I’m curious how popular small commuter vehicles would be. People spend a few thousand on ebikes and scooters. Would two seats with minimal cargo room, be the kind of thing that could be sold for 4-8k?
I really like the idea of the Aptera for this.
Lowest could potentially be 25k but essentially free to operate, and hopefully easier to repair than mainstream evs, which very much are not.
But they haven’t fully climbed the startup hill so I’ll have to wait and see.
I’d buy one tomorrow.
I’ve hunted hard as fuck for a Kei truck as it’d be perfect for my rural use case and not cost a ton and not take up a ton of room
Illegal where I live because fuck you
love it but whats the crash safety rating? the smart cars have engineered great survivability.
For fucks sake it should be. Most commutes don’t need cargo space.
Spoken like someone with no kids who always lived near a grocery store
False on both counts Bubba. Let me guess, you drive your extended cab f150 everywhere “just incase” you need it?
Grocery shopping shouldn’t need to happen more than every couple days. Really once or twice a week should be enough. And do both you and your spouse need to go grocery shopping every day? Maybe one of you drives the small vehicle and the other the family vehicle?
Don’t get me wrong, I also prefer to have the extra space, but I’m planning on buying a small hybrid truck so at least I am being more fuel efficient with it.
Pretty much this.
While I definitely agree that the price of EVs are too damn high, we also have to take a look at the current trend of automakers phasing out their entire affordable car lines. They don’t want to sell cars working people can afford.
Try to build your own car (with car building knowledge) in America and try to get it on the road legally. You can’t.
This totally misses the point. Automakers would make cheaper cars if they could get the adoption, but the input cost for Lithium for LFP batteries or Nickel and Cobalt for NMC batteries has skyrocketed. Lithium was as high as 4Xs the cost Pre-Covid, for example
Since the input cost is so much higher, premium was the initial target until the supply chain improved and reduced cost. I mean that’s exactly what Tesla did. It’s just not getting broad support because a lot of people are wary of buying EV over range or charging anxiety.
Most automakers won’t, any time soon.
The lessons they took away from the COVID lockdown era are that it’s better to sell lower volumes with higher mark-up. Their business models are shifting away from high-volume, low-margin sales.
Why sell 100 cheap cars with a $2K margin, and deal with all those potential warranty/recall issues - when you can sell 10 top-of-the-line variants with a $20K+ margin, and continue to rake in extra with higher service costs, finance fees and the like.
They don’t have a $20k margin on EVs. They’re barely break even and often lose money. They sell them for CO2 credits
I think PHEVs are the perfect way to get people over range anxiety. I know my Volt has effectively a gallon of gas worth of range or 40 miles. That’s enough range to do 90% of the driving I do in a week if I charge after drive. Groceries, daycare, and work (1 way, with charging stations). I think a lot of families are used to having my car and my spouses car where now it’s looking like EV for short local trips and ice for longer trips. I think PHEVs will help teach folks about what kind of range they actually need even if they are charging at home everyday.
Now we have the luxury of a garage, which seems like a major hurdle to mass adoption. More so, than range anxiety.
Hurdles from my perspective :
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Price, Price, Price
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No Garage These are tied together as the people who can afford a garage are the same people that can likely aslp afford an EV. Similar target markets.
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High Used Prices
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Low Supply
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Drivers own lack of awareness of their driving habits.
Red Herring in the media: Our grid can’t handle it!
This is something I hear my boomer mother say even though she’s a perfect candidate for an EV.
Wouldn’t high used prices be good for new car buyers? To be fair, EVs plummeted in value in the 2H23 and are now in line with the broader market
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That’s because of inequality. It’s the same in most industries now - if you want to make money you have to be in the luxury market. Working people have been bled dry.
They are in it for the money, not for combating climate change.
