EV: Affordable Options

SuperMatt

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What low-cost EVs are available, and what are on the horizon? I have a VW e-Golf, which was quite cheap, but has been discontinued. I think the cheapest EVs in America now are the Mini Cooper EV, Nissan Leaf, and Chevy Bolt. All around $30K. What does the low-cost EV market look like in the UK and Europe?
 
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Eric

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Trying to make sense of the title of this thread, which comes off as a rebuttal to the other EV thread unnecessarily. There is nothing that says other EVs can't be discussed in there, maybe consider starting a new thread for specific car makes/manufacturers but this smacks of deliberate anti-Tesla.

Edit: Glad you guys got this worked out. (y)
 
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SuperMatt

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Cool, I might change it to EV: Affordable, sub-$30K options

I don't know why I wrote Electric Vehicles out long form in all those other threads ... :ROFLMAO:
Since we have members from many countries, and car prices are through the roof these days, I won’t force an American dollar amount on it, but I will follow the overall naming convention.
 

Apple fanboy

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Because the other EV thread has become mostly about Tesla vehicles, I wanted a thread that discusses EVs more generally. I don’t want to exclude all mentions of Tesla from this thread, but the other thread is really in the weeds on all sorts of Tesla-only features, issues, etc.

Conversation starter: What low-cost EVs are available, and what are on the horizon? I have a VW e-Golf, which was quite cheap, but has been discontinued. I think the cheapest EVs in America now are the Mini Cooper EV, Nissan Leaf, and Chevy Bolt. All around $30K. What does the low-cost EV market look like in the UK and Europe?
The E-Golf has been replaced with the iD3 in Europe. Not especially cheap, but not super expensive either. I did consider it as a replacement for my ICE Golf, but Mrs AFB thinks it’s too big! So I settled for the BMW i3. Is it cheap? Well not for me but can be bought for £35k if you don’t add lots of options. But it’s going EOL in July.
 

DT

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One issue with EVs, is the lower end doesn't scale well in terms of battery/range-to-cost. I think the affordable market is even more contingent on battery improvements, especially for physically smaller cars.

Like @SuperMatt 's list above:

1646329779896.png



There's nothing under $30K (USD) with more than 200 miles of range.

To be clear, I think range is a bit over emphasised and for many use cases for this market segment is shorter range anyway, more "intercity" type driving, but it's one of those things that impact the market. People with $25K to spend are worried about a vehicle that can only go 150 miles, when they can spend the same on the Sentra I mentioned, and go 350+ miles.

It's kind of a catch-22, the affordable market needs more uptake (from the consumer), so there's more motivation to build products for that segment, but that segment has a bit of a issue with range-to-cost.

That's Hyundai above is getting really close, 258 miles, $34K before incentives, that's at least $7500 fed, and whatever your state offers!
 

Apple fanboy

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One issue with EVs, is the lower end doesn't scale well in terms of battery/range-to-cost. I think the affordable market is even more contingent on battery improvements, especially for physically smaller cars.

Like @SuperMatt 's list above:

View attachment 12172


There's nothing under $30K (USD) with more than 200 miles of range.

To be clear, I think range is a bit over emphasised and for many use cases for this market segment is shorter range anyway, more "intercity" type driving, but it's one of those things that impact the market. People with $25K to spend are worried about a vehicle that can only go 150 miles, when they can spend the same on the Sentra I mentioned, and go 350+ miles.

It's kind of a catch-22, the affordable market needs more uptake (from the consumer), so there's more motivation to build products for that segment, but that segment has a bit of a issue with range-to-cost.

That's Hyundai above is getting really close, 258 miles, $34K before incentives, that's at least $7500 fed, and whatever your state offers!
I think people get obsessed about range. Sure if you regularly drive 100 plus miles you need a long range EV. But many people (myself included) rarely do. It’s horses for courses as we say over here.
 

SuperMatt

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I think people get obsessed about range. Sure if you regularly drive 100 plus miles you need a long range EV. But many people (myself included) rarely do. It’s horses for courses as we say over here.
Agreed. If somebody has a very long commute or regularly has to travel long distances, they need to keep that in mind. For an average commute, 100 miles of range is fine. I’ve been going 6 years with that range. Would I like more? Sure. Do I need it? Nope.
 
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