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Mexican government unveils a prototype for a new homegrown, ultra-affordable EV

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Re: Mexican government unveils a prototype for a new homegrown, ultra-affordable EV

#101

Post by yellowapple »

1234letshaveatw wrote: post #60
Animats wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems to fill a useful niche, but may be too downscale. Remember the Tata Nano.[1] Tata built a basic car with a price below 1 lahk, but it didn't sell. In the US, there's Slate, which claims to be making a small electric pickup truck. "Preorders will start on June 24, 2026. First deliveries are slated for late 2026." [2] Price in the US$20K range, they claim. Claimed range is 150m with the base model battery. A…

Are we just ignoring data now? Giant pickups have silly sales- silly in the crazy high sense of the word. I love my EV but I have never wished for less range. The Slate is a toy for the wealthy, like kitted up Jeeps that have snorkels

Giant pickups have silly sales because pickups in general have silly sales and there are basically zero non-giant options in the US market (thanks, Chicken Tax, very cool).

The Slate would be the absolute perfect truck for me if it had a 4WD option. Being RWD-only is the only thing making me unwilling to replace my Tacoma with it.

Re: Mexican government unveils a prototype for a new homegrown, ultra-affordable EV

#102

Post by thelastgallon »

bruce511 wrote: post #15

The Ford CEO is not wrong. Allowing foreign imports into the country at prices far below what US producers are able to make will decimate the local car industry in the US. There are 4 possible solutions to this problem; a) convince Americans that it's worth paying more for a locally built product. This is the simplest approach, but there's only so much margin here that the consumer will tolerate. At the moment this g…

> c) subsidize local production out of the "national interest to support this industry" budget. This has the effect of ramping up demand, hence production, hence production being developed, and eventually getting cheaper.

We already have a trillionaire from subsidizing local production.

Re: Mexican government unveils a prototype for a new homegrown, ultra-affordable EV

#103

Post by lenerdenator »

bruce511 wrote: post #15

The Ford CEO is not wrong. Allowing foreign imports into the country at prices far below what US producers are able to make will decimate the local car industry in the US. There are 4 possible solutions to this problem; a) convince Americans that it's worth paying more for a locally built product. This is the simplest approach, but there's only so much margin here that the consumer will tolerate. At the moment this g…

Tariff is probably the easiest path forward.

You'll need to pay workers more to make D) work. That cuts into margins. That means it's DOA.

Re: Mexican government unveils a prototype for a new homegrown, ultra-affordable EV

#105

Post by bruce511 »

ff317 wrote: post #94
adjejmxbdjdn wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ICE -> EV is not a 30 year transition. I’d be surprised if there’s a consequential ICE industry after 2040 (that doesn’t mean there won’t be ICE cars being driven, just that they won’t be selling outside niche industries after 2040). The collapse of ICE vehicles will happen sooner rather than later due to a few fundamental reasons. - China has gone all in on EVs. It’s hard to compete against the Chinese and they’re u…

I agree with you, for the mass consumer car market (individual/family transport) as a whole. It's coming fast. However, the current EV technology (mostly batteries + charging) is not a good fit for a whole lot of edge cases, and in the aggregate they matter, too, and thus the ICE engine industry won't really go away anytime soon: * General-purpose Semis for commercial hauling. Yes, there's some EV Semis on the road t…

Look, sure. No one is saying "no ICE ever". Some people still ride horses.

125 years ago cities were built around horses. Stabling. Breeding. Feeding. Grooming. Street cleaning (turns our horses poop a Lot). By 20 years later that's all gone.

Sure horses survived in rural areas. Sure the Amish use them today as then. But the horse-based industry has (in real terms) vanished.

ICE is headed the same way. It will exist, but no daily-driver car will be ICE. EVs win, because in cities they are better. Because they're cheaper to own.

If Ford wants to own the ICE niches, fine. But it won't be cars.

Re: Mexican government unveils a prototype for a new homegrown, ultra-affordable EV

#106

Post by fpoling »

Symbiote wrote: post #68
conk wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’d argue that garbage trucks, snow plows and fire engines are candidates for EVs. They are large and heavy with plenty of space for batteries. Typically used in predefined routes, traveling less than 100 miles per day. I would gladly vote for a bond to fund electric trash trucks if that resulted in quieter weekly trash service.

More than half of the garbage trucks I see in Copenhagen are EVs. The first was introduced in 2022. https://www.volvotrucks.com/en-en/news-stories/stories/2025/... I haven't seen a fire truck EV, but those exist in other cities.

And they are so much nicer. Way less noise and pollution and much better maneuverability on narrow streets or on slippery roads in winter.

Re: Mexican government unveils a prototype for a new homegrown, ultra-affordable EV

#107

Post by yellowapple »

bruce511 wrote: post #15

The Ford CEO is not wrong. Allowing foreign imports into the country at prices far below what US producers are able to make will decimate the local car industry in the US. There are 4 possible solutions to this problem; a) convince Americans that it's worth paying more for a locally built product. This is the simplest approach, but there's only so much margin here that the consumer will tolerate. At the moment this g…

> The Ford CEO is not wrong. Allowing foreign imports into the country at prices far below what US producers are able to make will decimate the local car industry in the US.

The local car industry in the US is doing that to itself by dragging its feet on EVs in the US market even when the very same companies are selling EVs outside of the US. Ford, for example, has an EV Bronco that's inexplicably only available in China; that'd sell like gangbusters here in the US, but Ford won't sell it here because reasons.

In that sense, the Ford CEO is about as dead-wrong as it gets. His company needs to either actually sell competitive products or else move out of the way for other companies to do so. His demands to keep foreign competitors out of the very US market in which his company refuses to offer products are downright insultingly greedy.

Re: Mexican government unveils a prototype for a new homegrown, ultra-affordable EV

#108

Post by timbit42 »

marinhero wrote: post #7

Hoping this brings EV infrastructure up in the country. A road trip is still quite an ordeal due to the lack of fast chargers in highways and maybe that's why the range on the first version of Olena is low, as it's aimed to provide "ultra mobility" within cities and not outside of it but still, glad to see the MX government invest into renewable technology.

I hope we don't see these on any highways. They can only do 50 kph.

Re: Mexican government unveils a prototype for a new homegrown, ultra-affordable EV

#109

Post by thelastgallon »

bruce511 wrote: post #15

The Ford CEO is not wrong. Allowing foreign imports into the country at prices far below what US producers are able to make will decimate the local car industry in the US. There are 4 possible solutions to this problem; a) convince Americans that it's worth paying more for a locally built product. This is the simplest approach, but there's only so much margin here that the consumer will tolerate. At the moment this g…

Allowing foreign competition is a forcing function to be more productive and innovative. Japanese/German competition didn't annihilate US car industry, why would Chinese cars do it?

Cars are a way to signal status. Americans don't want to buy cheap cars, because cheap cars means low status. They'd rather go into significant debt and keep up with the Joneses. The people buying pickup trucks and SUVs are mostly picking up their kids from elementary school which is half a mile away.

Re: Mexican government unveils a prototype for a new homegrown, ultra-affordable EV

#110

Post by timbit42 »

avocadoking wrote: post #27

Hopefully they can also find a good balance between using cheap parts to actually being safe and comfy. The cheap EVs on the market normally lack in one of these. I have not yet found any interior shots online, did any of you?

There are a couple of partial interior shots on their home page: https://www.olinia.auto/
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