3 ms·

This is more related to the discussions in the comments.. (eu perspective), The other day I was watching a drag race on carwow with 4 German super-estates. None

This is more related to the discussions in the comments.. (eu perspective), The other day I was watching a drag race on carwow with 4 German super-estates. None of this "sport-ier versions" had bellow 2 tons*. Lot's of people in Germany drive more "sensible" versions of this cars with weights of "just" 1.8 tons. How much will the fact that people are today fatter affect the decision to buy this car? - BMW M5 has gone up in weight 200 kg or so - I heard people use "Tesla weight" downside when compared to a normal "saloon" -I would buy this car gladly here in DK. Wouldn't make the decision in lot's of other EU countries where driving awareness isn't as high

headmelted 6y ago
I too would happily buy this car if I didn't own an EV already, but it's too cheap. That's not me turning my nose up at it by the way, it's that invariably everything is cut to the bone in a new car that cheap, and that goes well beyond the luxuries you might expect. China and India have known lenient safety standards that large international companies have in the past talked about leveraging to get the price down for their domestic markets. I very much doubt this car would withstand even a modest collision, and I'd not want my kids in it. In terms of the markets where these cars sell it's something of a necessary evil to take the risk in something that will crumple on impact in exchange for family transportation (which we did happily in the west 20-30 years ago).
- Kosirich 6y ago
  I agree with you completely. That being said, there is a lot of room between 6000 dollars and 20000-ish for Smart Fortwo* (EU numbers) which I guess could be an equivalent.
  - headmelted 6y ago
    True. I will say though that my Leaf was the local equivalent of about $8k US and is actually worth more now than when I bought it so would thoroughly recommend the used route with EVs for anyone considering it. (Also 5* Euro NCAP for the kiddies)
    - Kosirich 6y ago
      Wow, 8k is nothing! Well, a used Leaf with around 50-60000 kilometers, 2015., is 15 000 dollars+ in Denmark. Interesting thing is, if you didn't know, Denmark has 70%-180% taxes on cars. Reality is that the base car prices are lower(ed) so the end price is not as high as people expect. Electric cars were exempt from taxes until Tesla came and messed things up (people bought model S instead of nice beemers, audies as they got more car for buck...Danish government didn't like that). Now the tax is 20% with planned increase, as Danish welfare system, unlike Norway's (similar taxation policy), can't afford losing future tax revenue (quoting Danish government). So logic dictates, rate of electric car price decrease has to be same or higher (abs) as tax increase in order to make average Jørgen decide to go electric.

headmelted 6y ago

I too would happily buy this car if I didn't own an EV already, but it's too cheap. That's not me turning my nose up at it by the way, it's that invariably everything is cut to the bone in a new car that cheap, and that goes well beyond the luxuries you might expect. China and India have known lenient safety standards that large international companies have in the past talked about leveraging to get the price down for their domestic markets. I very much doubt this car would withstand even a modest collision, and I'd not want my kids in it. In terms of the markets where these cars sell it's something of a necessary evil to take the risk in something that will crumple on impact in exchange for family transportation (which we did happily in the west 20-30 years ago).

Kosirich 6y ago
I agree with you completely. That being said, there is a lot of room between 6000 dollars and 20000-ish for Smart Fortwo* (EU numbers) which I guess could be an equivalent.
- headmelted 6y ago
  True. I will say though that my Leaf was the local equivalent of about $8k US and is actually worth more now than when I bought it so would thoroughly recommend the used route with EVs for anyone considering it. (Also 5* Euro NCAP for the kiddies)
  - Kosirich 6y ago
    Wow, 8k is nothing! Well, a used Leaf with around 50-60000 kilometers, 2015., is 15 000 dollars+ in Denmark. Interesting thing is, if you didn't know, Denmark has 70%-180% taxes on cars. Reality is that the base car prices are lower(ed) so the end price is not as high as people expect. Electric cars were exempt from taxes until Tesla came and messed things up (people bought model S instead of nice beemers, audies as they got more car for buck...Danish government didn't like that). Now the tax is 20% with planned increase, as Danish welfare system, unlike Norway's (similar taxation policy), can't afford losing future tax revenue (quoting Danish government). So logic dictates, rate of electric car price decrease has to be same or higher (abs) as tax increase in order to make average Jørgen decide to go electric.