If China Can Do It, Why Can't We?

   So you viewed the YouTube video "Most Affordable Small Electric Cars You Can Buy" and scrambled to find where you could buy one. 

   You can't -- not if you live in the the U.S. of A. While much of the world has discovered how to make an inexpensive vehicle, it seems to have escaped and eluded us Americans.

   Skip down the list on that video until your eyes pop out as you see a price you can afford: 10) Honda e, $30,000; 9)Nobe GT 100, $29,000; 8) Volkswagen E-Up, $27,000; 7) Smart EQ Fortwo, $23,900; 6) ElectraMeccanica Solo, $18,000; 5) Toyota C-Plus, $16,000; 4) Microlino; $12,000; 3) Renault Twizy, $9,700; 2) Citroen Ami, $6,000; 1) Wuling HongGuang Mini EV, $4,500.

   While some of the brands on the list are found in the U.S., their inexpensive EV models are not. Yes, it's a list that is two years old (2021), and brands that have been absent the U.S. market are now coming to these shores -- perhaps due to California's mandate that every brand sold in that state must offer a growing proportion of EVs.

   

   But, you have to wonder why low-priced EVs are so much more abundant elsewhere in the world than they are here. Don't buy the argument that a cheap EV cannot be produced. Next time someone tells you that, tell them about the Wuling Mini, and how it sells for but $4,500 in China. Are the China folks just smarter than us? And, tell that back in the '70s, an inexpensive EV was, was, and was produced in America. The CitiCar from Sebring-Vanguard, a Florida company, sold for $2,700. Mind boggling. That's about ten times less than any full-electric now on the market. There are those of us who would buy those cars if only they were widely available.

   Yes, you have to wonder if the government should mandate that if any brand wants to market in the U.S., it has to offer an EV for less than $10,000. You have to bend Big Auto's arm, so bend it for the inexpensive EV. Open up that part of the market -- we're ready for it.

(Index -- Climate change info)