[Dormant] Electric Vehicles

They’re afraid of setting an “affordability precedent”. They’d much rather sell overpriced SUVs and trucks with a higher profit margin.

Germany's exports value was 12% directly cars and much of the economy is tied to manufacturing either car parts or car-making machines and parts. Germany's economy is really export-focused and highly dependent on China both import and export-wise.

Then created a car so good that the CEO of Ford does not want to give it up. Impressive indeed.

BYD was just a cell phone battery company, and was like "well we've got the lithium supply chain locked down, you know what needs huge batteries: guess we're doing cars now."

Xiaomi started off in making android custom ROMs. I remembered my friend who sideloaded his LG optimus 2x with MIUI back in the day.

The Ford Maverick has gone up in price a bit, but it launched at 20k. It was a hybrid 4-seater with a short truck bed and Android Auto/Airplay in the Entertainment system.

That's pretty much everything I want.

Of course, they made like 12 of them, so the wait list to buy one was measured in years.

The Chevy Bolt non-premium was like a $32k vehicle less $7.5k tax credit that put it at least ~$25k. It was a solid EV too, IMO.

Too bad Chevy killed it.

Chrysler/Jeep/Dodge isn't an American company. The only domestics are Tesla, GM, Ford, and Rivian.

I mean teslas have lost steering wheels, gotten stuck with full throttle in software and hardware separately, died in the rain, caught on fire after hitting a fire hydrant, had the workers pass around video clips from the car surveilance at peoples homes of people doing laundry naked etc. Doesn't sound much better to me.

The problem is China is progressing so rapidly in all three of these areas that there is great concern for western car companies.

We also have shareholders to think about.

China's market is also fundamentally different. The buyers care more about function than they do form. This is what allows vehicles like the Changli to sell in China for about $1,000 USD. People import them for about triple that, and there you go, a four figure electric car. These days there are even some commercial outfits in the United States that import dozens at a time and sell them for about $10,000 USD for people that don't want to deal with the bologna that comes with international imports.

The safety and quality are certainly on par with the cost, but at low speeds, we certainly don't need advanced safety equipment. Accidents would be less common anyway if people had more reaction time as a result of driving slower. Besides, many repairs that may be needed will be simpler to perform due to the less complex construction.

Regarding longevity, there are people using these things on farms, on construction sites, and in college towns. Might not last twenty years, but seeing how buying a used car for $500 can end up costing you more than $40,000 over less than a decade, I'd say the Changli is extremely compelling given the cost per year of ownership.