US should block cheap Chinese auto imports from Mexico, US makers say
reuters.com
The U.S. government should block the import of low-cost Chinese autos and parts from Mexico, a U.S. manufacturing advocacy group said on Friday, warning they could threaten the viability of American car companies.
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Just give me a little corolla with crank windows and a EV motor. I don't need some sort of futuristic spacecraft. Give it the exact same model as the cheapest gas vehicle, just give me electric, that's all I want and it seems like they are too stupid to figure it out.
They're not, its just that decent electric drive trains are kinda expensive. Old 4 cylinder engines with simple transmissions are actually pretty cheap to manufacture in comparison. There are some that work fine (Mini Cooper Se for example), but they usually have a fairly short range of under 100 miles.
Yeah, the closest example might be the Chevy Bolt (which seems to get very positive reviews).
They were not getting high enough margins on the Bolt so they planned to kill it off in favor of the Silverado and GMC Sierra EVs. They got a lot of shit for it since that is by far their best selling EV so they backpedaled and said they were only taking a year off and it will be back on the Optium platform. Unfortunately that likely means they will be using GM's garbage infotainment system that has led to tons of their EVs being recalled.
Just don't get one from 2017-2019. They've been recalled at least twice for going up in flames. As of now you're just not supposed to charge them overnight or park them inside of a structure.
https://jalopnik.com/nhtsa-issues-chevy-bolt-spontaneous-combustion-warning-1847295205
I sometimes wonder what happened to that car.
BYD is selling a low end EV in China for $12k. They have nice cars in the $30k range. They have built out a supply chain that makes this possible (cheaper labor, too).
Kona, ID4, I think the BMW is the i3, mini se, I can’t remember the name of the Fiat, Bolt.
They are there, Tesla just made everyone think they needed 300+ miles of range. If you can get by with 50-75 miles of around range, and most people can, you can grab one of these used for a good price. The problem is they didn’t sell well, so they had very short runs.
Which could also lead to parts supply issues.