concert.

In regard to the new company HQ (Ford) of that certain CEO who tools around in a Chinese EV, that is having its grand opening today, I read that it is not quite finished and will need another year to be completed. Ford is introducing its new HQ like it introduces its vehicles; incomplete. They'll eventually work it out.

DG
Berwick, Maine



That Bentley kinda sucks.

Chinese sales tactics? Punchin’ titles has come to the Middle Kingdom at last. I’m sorry, but the Bentley Continental GT Supersport looks like a Mustang GT, but with Camaro taillights. The quest for aero efficiency has made most cars look like each other, as has happened with commercial aircraft. You used to be able to tell the difference between a Mustang and a Bentley from outer space.

Chris Blanchard
Prescott, Wisconsin



Sort of like China.

So much for that "free market" bullshit. See what happens when the dip-shits in DC get involved? See how well forcing America to adopt technology first introduced on Fernwood Tonight in 1977 with the demonstration of the VW powered by 3000 D sized batteries worked out? How about that "20 years of no tax on profits" as part of the 2008 automotive debacle that made Musk the wealthiest (on paper) person in the world? To think that we gave China all of our technology and white-collar automotive jobs so that GM could sell a couple of million more cars.

Frankly, America doesn't need an automotive industry built on "protectionism ". That just stifles innovation which leaves us susceptible to "government handout" innovation which is nothing more than a government subsidized jobs program.

Sort of like in China...

Ptg0
Highland Park, Michigan



The spending continues.

The one thing you neglected to mention is Americans’ favorite past time; spending money. Consumerism in this country ranks higher than anything else. The corporations continue to eliminate smaller cars, houses and meals then gouge you on the replacement. Sports team is doing well after 60 years of futility? Jack up prices and if you don’t like it someone else will. Because who has the guts to say no? Not here in America. So with the chaos that’s going on in the industry the customer will always be there to purchase their mistakes. Their oversized SUVs and the massive trucks needed to look good on social media. If Americans decide to balk, the industry is truly screwed.

JRR
Plymouth, Michigan



Hilarious.

Re: Musk’s “ridiculous, incentive-laden contract (that he can’t possibly meet)”:

His previous contract was just as ridiculous and incentive-laden. Many people thought at the time that he could never meet those incentives.

He met every one..

Will he do it, again? Maybe, maybe not. But don’t write him off.

Michael Ball
Kensington, Maryland

Editor-in-Chief's Note: We're still laughing over this one. Every one? You must get your Musk info on X. I could mention several of Musk's "misses," starting with the egregious fallacy of FSD, for starters. Oh, and then there's the joke called the Cybertruck. Hilarious indeed. -PMD



Sad but true.

"But then again, expecting rational thought from pathetically challenged politicians is just ridiculous. They wake up bathed in incompetence and it goes downhill from there each and every day." Brilliant and spot-on, Peter. Sad but true.

Dave M.
Houston, Texas



Reverse engineering possible?

As you have regularly noted, the auto industry is at its beginning, middle and end all about the product. In the skewed world of the Peoples Republic of China, they may very well have developed some terrific product within their EV world, but it appears to be a case where the price of that development may be too high: hyper-competition, top-down directives, absurd incentives, and a crashing auto market. It would serve them right to have some other country's automakers (India? Vietnam? Wolfsburg? Detroit???) reverse engineer all those advances the Chinese have developed and bring them to other markets. CAE
Palm Springs, California



Survival is on the line.

You've hit the nail on the head, Peter. ALL legacy OEMs face an enormous task to transition to an electrified future, and most won't survive it in the best of cases. With an idiotic US government actively killing renewables and electric vehicles, none of the Detroit 3 have a chance. You have an energy secretary and a cabinet that ignores reality, and are gifting the future to China. We in Canada are now forced to look at partnering with Chinese OEMs and hopefully get them to invest and share technology, which they may very well not do. Many are predicting we will go the way of Australia, but I am hopeful we can do something with our market of 40 million people and 60% larger than Australia's. I guess it was a good run for 120 odd years.

SDS
Toronto (via Trollhattan/Russelsheim/Torino/Paris)



Audi in F1.

All Audi has to do is to A.) Hire a Verstappen-esque, Banzai driver who can qualify and B.) their new F1 car, whose design goes all-in one lap blasts, will qualify first most every time. Since F1 has become a parade with no passing and order changes only from crashes or issues, as long as you qualify first, all the entrants drive around in the qualifying order for as many laps as this or that event is scheduled for, and you win one race after another.

EZ, PZ !

J Wilson
Nashville, Tennessee