[ZeroGravitas]

I'm old enough to remember when Wired was excited about free market capitalism. Apparently competition is bad when solar panel manufacturers do it.

To be charitable, they may be trying to meet an insanely misinformed American audience half-way, and wake them from their fossil slumbers before they surrender their global leadership.

But if that amounts to just half misinforming them, then it's still not great.

[yorwba]

Competition reduces profits, which is good for consumers, but bad for investors. China has a bit of a problem with hype-driven investment, where something becomes a new trend (solar energy, bike sharing, electric cars...), lots of new companies get started, followed by oversupply, followed by price wars, followed by bankruptcies. Of course every company hopes that it will be the others that go bankrupt, so during the price-war phase, they take on a lot of debt to keep operating just a bit longer. In the worst case, there could be a wave of bankruptcies developing into a full-blown economic crisis.

[zhouzhao]

Same in some European countries. "Free market is great, MERCOSUR, yay"

Then China comes with affordable EV's and all of a sudden the free market ain't so great anymore, and Chinese EV's have a punishment tax.

Why? Because China's government allegedly subsidized the EV manufactures too much?

Take a look at Germany, how many times have they save the big car manufactures with tax payer money? no difference, and until some years ago, the German cars we desirable in China. Well, not anymore.