China's ultra cheap EVs are subcompacts that are extremely well suited to small batteries to keep them cheap. Small batteries can work for EVs if there is good charging infrastructure. Europe, being densely populated, is suited to having good charging infrastructure on heavily used highways, and "drive through small towns" which have cafes and restaurants suited to recharging at EU life pace.
EU/French car history is ultra well suited to small cars, where cities have narrow streets, and affordability has always been popular.
EVs with small batteries, even in EU/US, can be built cheaper than ICE vehicles by domestic brands. Battery costs are falling everywhere, but licensing/importing Chinese tech to bringing battery costs down, is path to domestic EV industry success/growth. EU is especially vulnerable to geopolitical oil extortion, from both friends and foes.
Electric vehicles are peddled as some sort of cure to climate change when they are only a bit better than gasoline cars since they still need the massive amount of infrastructure needed for cars. I stilk think that people buying an electric car when their gasoline car breaks is reasonable enough if other transport options are unavailible. But our focus should be on making those other options of transport both availible and reasonable rather than focusing on a specific drive train technology.
Don't worry; Indonesia has a lot of nickel that has plunged the nickel prices around the world, which will certainly decrease the cost of making batteries since the mines are owned by... China. Ahh fuck.
the cheapest battery chemistry, used in most affordable EVs, uses no nickel or cobalt. "Race"/premium EVs still want to use that type of battery, though
We'll take our expensive luxury EVs with 2 miles a charge and like them...er I mean buy giant pickup trucks instead that use 20 gallons of gas / mile while the world burns.
Not true, you get what you pay for. Western companies make purchases from manufacturers and once it sells well they nickel and dime their suppliers. So when they say it must be cheaper, the manufacturer sais yes.. and they replace a metal holder with a plastic once painted chrome.. to lower the price as requested. This is how it works.
You know, lots of things have changed since then. Also, please check how many items in your household are made in China. You will be surprised how good their quality is, compared to the things you can buy for no money on AliExpress or Temu.
Nobody should be excited for a race to the bottom, but cars generally have been overpriced and this seems like a pretty normal trend of price correction trying to take shape in this wonky market.