Electric vehicles will succeed or fail with how they can establish themselves on a second hand market.
I would have the budget for such a price, but I certainly wouldn't want to pay it. For official business there are company cars and I drive perhaps 5000 km per year. I still have a car and I need it to visit some more remote people and for convenience.
Paid 2.5k for it and I have it since a few years. I do have a mechanic, so repairs are cheap, but you can guess about my expectations for buying the next car. Haven't seen EV with attractive prices yet.
25k is quite a lot for many average salaried people in Europe, indeed the step bump of price (almost 2x in 10 years) of non-electric cars already put the eu market in a dire position where most people are not able to replace their car anymore and keep using very old cars with very high pollution outputs
But also more then what a good part of the population is willing to afford to pay for a car. Weather hear or in the US a lot of people buy second,third,fourth hand.
And that's a problem I think massively underestimated, a least currently electric cars are kinda badly suited for being resold, especially if they come from companies with pretty bad service/walled garden reputation like Tesla.
An electric four door estate makes tonnes of sense in the EU. The estate in the EU is an important car package, it's a family work horse.
> In addition to keeping the cost of R&D and production low, Tesla wants to ensure the compact EV is easy to manufacture.
It's simple and other manufacturers have done it for years. Just use standard parts where possible. Stop designing custom headlights, glass, wheels, etc, etc.
I would also advise to Tesla to build an even lower cost model, perhaps with the following specs:
* 2 seats and some space for shopping/luggage
* Half range (~200 miles or so), shorter charging time
* Lightweight, smaller motors, inverters, etc
* Repairable (keeps the cost down in the second hand market), use off-the-self components where possible
They could call it "Tesla Model # Lite". The market would be people who drive to local towns, etc, and back. If I were them I would sub-contract an existing manufacturer to build it too.
Seems like this is going to be a massive new push for the electrification of all cars, I think this could be absolutely massive, considering just quickly tesla is making inroads on all markets. A 25k car is huge for reaching even more customers.
I also wonder if this is targeting the market where BYD is so successful. I imagine most chinese customers would buy a tesla vs a BYD if they had similar pricepoints.
Interestingly in the European markets BYD has entered they seem to be trying to compete in the higher priced market segments. The cheapest car they sell in Sweden costs more than the ID.3 and other cheap EVs and their SUV is priced to closer to BMW than Kia.
I think I am more excited to see how the competition reacts. The world needs more affordable EVs and there's a price point to be found that successfully balances affordability and quality. I cannot imagine only Tesla are chasing this segments because one can only assume it's TAM is huge, and most just in Europe.
Coincidentally, the reviews of the Volvo EX30 just came out. Not quite $25,000 but a lot closer to it than most electric cars. And no compromises, unlike the Dacia Spring or Citroen ec3.
Readit News
I would have the budget for such a price, but I certainly wouldn't want to pay it. For official business there are company cars and I drive perhaps 5000 km per year. I still have a car and I need it to visit some more remote people and for convenience.
Paid 2.5k for it and I have it since a few years. I do have a mechanic, so repairs are cheap, but you can guess about my expectations for buying the next car. Haven't seen EV with attractive prices yet.
Here is a Nissan Leaf from 2011 for 5K:
https://www.marktplaats.nl/v/auto-s/nissan/m2041841167-nissa...
There is no mention of remaining battery capacity, only the original is listed.
For that kind of money you can fairly easily find a Renault, Skoda or if you're lucky a VW with lower mileage and probably a newer model year.
But also more then what a good part of the population is willing to afford to pay for a car. Weather hear or in the US a lot of people buy second,third,fourth hand.
And that's a problem I think massively underestimated, a least currently electric cars are kinda badly suited for being resold, especially if they come from companies with pretty bad service/walled garden reputation like Tesla.
I would say that the Fiesta is 10k too expensive.
https://www.hotcars.com/tesla-compact-ev-what-we-know/
https://www.motorlogue.com/tesla-model-2/
show several design proposals and speculation.
> In addition to keeping the cost of R&D and production low, Tesla wants to ensure the compact EV is easy to manufacture.
It's simple and other manufacturers have done it for years. Just use standard parts where possible. Stop designing custom headlights, glass, wheels, etc, etc.
I would also advise to Tesla to build an even lower cost model, perhaps with the following specs:
* 2 seats and some space for shopping/luggage
* Half range (~200 miles or so), shorter charging time
* Lightweight, smaller motors, inverters, etc
* Repairable (keeps the cost down in the second hand market), use off-the-self components where possible
They could call it "Tesla Model # Lite". The market would be people who drive to local towns, etc, and back. If I were them I would sub-contract an existing manufacturer to build it too.
https://www.topgear.com/car-reviews/citroen/ami
I also wonder if this is targeting the market where BYD is so successful. I imagine most chinese customers would buy a tesla vs a BYD if they had similar pricepoints.
Smaller Cars!1! OTOH that might be something if it means removing some tanks from the streets.