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Looked up that $5000 (where?) Chinese car. Here it is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuling_Hongguang_Mini_EV
As of a year ago, it’d sold 1.1 million globally; it’s the most popular EV in China. Coincidentally, saw one of these rolling by the house here in the PNW (the red/black model, kind of a standout among the silver turds).
It’s manufactured by the three-way international joint venture SAIC-GM-Wuling, in the factories of Liuzhou. (Note the GM in there.) The new VW Bug.
EDIT: Wired review from 2022: https://www.wired.com/story/review-wuling-hongguang-mini-ev/
In the US the problem with driving this car would be all the trucks and SUVs around you.
Yeah, it’s intended to be a city car. In the city I live, a LOT of the vehicles I see going by on a 35-45 mph arterial are at or no bigger than this size. Avoid crowded, busy streets, drive safely, I’d have no worries. A LOT of the people who live here could easily commute every day a total recharge takes 6.5 hours.
Coincidentally, saw one of these rolling by the house here in the PNW
I wonder how it was imported and then registered. There’s a zero percent chance it meets US DOT standards and it’s not nearly old enough for the “classic” import exemption.
I suppose it’s possible that it was a GM test mule but the PNW isn’t a common place to see those.
A lot of US states are starting to close the classic vehicle exceptions too. Because their pickup-loving busybody mid-level bureaucrats are aesthetically displeased by kei trucks and so wield the levers of the administrative state to ban them for bullshit reasons.
I was definitely already amid doing the research for getting an old Kei truck and converting it to electric when I found out my state wouldn’t tolerate me doing it anymore. Because evidently a kei is super dangerous to be in on the road. More dangerous than a motorcycle or bicycle. Somehow.
Huh, I didn’t realize that an individual state could do that. I thought that the Federal rules covered it. TIL.
I remember more than one time time when I thought I was wrong but I wasn’t. ;-> Howsabout ‘I thought I saw one…’. I’ve never seen a UFO either!
What the heck, I want one!
Me too. Beats a loooooong bus ride all to hell.
Electric cars: “the solution”
Can’t wait until the car graveyards start surfacing from these cars that are too expensive to fix because the batteries cost more then the car…
The car graveyards will be all the ICE cars that have no used car value except as scrap.
Brand new electric for under 10k?
Yes please
It will happen slowly, then all at once.
And what are you going to do when your 10K car is dead and gone in 5 years because lithium batteries are a joke?
ICE cars can keep working more than your effective lifetime
Either keep on rolling as the batteries are good for 10 years at least or … buy a brand new electric one for 5 k!
The point is there will be no used car market for ICE vehicles as new electric will be so cheap. Only rare and specialty ICE cars will hold some value for collectors and enthusiasts. General commuters and average vehicle owners will not be able to resist nor have any reason to resist the cheap brand new electric vehicles. Why buy a used ICE that needs constant servicing and petrol costs when a brand new electric is cheaper?
China has changed the story. It’s not about high end high cost electric vehicles. They are about to completely disrupt the entire car industry worldwide on a scale that the major car manufacturing nations are completely unprepared for.
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Battery costs are dropping fast. And used batteries will be common, and the newer ones will keep getting better. Apart from the fumes, I like the old cars a lot, but we can’t afford so many of them.
I don’t think that will be an issue. In the US, most batteries are warrantied for ten years/100,000 miles, which means they confidently go longer. I believe most batteries are also cell based, so failure isn’t 100%. Probably just a shorter battery life. Lots of people will be fine driving with a shorter range.
There are also used batteries and battery recycling. Plus in ten years there will be new technology, efficiencies in production, etc.
These vehicles will probably follow the same life cycle that most do. Being passed down from new owners to used, etc.
This is in fact the only coherent argument for why US electric vehicles all have such absurdly huge ranges - so that they still have decent ranges even when old.
EV battery recycling is already a thing. Hopefully the relevant authorities start putting out some standards for battery packs to keep them at least somewhat recyclable though, since that’s getting to be a problem given that every single auto manufacturer seems to be building custom packs for every car.
