I wonder how much dirt cheap labor plays into the affordability of Chinese cars. Is this simply Korea 2.0, where we have a nation on the absolute verge of being a leading nation (economically speaking), but their standard of living hasn't caught up yet, but soon will?
China has a social contract that they've been suffering in poverty for years, rather than experiencing immediate economic benefits, to boost their nation. It's one of the reasons they're so anti-immigration at the moment: they're on the verge of being rewarded for their suffering, at least as far as the general populace is concerned. Obviously how that plays out in reality will be a different question.
Anyways, once these cars start being made by someone who makes a salary that doesn't look like a joke to someone from a modern nation, I imagine their prices will rocket up to match other manufacturers.
I still don't get why people are so shocked that Chinese products are cheap. It has been this way for decades at least.
> but their standard of living hasn't caught up yet, but soon will?
I'm not so sure they are living as badly as people imagine.
https://ourworldindata.org/data-insights/china-reduced-extre...
But China do have significantly lower labour costs internationally. Part of that has been due to keeping their currency artificially low by sinking money in US bonds (which also inflates the US dollar). They also have plenty of specialised workers in manufacturing after they out-priced and out-classed every other country. Setting up an advanced manufacturing facility in China is far cheaper than basically anywhere else on the planet.
The price of a truck In America vs Mexico, Japan and China is wild. Probably the easiest way to reduce construction costs is deregulating it