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The road to electric is filled with tiny cars

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Re: The road to electric is filled with tiny cars

#81

Post by medstrom »

brainless wrote: post #15
brainless wrote: post #11

This is something I realized recently. I am in India and the number of small manufacturers who are making electric people movers is very high. These are not high speed vehicles, they are below 40 KM/h speed as I see them, but the big shift is that hundreds of small companies around India are producing and maintaining small electric vehicles, mostly locally. The drivers charge them at home at night or during longer lu…

The critical part that is playing its role as I understand is that DC motors and batteries are plenty available from decent manufacturers. Very soon, as I see articles around the web, there will be much better quality motors and batteries available across the country from brands say Yamaha or LG. Making the shell of a vehicle is not hard. ICEs have a ridiculously higher parts count compared to EVs. And not all EVs ha…

What's ICE?

Re: The road to electric is filled with tiny cars

#82

Post by Gibbon1 »

medstrom wrote: post #81
brainless wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The critical part that is playing its role as I understand is that DC motors and batteries are plenty available from decent manufacturers. Very soon, as I see articles around the web, there will be much better quality motors and batteries available across the country from brands say Yamaha or LG. Making the shell of a vehicle is not hard. ICEs have a ridiculously higher parts count compared to EVs. And not all EVs ha…

What's ICE?

Internal combustion engine

Re: The road to electric is filled with tiny cars

#84

Post by pentae »

inasio wrote: post #57
xrd wrote: post #47

What's the hack to get something like this in the US? I don't want to drive my kids around in it, but I have a short drive on 35 mph roads to my co-working space and I would love to go electric.

A guy in jalopnik.com imported one of these mini electric cars from China and detailed the whole process, he was very happy with how it turned out [0]. [0 - one of many articles on the car] https://jalopnik.com/unboxing-the-worlds-cheapest-new-car-re...

Makes you wonder if it's possible, and theres demand for it, why some Silicon Valley entrepreneur hasn't tried building a business for it? Especially with capital for EV being so hot right now

Re: The road to electric is filled with tiny cars

#88

Post by dagw »

dwaltrip wrote: post #41
zdragnar wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assume that 3 wheel cars have a bad stigma attached to them dating back to the Reliant Robin- at least the single-wheel-in-front variety. Since most of these cars have low top speeds, they also face a usefulness problem. Parking is too expensive in dense cities for super cheap cars to have a large market, and they are too slow to be useful in suburbs or the countryside.

I'm not following the cost of parking comment. What does that have to do with the cost of cars?

For me at least, parking for 8 hours near my office (back when that was a thing) would cost more than taking the bus to work and back, meaning that from a commute point of view a car would never make financial sense no matter how cheap. If parking was free then a really cheap car for commuting might make sense, financially.

Re: The road to electric is filled with tiny cars

#89

Post by leoedin »

filoleg wrote: post #78
midasuni wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

US tax on $50k median wage is about 20%, take home about $40k U.K. tax on $43k median is about 20%, take home pay $43k, but no health care costs Average car cost in US 60c/Mile https://www.bts.gov/content/average-cost-owning-and-operatin... In the U.K. is 41p/Mile or 58c https://www.nimblefins.co.uk/average-cost-run-car-uk

Fair, but you didn't address the part about the cars themselves costing more + the fact that the gasoline is still significantly more expensive per gallon (UK people just seem to drive much less miles per year than those in the US). In that second link you posted, it lists the starting price of base VW Golf as £38k (around $53k), while in the US the same model costs about $23k. Even if you tack on all the taxes and r…

I think that statistic is a mistake, or skewed by high spec versions. The starting price of a VW golf in the UK is about £22k - no where near that £38k.

Cars are more expensive, but not _that_ much more expensive.

https://www.carwow.co.uk/volkswagen/golf/specifications#nav

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