Electrical and Computer Engineering

I don’t know if they come to a conclusion after the paywall but they didn’t seem to be

1. All car prices in the US have gotten much higher, not just EV. Car manufacturers prefer selling fewer vehicles of fewer models with higher profit each. It really looks like a death spiral and I don’t know how American automakers survive.
2. They still don’t take EVs seriously. I know they claim to have sunk untold billions into developing new car technologies, but where is it? Why do they continue to spend so much more developing legacy technology without a future? Why did they backtrack the first chance they get?
3. They all want to follow Teslas strategy of selling a few high end models first, but the market has changed because everyone is doing that. There’s way too many excessively expensive EVs, but where are the EVs for the rest of us? As long as they are protected from international competition for affordable cars, they have no incentive to build them.

I really wonder if this is the end for American car companies. They’re thrashing, convulsing, flopping …. And that’s in a nice protected sandbox. The moment competition is allowed, we’ll see just how badly behind they are and I don’t see them surviving.

Greed

Why turn away more profit?

Because customers are stupid and willing to pay for it rather than vote with their wallet.

I bought an EV on the last day of the year and specifically got it used to save and not pay the outrageous prices, especially since they degrade in value super quick and by high percentages when bought new. Meanwhile I’m only underwater by $1.5k. Yeah, it had 50k miles, but the battery was still above 80% in health based on my test.

People in my area are driving all sorts of SUVs that are going between $80-$120k and I just don’t see how or why. I remember when these were $50k only a few decades ago and were considered pricey. And what’s worse than the high price is the more frequent issues of these cars and people still are paying higher prices and then bitching about it on TikTok and the like but even with all the exposure, people are still buying them.

Slate, a car startup backed by Jeff Bezos, is claiming they will release a small truck for $27,000. They will probably jack up this price at some point but now they claim it will be less than half the average cost stated in the article.

SLATE Auto