this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2026
187 points (99.5% liked)

Electric Vehicles

2772 readers
314 users here now

Overview:

Electric Vehicles are a key part of our tomorrow and how we get there. If we can get all the fossil fuel vehicles off our roads, out of our seas and out of our skies, we'll have a much better environment. This community is where we discuss the various different vehicles and news stories regarding electric transportation.


Related communities:


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 hour ago

Yeah, 3d printing only makes economic sense if you're not doing mass production. It involves a lot of compromises.

Also, OP argues that it's better to be an "all-things manufacturer". Most of the time that isn't the most efficient way unless you have government assistance in some form. That might just be having patents or copyrights. BYD started as a battery company and has battery-related IP. Now they're China's leading company in patent filings, with over 13,000 of them.

Most of the time it's more efficient to specialize in something and buy parts from other specialists.