this post was submitted on 10 May 2024
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The cost of cars has not scaled with incomes. EVs are also much cheaper to manufacture yet because of lack of competition they only sell luxury cars. Nissan admittedly tried but I think that was just too early to market with a mediocre product.
The added price is likely partially due to the development costs for these companies retooling their factories and doing R&D to develop these new platforms in a company that has been building ICE vehicles for the past 50-100 years. Luxury vehicles bring a markup that helps to offset these costs until these vehicles become more ubiquitous, parts are easier to source, and prices come down. You can't compare the cost of a brand new design to something like the Camry which had the general design ironed out 40+ years ago.
If you look at sales numbers, the Model 3 is outselling the cheap alternatives like the Leaf and Bolt 20:1, so it seems like many people are willingly choosing to pay more rather than buy the econobox option. The average sale price for a (any) new vehicle is around $50k currently, and there are a multitude of options in that price range.
This is all true. I just genuinely believe more EVs to market would be good for the consumer over the coming years.
I agree, but I think we'll have to wait for the technology to mature a bit. It seems the battery chemistry and design are what's stalling things but lots of companies are investing in new tech like solid state batteries.