€25,000 is still pricey. The BYD Atto 1 recently dropped to AU$19,990 in Australia, which is €12,412. I think it will be hugely popular at this price point.
Cars are just more expensive in Europe than in Australia. In Europe, cars are still a bit of a luxury, whereas in Australia, they’re an absolute necessity.
Interesting in which part of Europe are you living to make such a statement for the bit of luxury. The only country I could think of is the Netherlands and probably Belgium.
My mother do not move more than 100km a day anymore (and even that is a stretch, I think the most she drive is to the beach 25 km away), but 25k€ is a very big investment. She recently bought a second hand electric car for 9k€ and is very happy with it.
There's a bit of a problem that secondhand EVs aren't on the market until a couple of years after someone has bought them new. So there's a bottleneck. In this case all the cheap leasing deals work in favor of the eventual secondhand market.
I was shocked at the thought of having to move "only" 100km a day... we are living in such different worlds. And yes I do commute, but by public transport and less than 30km away and definitely not every day.
Good looking but also a quite expensive one! If it will be for masses the prices will likely need to become substantially lower.
And we need the charging capacity for all those vehicles which is a huge issue. For example in the Netherlands this shows the capacity available to use extra power connections:
Open Autotrader -> Fiat 500e -> New -> First car: https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202506113398641 discounted to £15k. That is just a really cheap car. Even the nominal RRP £23,685 is cheap. If you want cheaper there is Dacia Spring and the cheapest BYD.
> The goals of the environmental improvements
The Netherlands of all people should understand about sea level rise and the real world capacity available to absorb CO2.
Technically yes - it is a 3-door car with two seats behind the driver. However, in my experience only small persons or kids will enjoy sitting on the rear seats. I recall that the rear seats were good as an extra space for the backpacks or shopping bags.
Crash safety design features are a decent contributor to cost. I suspect manufacturers think shrinking the frame a bit, removing two doors and back seat won't drop the cost enough to convince people to buy them.
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€25,000 is still pricey. The BYD Atto 1 recently dropped to AU$19,990 in Australia, which is €12,412. I think it will be hugely popular at this price point.
Cars are just more expensive in Europe than in Australia. In Europe, cars are still a bit of a luxury, whereas in Australia, they’re an absolute necessity.
Isn't it just different levels of import duty and/or proximity to China?
(normally something being essential drives the price up)
Interesting in which part of Europe are you living to make such a statement for the bit of luxury. The only country I could think of is the Netherlands and probably Belgium.
Volkswagen Golf starts at 32 706 € here. BYD Dolphin Surf, the cheapest car BYD offers, starts at 24 590 €.
You know the old joke - I don't have to outrun the bear, need to outrun you. China's companies goal is to keep their cars 10% cheaper than the locals.
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I can't imagine a car selling for that price in the US. :(
My mother do not move more than 100km a day anymore (and even that is a stretch, I think the most she drive is to the beach 25 km away), but 25k€ is a very big investment. She recently bought a second hand electric car for 9k€ and is very happy with it.
New car is always a big investment, second hand is the way. 25k car will be even cheaper in few years.
There's a bit of a problem that secondhand EVs aren't on the market until a couple of years after someone has bought them new. So there's a bottleneck. In this case all the cheap leasing deals work in favor of the eventual secondhand market.
I was shocked at the thought of having to move "only" 100km a day... we are living in such different worlds. And yes I do commute, but by public transport and less than 30km away and definitely not every day.
I just want a two-seater EV. The Smart ForTwo hasn't been updated in ages and the only other ones are either quadracycles of vapourware.
Where are the runarounds for people who don't need to lug around kids or baggage?
I guess you look for the car like Fiat 500e [0]. It is a two-seater with an electric drive.
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_500e
Good looking but also a quite expensive one! If it will be for masses the prices will likely need to become substantially lower.
And we need the charging capacity for all those vehicles which is a huge issue. For example in the Netherlands this shows the capacity available to use extra power connections:
https://capaciteitskaart.netbeheernederland.nl/capaciteitska...
All red. The goals of the environmental improvements should connect with the actual real world available capacity. Otherwise it's just a dream.
> quite expensive
Open Autotrader -> Fiat 500e -> New -> First car: https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202506113398641 discounted to £15k. That is just a really cheap car. Even the nominal RRP £23,685 is cheap. If you want cheaper there is Dacia Spring and the cheapest BYD.
> The goals of the environmental improvements
The Netherlands of all people should understand about sea level rise and the real world capacity available to absorb CO2.
The 500 has four seats and is available in 3 or 5 doors!
If you want a really small car, which Americans don't, there's the Topolino.
It's a 4 seater no? Even if the rear seats are small.
Technically yes - it is a 3-door car with two seats behind the driver. However, in my experience only small persons or kids will enjoy sitting on the rear seats. I recall that the rear seats were good as an extra space for the backpacks or shopping bags.
Crash safety design features are a decent contributor to cost. I suspect manufacturers think shrinking the frame a bit, removing two doors and back seat won't drop the cost enough to convince people to buy them.
Fiat Topolino / Citroën Ami / Honda Super-N
Honda e? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_e
Possibly not what you're after, and possibly not available to you even then, but there is this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MG_Cyberster
I guess the target market is small, otherwise more options would exist.
If you buy a car anyway, might as well pay a bit more and get one that is useful in more situations.
I think battery size is also an issue.
But there are very few small gasoline cars as well, even in Europe.
There is the Fiat Topolino if you are ok with a pure city car.
Smart ForTwo Has been discontinued no?
Apparently, someone heard you:
https://uk.smart.com/en/models/hashtag-two/
You can find a new sub 25K EUR car in Europe but the range will suck.
For example the VW Polo starts at 25K but if you want the bigger battery, its 35k.
The 25k VW ID.Polo has a range of ~300km. In Europe, that's way more than enough for >95% of trips for >95% of people.
around 150km in the winter, unacceptable range for a new car. A 28kWh ioniq could do that and they are cheap and come fully loaded.
25k is still too fucking much.
8999 and we can start having a conversation, people can’t afford a 25k new car for gods sake.
Easy to rise sevenfold when you have close to no sales at that price point due to lack of offerings
These cars are very widespread, but almost exclusively thanks to Chinese companies, and Chinese EVs are effectively banned in the US.
Sevenfold! Whatever happened to -fold? It's all 10X this and 5X that these days, nobody says times or fold any more
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