The withering dream of a cheap American electric car

(www.wsj.com)

152 points voisin | 1 comments | 17 Nov 24 23:52 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source

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bartvk ◴[18 Nov 24 00:05 UTC] No.42168473[source]▶

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]▶

>>42168473 #

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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1. eschneider ◴[18 Nov 24 15:57 UTC] No.42173595[source]▶

>>42168570 #

Low price normally requires lower margins, so for the same risk, you're making less money than with a higher end model. Make it up in volume, you say? Well, that increases the risk that you don't sell enough and end up with a loss.

Ultimately, you CAN "win" by doing really well with a low-end model, but the chance of losing big is there, too.

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