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Comment by petee | Hacker News Reader

Is there really any surprise no one wants to pay $45000 for a compact car? What is the profit margin on EVs that its cheaper to not sell cars versus making them affordable and within reach of more customers?

Edit: actually I can't tell if thats their cheapest car, VWs website sucks on mobile so I gave up. You'd think it'd be easy to just show the prices

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VW's site sucks on desktop as well. Ultra-wide monitor and I have to use a hamburger menu to see the navigation bar.

Using the VW filters, the only electric that I see is the ID.4 SUV starting at $39k.

Edit: Just went to Honda and the cheapest electric options are a CR-V hybrid at $29.5k or the Accord Hybrid at $32k.

Honda is probably not who you want to look at for EV comparisons. They have the Honda E (city car, I think being discontinued) and upcoming partnership with GM to rebadge the Blazer EV as Honda Prologue. And then there’s their “Afeela” joint venture with Sony which I’m sure will go great…

Yeahhhh Honda was only any good in the 80s-90s. Nowadays they're just resting on their laurels and abusing brand recognition.

I test drove a 2023 Civic hatchback a few months ago and thought it was pretty great. But not waiting list and $4000 markup great.

That's why people routinely drive Hondas for 200K - 300K miles and have few issues with them? Because they're resting on their laurels?

Honda is also recognized as being one of the best motorcycle manufacturers in the world as their motorcycles are regarded as being the most reliable.

Honda has an F1 Championship winning engine.

the decline is mostly because a government subsidy ended

Ah, so I guess the follow up question is did VW raise their prices to take advantage of the subsidy, basically just pocketing what was supposed to make a fairly-priced car more accessible? I guess that would be tough to get a clear answer without knowing the real cost of a car, though...

Volkswagen got big (it's in the name) with building affordable cars like the Beetle and the Golf. Compact fuel efficient cars that a nurse or teacher could afford.

Your last sentence is interesting. Nurses make 2-3 times as much as (K-12) teachers in the USA

Nurses make more than teachers in the US an average but it is much less than 2x.

Also interestingly, in Europe teachers usually earn much more than nurses.

Because unions.

No, nurses are of course also unionised. Teachers are higher educated and traditionally a highly respected profession.

According to BLS, median annual income for Registered Nurses is 81k, compared with 61-62k for teachers. Higher, but nowhere near 2-3 times.

https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/registered-nurses.htm

https://www.bls.gov/ooh/Education-Training-and-Library/Kinde...

https://www.bls.gov/ooh/education-training-and-library/middl...

https://www.bls.gov/ooh/education-training-and-library/high-...

The comparison here is so vague as to be useless. There are 4 categories of nurse, and I can assure you that A) a CNA and RN (let alone an APRN) are very different jobs with different requirements and wage/salary brackets and that B) K-12 wages and requirements also vary drastically.

A CNA (the second most common "nurse") most assuredly does not earn more than the average High School teacher, let alone one with any sort of seniority or departmental/administrative responsibilities. An APRN probably earns more than any blue collar field as it's a decidely high salaried white collar position.

I have never heard of anyone referring to a CNA (certified nursing assistant) as a 'nurse'

What most people mean by 'nurse' is an RN (registered nurse)

> I have never heard of anyone referring to a CNA (certified nursing assistant) as a 'nurse'

Because you represent 100%, or even a significant minority, of Americans. /s

> What most people mean by 'nurse' is an RN (registered nurse)

No, what you mean is that what most people encounter are RNs.

The people that encounter CNAs almost definitely consider them nurses.

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