http://www.greencar.com/index.cfm?content=topstory3

$660,000 - amazing price !!!

 

That's always been my gripe about electric cars -- not the range, but the fact that I can't afford one and will probably NEVER be able to afford one. why the heck can't someone invent an EV in the $17-$22k range? You'd think it'd be cheaper than designing a car with an ICE because it'd have a lot fewer moving parts. Everything I've seen in EV is $85k and up (usually WAY UP).

My domestic partner would LOVE to drive an EV, since he only drives 15 miles to/from work, and I do most of the other driving (via my HCH).

 

My guess is the cost is not on the mechanical engineering, but the battery chemistry.

 

I don't know how much they are gonna cost but Mitsubishi is working on electric cars....

https://www.greenhybrid.com/discuss/...2010.2649.html

 

My guess is mainly just the cost amortization. Toyota admits to having spent some $800 million to develop the Prius, although even that figure they sometimes say doesn't count because they use HSD in lots of other cars now. If they sell 200,000 HSD cars in 2 years, then that $800 million is only $4000/unit.

Now really, most folks just plain don't want an electric car. The Insight is a great example of a vehicle that's cool, but sells only something like 500 units a year now. If the total market for a pure EV is only sustainable at maybe 1000 units a year, then even if they spent a quarter as much on development, $200 million over say, 5000 units (5 years worth, which is an average product life-cycle) works out to $40,000 of R&D costs per unit.

There are very few low-volume cars sold these days because the expectations are so high, and the governmental certifications are very expensive. It costs a LOT of money to do the R&D and certification on a vehicle. As such, hardly anyone brings out a non-Halo car (S2000 and Insight are halo cars, never really intended to make a profit) if they don't think they can move at least 20,000 a year, and preferably a lot more than that depending on the level of platform sharing. Nissan's Z is a good example of a car that sells 20,000 a year, but it shares it's platform extremely heavily with the G35 coupe and sedan, thus spreading out the cost more. A pure EV would not be able to spread it's cost over a large number of vehicles because they just won't sell in high volume here.

 

I suspect that for folks who shop in this price and style range, the car will be a total flop. Those folks who can spend $600K on a car don't give a hoot about much else except sexy styling and brute force. 0-60 in around 5 seconds makes it a dog for its price range. At 1/10 the price, the 2006 Corvette will do 0-60 in just over 4 seconds and 0-100 in 9. The top speed had better be way over 100 mph as well. Let's see if Road & Track actually does a head to head road test.

 

Electric cars can be affordable (especially when you compare what people will drop on a new huge SUV), the problem is you have to build it yourself. An entry level conversion with highway capabilities can be done for around $5,000 on top of a base vehicle, which with some looking you can probably find one with a blown engine for dirt cheap.

I converted a 92 Saturn and granted with lead acid batteries it's only got maybe a 40 mile range, but for tooling around town it's great and I get to keep the miles off of my Civic. I've had it running since September and I have quite literally not started the other car for a week at a time. If things work out and I can arrange charging I will be driving it to school (26 mile commute each way) here this next semester!

 

Yeah but the ICE has been around forever. All the infrastructure, intellectual capital, and design concepts are very mature making it very efficient to develop and manufacture.