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I know the profit margins are thinner on economy cars, but I don't understand why some company hasn't started making a dirt simple, small and cheap EV yet. It would sell like hotcakes.
I hope Aptera can change that, but they're still potentially vaporware.
There are many relatively cheap EVs sold around the world like the MG4 , BYD dolphin that cost around USD $35000 that come with 5 star Euro NCAP crash ratings so they are not some glorified golf cart with doors.
https://www.euroncap.com/en/results/mg/4+electric/48646
https://www.euroncap.com/en/results/byd/dolphin/50011
Or a Citroën ë-C3 if you assume only Chinese cars can be that cheap.
https://www.motor1.com/news/691778/2024-citroen-e-c3-debut-europe/
You can't find them in the US because Chinese cars come with a 27.5% import tariff.
The US car market in my opinion will probably resemble their smartphone market in a few years time with Tesla (Apple) and a few korean cars (Samsung). While the rest of the manufacturers will go the way of Nokia & Blackberry.
Because no one has figured it out yet at scale.
Getting the car to the fabled 25k USD before incentives just isn't profitable yet, the batteries are too expensive.
GMs bolt, which is the cheapest out there, isn't profitable. They're selling it for the ZEV credits they get. They'd go bankrupt if they tried to sell a million of them a year as is.
We would need a range restricted commuter car to get to those prices right now, but those just don't sell well at scale either.
And now with interest rates so high it's even more difficult, because even that 25k car is substantially less affordable.