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Comment by amatecha | Hacker News Reader

That's amazing.. the cheapest new EV I know of in Canada is around $25k CAD (€16k) ... They are really expensive here, even with $5k incentive from the government. Even if the Ami is speed/range-limited (and tiny), I don't know of anything even remotely comparable in that price range here! Though if someone knows of something cheaper here, I'm all ears.

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I don't think anything like this exists in Canada (the closest thing would be an e-bike). I wonder if it would work there.

Con: On main arteries vehicles definitely move faster than its speed limit. I'm thinking University Ave or Spadina in Toronto.

Pro: 50 km/h (30 mph for Americans) is already the speed limit in most neighborhood streets. It would be interesting to see an Ami cut across 4 lanes to turn left on a multilane boulevard. :) But then again, Paris has tons of these multilane boulevards (like the Champs Elysee) and it seems to work there.

Con: An Ami would be treated like a bicycle except one that takes up the full width of the lane, which might annoy drivers who can't pass it.

Pro: ... which the regulatory framework technically already allows for (bike riders can take up the full lane, and motorists are supposed to allow a 3 ft buffer if passing).

Con: Canadian winters. In Southern Ontario, winter temperatures hover around -10 to -15°C (-30°C wind chill on some days).

Pro: There is a heater, and since it's an enclosed space, it should be fine if one bundles up.

Maybe it could work in denser cities like Toronto and Montréal...

We usually don't buy new cars in Europe. Most private cars are second hand.

Where the second hand cars come from?

Cars previously used by businesses sold by leasing providers after 2-3 years of usage, mostly. Many of these are sold by Volkswagen Financial Services and include factory warranty. It's an easy way to get a car as good as new 30-50% cheaper.

Rental cars, company cars, old people cars.

Do you have a source for that? That's the first time I've heard about that and with leasing being so popular I don't really see this being true. Especially when observing people around me (Austria, Germany).

Those are company cars. Privately purchased cars are indeed bought used, overwhelmingly so.

In Germany only ~33% of new cars are bought privately, the rest from companies.

Source https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/36714/umfrage...

Thanks, I ended up on this page too in my research but I don't have a subscription to see the actual data.

https://www.auto-infos.fr/Bilan-2019-le-marche-VO-etablit-un...

In France in 2019 2.61 used cars were sold for each new car.

In Finland in 2019, 625000 used cars were sold vs. 114200 new car registrations. I believe these include both private and company cars, though.

This would be 85% used cars, 15% new cars.

The average age of a bought used car was 13.3 years.

https://www.kauppalehti.fi/uutiset/uutta-dataa-kaytetyn-auto...

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