this post was submitted on 16 May 2024
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Electric Vehicles
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Why is it so difficult for these manufacturers to sell a $5000 to $10000 4-door hatchback?
Sure the margins might be razor thin but the market in NA is essentially untapped. (I am certain I am wrong here because silly Americans want big cars so there's actually no market. But let's assume we can somehow convince enough people to buy one...)
Even I, a non-industry outsider can see the great potential for a very modern petrol/EV hybrid and compact city car thats loaded with smart tech (still offline). Imagine all the cool stuff we can do with it like color themes and modern LED based lighting and good features like physical buttons and a bangin' sound system. Not to mention we can have top notch safety features and not sacrifice mileage since it will be a small car.
Late 1980's saw the introduction of a cheap small car called the Yugo, $3999 for the base model. Dive into how it did and why. Now consider that with inflation, $3999 is about $10,000. Even the Smart Car retail was last around $24,000 and I think a basic EV would have more cost built into it that those.
I agree that cars, EV or otherwise, could be made and sold at lower prices with the basic safety and features if it wasn't a profit driven industry, but your price point isn't realistic. I also think we really don't need more cars even if they are small, dependency on personal vehicles is part of why we have problems now.
I don't know that a $10,000 hatchback electric would be profitable in the US.
Just my two cents
Not with the cost of the battery being more than that. We will probably see some 10k evs in the resale market eventually but I'm not sure we will ever see 10k or even sub 15k in the new vehicle market.
Ive seen high mileage leafs and bolts come down to that range. They may be theoretically due for battery replacement, but its a bit of a wild west about when that's actually required, so probably still a lot of utility at that price.
That's why I think we should go with a petrol or a hybrid car. Mileage would be so good that it will tide over the gap until we figure out how to make batteries economically viable.
Tell us you don't understand economics without telling us.
Also, tell us you haven't been paying attention to evs without telling us.
There are a couple of new chemistries that should be in vehicles soon that are from more abundant and lower cost ingredients.
Just like everything else over the centuries, the first iterations of a brand new technology are going to be a lot more expensive than some of us would like. Over time with enough demand and development that price will fall as it's already doing with ev batteries just not fast enough for some of you whiners.
Hell, I’d be happy with a subcompact crossover EV for less than 30k.
There are proposals to replan communities around golf carts for neighborhood transportation