I got a much reduced price in return for much lower range simply by buying an older EV. What’s wrong with leaving the new car market to those willing to pay the higher price, and the second hand market to those who want a lower price? This has always worked for me. It transfers especially well to EVs since older EVs were typically sold with less range.
replyCar companies already alter fuel tank sizes to get a specific range, so it would stand to reason that they would do the same for batteries. It’s cheaper for them to use fewer materials.
replyHope so! I have seen a few vehicles with higher capacity trims, so the real question is whether they'd shave $5k off the price of a vehicle and give it a quite-limited range (150 mile). Some people would be totally fine with that, especially as a second/third car.
replyBut it would somewhat complicate manufacturing and make it a little more confusing for consumers to know what they're getting. Perhaps this corner of the market will continue to be served by sellers of years-old EVs, which can have lousy range but work well otherwise.
deleted
replyCar manufacturers already offer different sizes of battery packs, but that doesn't affect the price that much.
replyYeah I can't figure out why this is, exactly. If batteries are such a huge cost center, why can't I save a significant chunk of change by opting for a vehicle that has 100 or 200 miles less range?
replyI'm not quite up to date what LFP batteries cost nowadays, but I remember it's in the $70ish range - so for a respectable 80kWh, it'd only cost $5.6k out of the total. Considering you can get something like a new Corolla for $20k-ish, if the EV minus battery costs the same as a fully fledged ICE car, you could have a $25-27k car with a quite generous battery.
replyYou can? Going from the 84kwh ID3 to the 55 kwh saves you around 17%
replyThat's cool, are these available in the US?
reply"If it weren't for the batteries, EVs would be much cheaper than ICE vehicles."
replyAnd yet I've watched as $/kWh for battery component prices is 1/3rd of what it was 8 years ago (when I got my Chevy Volt) but EV prices have not appreciably gone down.
Yeah I think this is a combination of greater range and the ceasing of EV subsidization.
replyIt would be nice if there were some options that had much less range than is now possible, at a substantial discount.
There are many smaller “city” evs hitting the market that offer this. Renault 5 and Hyundia Inster etc.
replyCool, hopefully won't be limited to physically small cars. Many people with medium-sized cars only go 30 miles/day regularly, and rarely need more than 100 miles of range.
replyMost days I'm under 20, and 90% of the time I'm under 40.