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The withering dream of a cheap American electric car

(www.wsj.com)
152 points voisin | 4 comments | 17 Nov 24 23:52 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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bartvk ◴[18 Nov 24 00:05 UTC] No.42168473[source]▶
https://archive.ph/9oIT4

I wish it would have adjusted for inflation. One quote: "The average transaction price for a new vehicle sold in the U.S. last month was $48,623, according to Kelley Blue Book, roughly $10,000 higher than in 2019, before the pandemic." However, about 9200 euros of that is due to inflation according to this calculator: https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/

That's a nitpick though. All in all, an interesting article, which can be summarized as: the EV car market is lacking demand, and car makers definitely don't want to make cheap EVs since it's already so hard.

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AgentOrange1234 ◴[18 Nov 24 00:21 UTC] No.42168570[source]▶
If even ICE cars are now super expensive, why isn’t this a screaming opportunity for some auto manufacturer to target the low end of the market?

I’ve never spent more than 20k for a car. With prices like this, I’m just going to keep my old one as long as I can.

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bluedino ◴[18 Nov 24 00:25 UTC] No.42168591[source]▶
Kia sells quite a few cars that start at $20k, like the Soul and Forte
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wlesieutre ◴[18 Nov 24 00:35 UTC] No.42168633[source]▶
Quite a few $20k ish, though only the Forte actually making it under that. Forte LX starting at $19,900.

Of course that's without without the $1,155 "destination" fee, so even the Forte really starts at $21,145.

But considering inflation, $21k isn't a bad price.

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OptionOfT ◴[18 Nov 24 01:00 UTC] No.42168758[source]▶
We need laws that ban these junk fees. Any advertised price should be one I can get when I walk in.

I cannot get the car without registration. I cannot get the car without 'destination' fee.

Bake it into the price.

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1. yonaguska ◴[18 Nov 24 14:30 UTC] No.42172559{5}[source]▶
The destination fee isn't really a "junk" fee. it's variable based on how far away from the plant that manufactured your car or, or the distance from nearest port of entry. Delivering a car isn't cheap. There's certainly some level of arbitrage going on, but the delivery driver is usually independent of the dealership.
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2. triceratops ◴[18 Nov 24 14:35 UTC] No.42172600[source]▶
The dealership knows ahead of time how far they are from the plant and how much it costs to ship the car. GP was asking that the fee be included in the advertised price. That's fair.
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3. bluGill ◴[18 Nov 24 19:41 UTC] No.42176107[source]▶
The dealer should do that. However the manufacture cannot do that - they are advertising to people all over the country - some of live next to the factory and some who live across the continent.
4. wlesieutre ◴[19 Nov 24 05:07 UTC] No.42180238[source]▶
And yet the destination fee is the same no matter where you are. If you buy a Chrysler Pacifica in Detroit, 15 miles from the assembly plant, you get to pay the same $1595 destination fee as someone 2000 miles away in Los Angeles.

Since the fee doesn’t actually reflect anything related to cost of delivery, it’s hard to see it as anything other than hiding part of the MSRP so that they can lie about cheaper prices in advertisements.