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this post was submitted on 25 Aug 2023
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Electric Vehicles
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I’ve been looking forward to buying an EV for like 10 years… I keep waiting for the balance of price and quality to meet come down out of the stratosphere… prices seem to only go up. I want something in the $30k range, and the quality level that $30k got you 10 years ago.
If you can get your hands on a Chevy Bolt, they are in that price range (After tax credit, they actually start at just under $20k), and pretty nice vehicles in my experience.
I had a Bolt for four years and loved it. It’s such a shame that it’s been discontinued just so they can focus on trucks that will probably cost double or more.
It's coming back https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a44639082/chevrolet-bolt-ev-second-generation-details/
That’s great!
Yes, that is how inflation works.
$30k ten years ago is $40k today.
With the compounding and the massive inflation the last few years that's probably way too little. Especially considering you can't even really buy a car, any new car for less than 20k now.
You would think that advances in technology and manufacturing would at least help to counterbalance that though. There's no way the same processes aren't cheaper than they were a decade ago
In ICE cars, they largely have gotten much cheaper.
A 2013 Toyota Camry started at $22k. A new 2024 starts at only $26k and is a much much better car.
Adjusted for inflation, that 2013 actually cost $28.8k. So the 2024 is marginally cheaper while bringing a plethora more safety, performance, fuel economy, and tech features.
For comparison, a base 2013 Audi A4 cost $47k MSRP originally and made 201hp with the i4 engine. A new base model 2024 Camry costs $26k and makes 208hp, while having better handling, better fuel economy, a better interior, and better tech than a 2013 A4.
ICE cars are getting cheaper. EVs are still in the expensive days just because the battery tech itself is still so expensive. Putting a large enough battery into a car to get an acceptable range is expensive. Economy cars can’t eat that cost as easily since the margins are already extremely tight. So manufacturers put in more features that bring a premium price but don’t cost a ton to actually implement but will compete in the mid range market so that they can get some profit margin. The big automakers are only averaging like 1-2% gross margin on their EVs right now.
There are still a few cheap EVs though. The Bolt EV is $26k. The leaf is $28k. The Bolt EUV is $27k. The Hyundai Kona EV is $33k. There’s the mini cooper EV at $30, but it only gets 150 miles so it’s out of the question for a lot of people. And the Mazda MX-30 (though they’re killing it off because it only sold like a single digit number of cars and only gets a pitiful 100 miles).
I mean... to be fair, you can't even get a non-EV car that's $30k and the quality that you got for $30k 10 years ago.
But yeah, it would be nice if there were budget options out there. PHEV's are a fantastic option for people looking to dip their feet, but they're just not cheap. The Prius Prime is on paper but you can't find anyone selling them for less than $5k over MSRP.
Hopefully we'll get there soon. Been waiting for that cheap EV for ages. But if you can't actually make huge numbers of them because you're constrained by battery parts, it doesn't make sense to build cheap cars.
I'm in a similar position, and prolly will by a Chevy Bolt, although the Volvo EX30 looks really good too, though a bit pricey at $35K