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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

#111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have a charger at home, or at work, why does it matter if you have to charge it daily or weekly? Yes, for some lifestyles, range matters. For others, a 125 km range is perfectly acceptable

For a significant segment of the US population, that thing wouldn't get them to work and back, so they'd have to charge it both at home and at work. And in many cases, forget running any errands, picking up kids from daycare, etc. And minimum speed on US interstates is typically 40mph, so that reduces its usability even more.

I think you wildly overestimate how many Americans are white-collar workers commuting 100 miles to a 6-figure job. A remotely aiming at that market to begin with.

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

#115

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 US didn't go from #1 in global auto manufacturing to nearing extinction on accident. The companies shifted production abroad because they didn't want to pay for US labor. We can't just pray for "development" to spark a chain reaction that gets us back on track - we were the most developed and consciously chose to squander that advantage. Onshoring can be done, but it will have a real cost someone will have to bea…

> The companies shifted production abroad because they didn't want to pay for US labor

Realistically it’s the consumers who didn’t want to pay for it

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

#116

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 C…

I’m interested in understanding more about what gives you the impression “that [an EV Bronco would] sell like gangbusters here in the US”.

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

#118

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…

There may be another option.

Consider Japan's Kei car initiative, for example.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kei_car#Description

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kei_car#Taxation_and_insurance

One route is to provide incentives, if not regulations, to force innovation on US automakers. The goal would be to yield products that are head-to-head competitive with imports.

> It seems to me though that the current strategy seems to be very short term thinking - trying to just hold back the tide.

I'm seeing that too, but from a different angle. The era of big trucks seems to be as much an effort to extract cash from the economy as it is taking advantage of a peculiar set of EPA and DOT regulations. Basically, "gettin' in while the gettin's good." It's not a long-term strategy because, at some point, people can't afford these behemoths and will go for the used car market next for cheaper goods. EVs may get caught up in that too, considering that they're aimed squarely at the sub-luxury tier and above. As we have no good cheap EV options at the moment, I think it's the same story.

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

#119
post #94

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…

ICE cars/vehicles aren't going to disappear overnight. There are enough used ICE vehicles for ALL of the edge cases and a ton more for the next 20 years. There is no need to buy new ICE vehicles.

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

#120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 C…

I’m interested in understanding more about what gives you the impression “that [an EV Bronco would] sell like gangbusters here in the US”.

I see non-EV Broncos everywhere here in Reno, and I also see EVs everywhere here in Reno. I would therefore expect to see EV Broncos everywhere here in Reno if they existed in the US market.

I also in particular see Cybertrucks and Rivian R1Ts everywhere here in Reno, so the very specific demand for electric pickup trucks clearly exists.

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