It's a $12,000 EV. The American Car Industry Is DOOMED.

Kind: captions Language: en Chinese cars are cheap, unsafe death traps. [music] That's why they're banned in the US. That's what you've been told. It's not the full story. The reality is less about safety and more about protecting a trillion dollar auto industry. A $12,000 EV with top safety ratings wouldn't just compete, it would blow up the entire US car market overnight. Detroit would be bankrupted. So, the US has built one of the most aggressive protectionist barriers in modern history to keep them out. The result is a financial iron curtain that'll trap the middle classes in record high auto loans averaging $767 a month for the next 6 years. And that's not even the worst part. Because while American families are worrying about how they're going to cover the cost of their family SUV, the country's automotive industry is preparing for something bigger. A digital Pearl Harbor where every car on the highway simply stops moving. The American driveway has become a financial crime scene. The average transaction price for a new vehicle has crossed the $50,000 mark. If you want a truck or an SUV, you often have to pay significantly more than that. The Ford F-150 Raptor can cost around $80,000. A fully loaded 2026 Chevy Suburban High Country can hit into the six figures. Even more mainstream family vehicles come with price tags of around 40 to 60,000. And that is [music] before financing even comes into play because the vast majority of people can't afford to buy a new car outright. Instead, they'll opt to pay for it through loans and leases. And those financing options come with interest rates, which can dramatically increase the overall price you pay for the car you drive. By late 2025, the average new car payment reached a jaw-dropping $767 per month. Many buyers are stretching their loans and lease agreements out as long as they possibly can, sometimes as far as 72,84, or even 96 months. All to keep the rates semiafordable. 96 months is 8 years. That means some Americans are financing their vehicles for almost an entire decade because they have no other option. Car finance plans are literally outlasting marriages in some cases. It's the younger generations who are being hit the hardest. Statistics show that Gen Z drivers aged between 18 and 28 have reached an autoloan delinquency rate of 7 and a half%. That is significantly higher than the national average of 5.1%. That is the highest level of borrower distress seen in over a decade. To give you some idea of just how bad the situation has become, take every single delinquent car currently moving toward repossession or already in default. Park them bumper to bumper and you would have an unbroken line of steel stretching from New York City to Los Angeles. The effects of this will be felt for decades to come. Millions of young Americans are forced to watch their credit scores plummet and their financial futures break down before they have barely even taken the first steps into the professional world. The reason so many have been bound to these multi-year loans for vehicles they can barely afford is [music] because they haven't been given any other option. They've been led to believe that no other option exists. But it does. The alternative is out there on the other side of the world. In China, the automotive industry is almost like a parallel universe when compared to its American counterpart. Their vehicles, electric vehicles to be precise, are available for incredibly low prices. In 2023, one of China's top car brands, BYD, launched the Seagull, an electric hatchback that retails for less than $10,000 domestically and is available for around 20,000 in international markets like Mexico or Europe. This isn't some stripped down barebones vehicle. It is a modern, sophisticated car boasting fast charging times, proven safety systems, and a range of up to 250 mi. [music] And you could buy five of those cars for the same price that you'd have to spend on a single average American SUV. Even the international prices, which come with the added costs of tariffs, shipping, and dealer margins, the cost is significantly cheaper than what you'd pay in the US. So why isn't it available? Well, the US government would argue that modern electric vehicles are vastly different from conventional cars. They're not just made up of motors and brakes and transmissions. They're kitted out with advanced electronic equipment, including cameras, sensors, microphones, and telematics. They are smartphones on wheels. And [music] that scares the US government. They believe that the remote connectivity could be exploited by China or other foreign agents to spy on American citizens or disrupt the country's infrastructure. The government imagines a fearful future scenario in which Beijing has the power to push some sort of kill switch and instantly disable millions of vehicles on America's roads. So, American consumers find themselves lumbered with lifealtering debt, forced to buy vehicles that drain their bank accounts for years [music] on end. And meanwhile, the vastly more affordable alternative is regarded by Washington as some sort of terrifying weapon of war. How did this happen? And how did a consumer product designed for the daily commute become classified as a threat to national security? In 2024, the United States government imposed an eyewatering 100% tariff on Chinese electric vehicles. 100%. It was a complete economic blockade, a dramatic doubling of the cost of these cars for American buyers. The intention was clear, deliberately make China's EVs instantly unviable in the American market. Because [music] if one of those cars costs around 20,000 normally and this 100% tariff adds 10,000 to its wholesale cost basis, the price tag becomes 30,000 and then all of a sudden a car that would have seemed remarkably cheap and attractive starts to look out of reach for some. In other words, it is doomed to fail. Meanwhile, the American brands continue to monopolize the market. Imagine stepping into your local grocery store to see that the price of a loaf of bread had suddenly spiked by 50%. And imagine that the government says that it's imposed that price change to protect your local bakery which charges $15 a loaf. That's effectively what happened here. And the speed and intensity of this decision revealed how terrified Washington was of these cheap Chinese cars because it's not normal trade policy to impose such extreme tariffs on foreign products. 100% tariffs are generally regarded as extreme measures reserved for genuine emergencies. But according to Washington, this was an emergency. The government argued that it would be detrimental to allow such low-cost cars into the market. Its argument centered on the idea that China provided extremely high levels of subsidies and other state support to its automotive companies. And there is some truth to that. Beijing did subsidize its EV industry quite aggressively. It spent years and huge amounts of money building up the infrastructure needed to power its EV revolution. That included battery manufacturing plants and industrialcale charging systems. But here's the part that Washington glossed over. The US also heavily subsidizes its auto industry. It provides literally billions of dollars worth of subsidies through the Inflation Reduction Act or IRA. There's also massive manufacturing grants for the big dogs of the industry like Ford and GM. There is also up to $7,500 in tax credits for consumers who buy domestically made vehicles. The big auto firms received enormous and lowinterest loans to help them invest in EV technologies. It effectively shifted the risk of the EV transition away from those companies and onto the American taxpayers. So while the government was criticizing China over its subsidies, it was guilty of doing the exact same thing. It was never about subsidies are bad. It was always about China's subsidies could threaten our subsidies. So we come to the frightening truth. the end of free market capitalism in the American automotive sector. It's no longer a battle between brands to see which ones deliver the most efficient engineering or who can optimize their manufacturing to produce the very best cars at the very best prices. It is something much uglier. A market manipulated by the American government. Washington is picking and choosing the winners of its automotive industry. It's building financial fortresses around them to keep everyone else out. It makes false claims about fair play and safety. But ultimately, the only reason the tariff exists is to make sure American consumers can only buy EVs subsidized by Washington. But if it's not about fair competition, who actually demanded this 100% wall? Think of the American automotive industry and three big names immediately come to mind. General Motors, Ford, and Stalantis, the parent company of well-known brands like Chrysler and Jeep. Together, they represent the empire of Detroit. For decades, they dominated the auto market. They shaped the face of suburban America, controlled the roads, and impacted entire regional economies. And as they grew bigger and wealthier, their power grew with them. Before long, they weren't just impacting towns and cities, but entire states. This, in turn, increased their political influence in DC. As time went by, these companies used their influence and wealth to rewrite the rules of the American auto market in ways that would make them even more money. That meant a gradual shift away from affordable passenger cars toward larger, heavier, and more luxurious vehicles. It happened slowly, but as the years passed, certain kinds of cars began to vanish from the nation's roads. Small sedans and compact hatchbacks disappeared along with other entry-level vehicles that are common in other countries around the world. The big three shifted toward larger vehicles with larger profit margins. As far as their bottom lines were concerned, this shift made a lot of sense. Companies like Ford [music] make far more money selling full-size pickup trucks and premium SUVs than they ever would selling simple family hatchbacks. By focusing more on these high margin vehicles [music] and phasing out the smaller alternatives, they left buyers with fewer and fewer options. Eventually, they reached the stage they had always dreamed of. Everyone had to buy a $50,000 car if they wanted to get from point A to point B. But this entire model and the very survival of the big three firms was dependent on ensuring that no cheaper competitors were able to enter the market. There could be no other affordable option for the American public. Then along came Chinese EV manufacturers offering vehicles like the Seagull, all for the low price tags of around $12,000. America's auto industry can't compete with that. The big three weren't going to let that happen. So they started to leverage that power that they'd amassed in Washington over the years. They used every weapon in their arsenal and every trick in their playbook to preserve the status quo. It ultimately boiled down to pouring massive amounts of money into lobbying efforts aimed at the likes of Senate subcommittees and executive policy makers. Their objective was clear. Keep China out. To do that, they framed Chinese EVs not just as an economic challenge, but as an industrial invasion, one that America needed to defend itself against. They warned of a solar panel style collapse of the automotive industry, reminding lawmakers of how cheap Chinese solar panel systems entered the US market. Local brands were undercut and the domestic solar sector was effectively wiped out. They said the exact same situation would happen in the automotive industry. But on an even larger scale, assembly lines that had been running for decades in Detroit and elsewhere would go dark and millions of jobs would be lost. But Detroit couldn't just come out and say, "We don't want those cheap Chinese cars coming here because we can't compete with them." They needed a more concrete and convincing argument, something that could really resonate with the public. And they found it. Ask the average American what they think about Chinese cars, and many would undoubtedly bring up the topic of safety. They might talk about how Chinese companies cut corners. They might mention the dangerous batteries that can blow up at any time, or even the lack of rigorous security tests. Some would even describe Chinese cars as death traps. These ideas and stereotypes are deeply ingrained in the American media landscape and the wider public perception of Beijing's automotive industry. And there's a reason for that, but it's not the one you've been led to believe. Sure, there were early catastrophic failures like zeroar crash tests and cabin collapses in 2005, but it's also the result of years of propaganda and brainwashing campaigns bought and paid for by Detroit automotive giants. For years, Ford, GM, and others built and spread the narrative that China's cars were unsafe. It was an incredibly useful narrative for them. Fear is a powerful force. If people were frightened of Chinese vehicles, they'd never want to buy one. What's more, they would more than happily agree to pay a significantly higher price for cars with a made in the USA sticker on the back. That extra 20 or 30,000 was the cost of keeping their family safe. Suddenly, companies like Ford looked noble and honorable. They were going the extra mile to protect their drivers and passengers. Chinese firms were painted as the evil, money-hungry ones, shunning safety in favor of cheaper and easier to manufacture. And that all falls apart when you look closer. The myth of the dangerous Chinese car was well and truly shattered when vehicles like the BYD dolphin and the auto 3 entered the highly regulated European market. If they really were death traps on wheels, they would have zero chance of being sold in places like France and Germany. If the stereotypes were true, these cars would fail the European New Car Assessment Program. It is one of the most comprehensive vehicle safety checks in the entire world. They didn't. They passed it with flying colors. Both the Dolphin and the Auto 3 earned five-star incap safety ratings. They either matched or even exceeded the scores of some of America's best rated vehicles like the Ford Mustang Mache and the Tesla Model 3. As far as exploding batteries were concerned, that myth got busted, too. BYD's own blade battery essentially passed the industry standard nail penetration test. [music] It's designed to simulate the type of damage that can cause batteries to suddenly burst into flames. The Chinese manufacturer even shared footage online showing nails entering its battery cells without [music] them catching fire. It was a feat that many of the Western world's NMC batteries were unable to replicate. The vehicles passed test after test and met one safety standard after another and the unsafe Chinese car narrative fell apart. That's not to say that the Chinese cars are perfect or that none of them have any safety concerns whatsoever. There are always areas for improvement, but what the tests revealed was that Chinese cars were no more dangerous than American ones. In many aspects, they were even safer. With the safety myth destroyed, [music] the government needed a new unassalable reason to keep these cars out of the US. Enter the Trojan horse. As the economic and safety related arguments began to crumble, Washington orchestrated a swift and surprising pivot in an even more extreme direction, it began to argue that Chinese cars were a threat to national security. While that might sound ludicrous, DC's argument was put together in a cold and calculated fashion. It leveraged decades of public indoctrination and widely held fears about China. its ruling [music] Communist Party and the threat it posed to the American way of life. The groundwork was laid in 2024. The US Department of Commerce, DOC, [music] carried out an investigation into the so-called systemic risks posed by connected vehicles originating in China and other countries that could be classified as adversaries of the United States. The findings of that investigation were alarming. The DOC explained in excruciating detail how modern vehicles could be mobilized into platforms of cyber warfare. The investigators theorized a nightmare scenario, a kind of digital Pearl Harbor in which Beijing would hold the power to disrupt American society on an unprecedented scale. Let's say tensions ramp up in the South China Sea. The long- aaited Chinese invasion of Taiwan begins. At that very same moment, in the United States, hundreds of thousands or even millions of American citizens sit [music] behind the wheels of their Chinese EVs. To ensure that America doesn't interfere with its immediate invasion plans, China's intelligence agency could deploy a malicious over-the-air software payload to every single one of these vehicles. Programmed to bypass the usual systems. The payload would be immediately downloaded and installed in each car. Within seconds, they would become utterly and entirely immobile. Steering systems would lock up. Electronic parking brakes would engage. Power inverters would shut down. Drivers would lose control of their cars before they knew what was going on. In the blink of an eye, countless vehicles traveling across highways like the I95 or the labyrinthlike arteries of downtown Manhattan would all seize up, all frozen by some invisible but all powerful force. It would be catastrophic infrastructure paralysis. There would be accidents, injuries, death, destruction. Emergency services would struggle to respond. Shipping corridors would be choked and impassible. Logistics would collapse. The domestic economy would collapse. It might sound exaggerated, but the technology exists. Cars today are fitted with complex webs of electronic control units and networking devices. They have the power to collect and share countless pieces of data. Every single second, they rely on software to control every core feature and functionality from the steering assist to the power distribution system. And ultimately, the brands that make these cars hold the power to control exactly how they work. They are the ones who can make and deploy important firmware updates. So, it's not all that crazy to imagine how that sort of power could be used in [music] a dangerous or destructive way. And once that idea is out there, DC has the justification it needs to effectively ban these vehicles. The big three get what they want while building a narrative that this is all for the public good. But tariffs only apply to cars shipped from China. So, what happens when the cars are being built right next door? With the tariff wall in place, it looked like the US government had won. It had made it all but impossible for Beijing to bring its EVs into the American market and have even a slight chance of competing with the likes of Ford and General Motors. At least that's how it seemed. [music] But China wasn't going to give it up that easily. It didn't take long for Beijing strategist to spot a loophole. They realized that the 100% tariffs applied based on strict country of origin rules for manufacturing and major components. That meant assembling cars in Mexico only bypasses taxes if enough parts are made locally, not just by avoiding Chinese ports. So if it can make and export them from somewhere much closer to home for the American consumer, then those tariffs would in effect be nullified. So the big Chinese brands like BYYD and MG started to look south to Mexico. [music] They made plans and quickly put them into action. They agreed on land deals and broke ground on brand new multi-billion dollar automotive manufacturing plants on Mexican soil. just a short distance from the US border. From a business perspective, it was a stroke of genius. Mexico is already a major automotive