this post was submitted on 18 Jul 2026
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Mildly Interesting
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It's sad watching the U.S. and Japanese auto industry self-destruct in slow motion. There are a lot of smart and capable people in the auto industry, but the management are stuck in an 80s design and manufacturing process.
The oil lobby has been actively encouraging this for decades. Automakers are lock step with the oil lobby. This is so people have to stay reliant on petrol.
There's no EV infrastructure here where I live. The amount of scam solar is like 10:1 here as well.
What is scam solar?
Once or twice a month we get people crawling the neighborhood, 5 or 6 of them just walking down the road, no credentials and they wanna get me free state funded solar and all the need is a picture of my electric bill to prove I'm not already receiving the payment blah blah blah. Eventually a cop comes by a day later and asks about it because one of the old people got scammed.
So how does the actual scam work?
With the information on the bill they can actually sign you up for a different delivery provider or add stuff to your plan.
Some of them will install panels and you won't see money for years if ever without litigation.
Sometimes it’s that picture of the bill; they use it it switch you to a more expensive energy provider.
Pretty straight forward, put them on as many rooftops as you can regardless of suitability or quality components. Collect government rebate +/- co contribution.
Idk. We put in solar 3+ years ago.. We're at roughly 1/3 paid off now. A pay an electric bill 2-4 months of the year. One or two low ($5-80), and one full ($300+), another somewhere in-between ($130-180).
Is the Japanese auto industry in as bad shape as the US? Where I live Nissan Leaf is everywhere, but that model might be an exception?
Toyota CEO: "Unless things change, we will not survive."
https://finance.yahoo.com/sectors/technology/articles/toyota-just-issued-stark-warning-173055087.html
This is Toyota though. So by, "unless things change" he just means, "unless the world turns their backs on EV and switches to hydrogen fuel on a traditional ICE package." Toyota refuses to accept that people want EVs.
Yeah fuck Toyota, they have been actively steering consumers away from BEVs to their hybrids for decades so that they can keep that sweet replacement parts cash rolling in. Here in Australia when they finally launched an EV, they gave it a ridiculous alphanumeric name that nobody remembers (and I refuse to look out up) - almost like they wanted it to fail. I'll never own a Toyota again.
I don't think it's done them any good to have trade restrictions trying to protect US sales. The increased pressure of better foreign car sales in the US would force more rapid adaptations.