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Comment by jlarocco | Hacker News Reader

The problem is that few people in "the west" wants EVs.

It's basic supply and demand - the sales are tanking, and without subsidies nobody will buy them, and the car companies are realizing that.

A few models (Teslas, for example) do okay with the upper class, but the lower and middle class can't afford them, don't have anywhere to charge them, and have to drive too much to depend on them.

Even in a trendy, wealthy city like Boulder, CO which is all about saving the environment and going green there isn't nearly enough charging capacity for everybody to use EVs.

An EV is better than no car at all, but they're a downgrade from an ICE in most cases.

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The "west" doesn't want expensive EVs. The most popular (or the second most popular) EV in China now costs $5000 for the base model. And for $15k you can get a very reasonable car.

Beefing it up to the US/EU safety standards and even accounting for higher labor cost, it would be around $20k. I'm pretty sure consumers would be quite interested in something like this.

BYD Atto 1 is arriving in Australia in 2026, base model is priced (including on road registration etc) at AUD 26,500.

That's USD 17,750.

https://evdealergroup-byd.com.au/configurator/byd-atto-1?pos...

It depends where you live and your driving distances. The US is the worst case for EVs because of longer driving distances and cheaper gas. I plug mine in at my own home so I never have to stop to fill it up a tank which is really nice. A renter might struggle to find anywhere to charge though. ICE is horrible to drive in comparison. They are noisy and lack torque and lots of moving parts need maintenance.

For sparsely populated areas or city to city driving plug-in hybrids should bridge the gap and allow people do most driving on electric and get the benefits of EV performance.

EVs are a superior car if you have a private garage and rarely take long trips or have multiple cars so you don’t need the EV for trips. Great for suburban living, which is where most Americans live. Never having to go to the gas station is legitimately a game changer and it’s worth swapping to EVs for that alone given you check the 2 boxes. Then you consider the better torque and lower noise and easier maintenance and it’s a no brainer.

Boulder is not a great EV town because everyone road trips all the time. 70% of Americans live east of the Mississippi where road trips are less common.

It's not a problem to drive long distance with a modern EV.

I get a lot of range anxiety road tripping my EV and find it annoying waiting for charging. But it’s certainly not impossible.

Eh not sure why OP chose Boulder, it is a great EV town. I commute into Boulder in an EV every day I need to be in the office. I almost exclusively charge my EV in Boulder at the office. The proportion of EVs I see driving in and out of Boulder is very high.

I also road trip around Colorado in my EV and it works great.

> A few models (Teslas, for example) do okay with the upper class, but the lower and middle class can't afford them

I bet the lower and middle class could afford a $10k BYD car though.

Consumers in the US haven't actually been given a chance to show what they "want". The cheap EVs have been kept out, of course the $100k ones arent selling that well. Remove the tariffs and import restrictions, and then people will show you what they actually want!

> An EV is better than no car at all, but they're a downgrade from an ICE in most cases.

Totally disagree. ~70% of americans live in single family homes. If you can charge at home which they can, and you dont have some edge case super distance driving needs, EV is better in every way.

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