this post was submitted on 29 Jul 2025
980 points (99.7% liked)
Political Memes
9057 readers
2032 users here now
Welcome to politcal memes!
These are our rules:
Be civil
Jokes are okay, but don’t intentionally harass or disturb any member of our community. Sexism, racism and bigotry are not allowed. Good faith argumentation only. No posts discouraging people to vote or shaming people for voting.
No misinformation
Don’t post any intentional misinformation. When asked by mods, provide sources for any claims you make.
Posts should be memes
Random pictures do not qualify as memes. Relevance to politics is required.
No bots, spam or self-promotion
Follow instance rules, ask for your bot to be allowed on this community.
No AI generated content.
Content posted must not be created by AI with the intent to mimic the style of existing images
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
It’s still a losing proposition, even if you don’t already have a factory in [insert country]. Steel is cheap yes, the value add comes from labor and capex payback yes, but there’s more than just metal that makes a car go vroom .
Ca parts could be anything from plastic fan ducting or the infotainment screen, or major components like engines and drivetrains. The majority of which is plastics/polymers and aluminum. The engine has steel sure, but the aluminum block is the most expensive part, while steel con-rods, crankshafts, and gears aren’t exactly an easy thing to set up a new factory in order to duck tariffs - tariffs that have been proven to come and go over social media beef.
So while it’s impossible to truly know the full BoM cost without seeing each component category’s HTS codes and how each maker sources their parts, I’d still wager that the 15% is the better pathway. Especially if you already have a factory, a known and trained labor pool, established transit and vendor links, etc
What it’ll definitely have more impact upon is expensive or luxury brands, because the material cost doesn’t scale with the sticker price the consumer sees.