• CatfishSushi@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Henry Ford designed the Model T to be a bare-bones vehicle affordable for the everyday person. Volkswagon designed the Beetle to be a bare-bones vehicle affordable for the everyday person.

    The first car company to design an EV that’s a bare-bones vehicle affordable for the everyday person will sell lots of them. Profit per car may be lower but perhaps we need to set the need for maximum profits aside on this particular issue?

    My raises aren’t even CLOSE to keeping up with inflation. Rather hard to splurge on a fancy EV with tons of high-tech nice-to-have features that are just going to break anyway. All I need to do is to get from point A to point B and have AC, heat and a half-decent stereo system.

    • epyon22@programming.dev
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      1 year ago

      I’m putting money on Toyota and their Panasonic batteries to build something like a Corolla EV for $25k USD 400 mile range.

      Infrastructure is going to have to keep up too. Unless you are in a progressive/new/expensive apartment/neighborhood has reliable access to chargers that’s going to have to change before you can start selling EVs to lower and lower middle class. Right now they only make sense of you have a garage to park in.

      • PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Toyota has been claiming that since 2010. They are no closer to a “solid state battery” that they have been raving about for the last 13 years. They don’t even sell electric cars in Japan!

        Toyota is widely considered to be the furthest behind the technology curve of all global car manufacturers, aside from maybe Lada.

        • epyon22@programming.dev
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          1 year ago

          They’ve got a huge share of the hybrid market. Why release something sub par (expensive, low range, needs to be plugged in) my guess is they let Tesla and other companies fight it out and learn from them wait for the infrastructure to catch up then sell to the common person not just people who can afford to have a less practical car.

    • JonEFive@midwest.social
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      1 year ago

      Out of curiosity, how much would it cost for you to consider an EV affordable for the everyday person?

      The Chevy Bolt has been around for years and can be purchased new for less than $30k. Same with the Nissan Leaf. That’s a pretty attainable number for a lot of working adults, and that’s assuming you buy brand new. Multiple 2020 Bolts are available near me for around $20k. I’m seeing Bolts that might be another year or two older as low as $15k

      I’d argue that price isn’t the thing keeping people away from EVs. You can buy a relatively inexpensive EV if you want to.