Cheap e-cars: electric professional reveals the ugly truth
Anyone who is interested in an electric car is inevitably faced with the question: can the account even do it? Because even years after the breakthrough of the Stromer, customers have to dig much deeper into their pockets than with the combustion engine. Apparently, that’s not going to change anytime soon.
Cheap e-cars: According to Nissan, we’re still waiting a long time
“Fact is that Electromobility currently hardly under 20,000 euros The words of Guillaume Pelletreau are a clear rejection of the hopes of many consumers to find really cheap electric cars on the market in the foreseeable future. The manager is Vice President for Electrification at Nissan, responsible for the European market, among other things, and was previously head of Germany for many years.
As with other manufacturers, this is primarily due to the high cost of the battery, which only occur with battery-electric e-cars. Especially in the small and compact car segment, this cost factor is driving purchase prices to astronomical heights compared to combustion engines in the same class.
Pelletreau doesn’t think that’s going to change anytime soon -“as long as these costs don’t drop noticeably, we won’t get any cheaper models here,” according to the Nissan manager (source: Vision Mobility).
In a direct price comparison, there is no definitive winner between e-cars and combustion engines:
Until recently, it was the declared goal of several manufacturers in the industry to bring an e-car onto the market for less than 20,000 euros. Many have since said goodbye to that. The planned Volksstromer from VW, previously known as the ID.2all concept, has long since passed the 20,000 euro mark. The Wolfsburg are now advertising with 25,000 euros – and mind you only for the cheapest entry-level variant.
Nissan manager: Electric cars will probably never be as cheap as combustion engines
Nissan does not want to give up cheap Stromer. But the current development, for example with the Ariya, tends towards more expensive models. According to Pelletreau, it is also clear that there will probably never be electric vehicles that are actually as cheap as the cheapest combustion engines. He believes “that we are comfortable say goodbye to the magic 10,000 euro mark must”.
With the Leaf as formerly the most successful electric car in Germany, Nissan definitely has authority when it comes to electric cars. Today, however, the former figurehead can no longer keep up. With the Ariya, Nissan has an SUV on offer that has not yet made the big breakthrough.
