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The main impediment for this approach is still the battery pack. Unless you can reduce the cost/kwh of batteries the corolla of the ev world won't happen. Batte
by deepGem 4y ago
The main impediment for this approach is still the battery pack. Unless you can reduce the cost/kwh of batteries the corolla of the ev world won't happen. Battery costs per Kwh are on a downward trend. Tesla is probably around 100-110$ per KWh translating to about 7-8K for it's flagship 70 KWh battery pack.
7-8K in about 30K of manufacturing costs.
https://electrek.co/2018/05/31/tesla-model-3-teardow-material-production-cost/ https://electrek.co/2018/05/31/tesla-model-3-teardow-materia...
https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2021/12/01/are-battery-cost-improvements-still-a-big-driver-of-teslas-margins/?sh=47a89eae4ae7 https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2021/12/01/ar...
So am not sure a low margin approach would fly right now, simply because of supply constraints for volume production. Probably at a 10M/year run rate, the economies of scale would tip in the low margin high volume favour.
How would you solve this conundrum. Can you just stick to a low margin approach from day 1 ? Focus relentlessly on cost reduction in all parts of the cars except the powertrain and the battery since those are the key reliability aspects.
OR
May be a conventional 5 seater car is an overkill for most usage and can you instead build a version with a 35KWh battery pack but a 2 seater like a Miata. No frills, fast and safe car at nearly half the cost but am not sure if you can maintain the same range.