6 ms·
Cheaper labor, for sure
by hnthrow0287345 3mo ago
Cheaper labor, for sure
- pertymcpert 3mo agoMost of the cost of batteries is in labor? So why not outsource them out of China where labor is quite expensive vs developing countries?
- warunsl 3mo agoLabor is expensive in China?
- Yiin 3mo agonow yes, it's no longer 2005
- HDThoreaun 3mo agoCompared to their neighbors is SEA yes labor is very expensive
- handle584 3mo agoBecause no one in their right mind will work the Chinese 996-esque schedule in the 21st century, except the Chinese? They are actually importing Chinese workers to their Brazil factory, leading to the slave labor expose by Brazilian authorities [0]. They have the same trouble recruiting in Thailand, where workers have functioning unions and enjoy modern working rights, instead of 19th-early 20th century Industrial Revolution type stuff. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BYD_Brazil_working_conditions_controversy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BYD_Brazil_working_conditions_...
- riskd 3mo agoEverything and anything that China does better than the west: It must be cheap labor.
- hnthrow0287345 3mo agoIt's not the only thing, but it's a big one
- defrost 3mo agoThe "dark" EV plants making cars aren't using any labour, let alone cheap labour. There's also that thing that made China what it is today - the USofA using China for cheap labour and a place to outsource all the dirty parts of high consumption. China's moved on, US perceptions haven't.
- nixon_why69 3mo agoThe perception gap is the assumption that cheap means dumb or low-quality. Those dark EV plants were designed and built by engineers and technicians working 996 for cheap on an hourly basis.
- defrost 3mo agoAnd this is why the US doesn't have fully automated parts in drive out EV factories?
- nixon_why69 3mo agoThe US doesn't have those because we're not even trying. China is capable of it due to the absolutely brutal grinding work culture. They're not superhuman, it's not Tony Stark building the Iron Man suit in an evening, they're smart and work extremely hard.
- myrmidon 3mo agoThey are most certainly using cheap labor to design, plan, operate and maintain those "dark" plants. Very highly automated production lines (cars) have similarly moved along the labor-price gradient in Europe (~east) during the last decades, despite language barriers: You need some engineers, electricians, constructions workers, janitors, etc regardless, and those still scale with general labor costs, even if there's no human hands in the assembly line.