It depends on where you live. Where I live on the west coast, you can find lots of used Nissan Leafs on craigslist for less than 6-7k. That's actually affordable. And there are some for under 4k, junk car territory.

Granted, they're 10+ year old cars and can only go ~50 miles on a charge (originally 80 miles but the battery degrades). But if you want a cheap car and live in a city or a close suburb, especially if you can charge your car at work, it's a doable option. These fully electric cars require less maintenance so they actually are cheap to run.

Probably based on averages compared to other new cars/trucks.

Average new vehicle price is $48k, but that's of course skewed by very high priced vehicles like pickups.