At least we can hope that newer manufacturers like Slate and Rivian will keep things reasonable, and major foreign brands like Kia and Toyota might bring the fruits of their knowledge from competing internationally to their US models/factories. I'm not hopeful for the long term future of big three though, especially Stellantis and GM.
Of domestically produced GM, Chrysler, or Ford vehicles, most are shipped to foreign customers; of domestically sold GM, Chrysler, or Ford vehicles, most are manufactured by foreign factories. They do some assembly locally, but the majority of it is of foreign manufacture.
However, Toyota manufacturers most of their domestic sales domestically, and operate one of the largest car manufacturing plants in the US, only slightly below Ford's US plant that largely exports to Europe. Of domestically made cars that are domestically sold, Toyota dominates that.
BMW and Nissan also operate plants in the US for domestic use.
I agree that this backwards Reaganite behavior is just going to further shut the Detroit Three out of any future. They're already on the way out, a slow decline since they left the US, but this is going to finally finish those zombies off.
I still think it's a useful distinction though. There's also a whole lot of people involved that aren't on the production line (like me). The corporate culture is also very different between the American and Japanese conglomerates I've worked for.
He's right to buy American made when it comes to cars, we know what we're doing... he's just gonna have to buy a Toyota to get American.
Under this logic popular car brands that would be removed are Volvo, Polestar, Zeek, Lotus, MG, BYD, Smart, LDV, Chery, GWM, Jaecoo/Omoda, Leapmotor, Xpeng, etc - these are only off the top of my head.
How would it even work with Tesla (America's golden child) - a large amount of their cars are built in China with strong links to the Chinese?
Would the cars be allowed if connectivity were cut off? That could be a net win for consumers.
It'll be interesting to see how far this protectionism goes.
Sad because polestar seems genuinely good from the little I’ve seen about them.
That's how China got started - foreign companies were allowed to partner with and invest in domestic companies. Over time, those domestic companies took over and helped China become the manufacturing powerhouse it is now, not just in China, but globally.
USA auto makers can’t compete at China Ev (subsidized?) pricing and probably quality.
I don’t see why they should be restricted if most industries don’t also have similar restrictions.