Tesla risks losing its lead without an inexpensive EV | Hacker News Reader

Tesla risks losing its lead without an inexpensive EV

techcrunch.com

11 pointsPaulHoule16 comments

If I could buy one of the cheap BYD cars that are available in China here in Canada, I would do it, tomorrow, in cash.

Meanwhile, I was walking by the Nissan dealership and Leafs were selling for $42k with cloth seats which is the price of a decent full size well-optioned sedan or SUV. I simply can't justify paying the premium for an electric car in Canada.

Why is no one serious about low end electric cars in North America. I would gladly take a 200 mi range no frills car like the leaf at a reasonable price.

I'm guessing the cold winters is a factor, but just a guess.

I, along with 15% of all Canadians live in a temperate rainforest. There's plenty of Canada with milder or equivalent winters to the Midwest and Northeast US.

200 miles? My cheap EV will be a second car to supplement a gas one. I really only need it to get like 70-100 miles.

That would probably work for me too, TBH.

200 mi was just an arbitrary number based on the BYD Dolphin which retails for $14k USD with a ~200 mile range.

CAD42K - $5k rebate (more in Quebec & BC) gets you basically down to the CAD35K base price of a VW Golf.

Also, gas is expensive and electricity is cheap in Canada. (For example Ontario has a plan with 3c/kWh overnight electricity). You should save at least $1000 per year in gas savings.

So still $17kCAD over the cost of a BYD Dolphin, which is a 4 door hatchback like the golf.

https://electrek.co/2024/02/23/byd-launches-new-dolphin-ev-1...

All cars are ~$10K cheaper in China due to a bunch of factors. The Australian price is a better metric.

The Dolphin is AUD39k, CAD35k.

The made in China base model Tesla 3 is $120USD cheaper in China vs the US MSRP.

Man, I would love cloth seats

> Why is no one serious about low end electric cars in North America.

Because no one bought them.

The Chevy Bolt was the best value EV in the world for a while. It was a good price for decent range. Even better value used. Its main weakness was slow DC charging:

https://www.caranddriver.com/chevrolet/bolt-ev

They've stopped production of the original Bolt. It's supposed to be coming back as a new model based on GM's Ultium battery platform:

https://electrek.co/2024/02/28/gms-new-bolt-ev-save-billions...

I was about to comment on this situation, then it occurred to me that I don't really care about personally owned EVs. It's quite a waste for everyone in a city to have one and a garage to store/charge it in, when we could just hail a self-driving vehicle to take us where we want to go.

We don't have this tech deployed now (though Uber EVs are close), and it should be expected soon enough if everyone was working on it instead of selling cars to consumers while they can. For longer trips away from the city I can probably still drive my VW for a while longer.

What other EV makers would be able to catch up? Everyone seems to be struggling.

The EV market is basically (1) Tesla, (2) a bunch of Chinese auto makers (BYD and ten others you’ve never heard of), (3) and every other well-known legacy auto maker.

BYD is giving Tesla some healthy competition.

Tesla is working on a $25k auto right now that should be available in 2026.

There isn’t much hope for legacy auto in the EV space. They’re too far behind and their costs for production are too high to remain profitable.

The Chinese auto makers have announced plans to open factories in Mexico which would give them easier access to North America under the USMCA.

> Tesla is working on a $25k auto right now that should be available in 2026.

I thought that the Model 2 had been canceled?

Source: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39944890

How much would these inexpensive EVs be without the Chinese govt subsidies? They can afford to play the long game, snuff out local competition, then raise prices when the competition is toast.

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