If you adjust for inflation, I bet it will happen. If you're willing to buy used, it already has.

If the battery is easily replaceable (say 20 seconds without leaving the vehicle) you could use small ones for short commutes and drive from station to station (possible recharging on some roads) or (rent) a big battery for long trips.

Other parts could similarly be crappy, have upgrades and the manufacturer could set up a second hand part market. They might even invite even cheaper knock offs.

There was a time you could get an e golf for 10k on super sale

Street legal in the US, probably not. There's always the Changli though, but it's not street legal: https://electrek.co/2021/10/18/cheapest-ev-in-usa/

Eventually we will but it will take a shake-up of the market by an outsider who does not have an existing business based around cars priced at current levels. Electric cars are far less complex than ICE-based vehicles so there is no real reason for them to be more expensive. The current excuse for their high prices is the cost of the battery pack but battery prices have been on a downward trajectory for a long time now. Eventually a newcomer will find the lure of selling an EV for half of the lowest priced competitor too large to ignore and the rest will be history. That newcomer will be derided by the existing sellers and the media which depends on advertising income from those established actors but that attack won't succeed if the increase in price-performance is large enough.