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Because its not as easy as just saying "lets make low cost EV". That has to do with battery and supplychain. EV already need gigantic capital investment on it o

Because its not as easy as just saying "lets make low cost EV". That has to do with battery and supplychain. EV already need gigantic capital investment on it own. All these companies have massive debt, low margin, need to continue to make money on ICE.l, transition to EV. To also make a profital low cost EV is insanly hard. They are struggling to develop a profitable high cost EV. A lot of the supply chain is in China, so investing in that is pretty hard.

acdha 3y ago
It’s true that they need to invest more but that’s a self-inflicted problem: they have enormous resources and lavish government support available but they really want the high-margin light-truck era to continue and have been treating EVs as a fad they’ll support only if ICE buyers are willing to overpay as much as ICE SUV buyers have. We’re reading about Ford cancelling battery plants, not being unable to find funding. When Chevy cancelled the Bolt, it was their best selling EV - but not nearly as profitable as the luxury models they wanted people to buy.
- panick21_ 3y ago
  Every Bolt they sold was losing them money. Like literally making significant negative money. Its simply impossible for them to scale up the Bolt as is. Their plan was to rebase the Bolt onto the Ultium platform, but with all the issues they had on that platform, they weren't able to do it. If it was on Ultium then maybe they could not lose money on it.
  - acdha 3y ago
    That’s a separate issue: the point was that there’s demand at normal price points, less so in the higher-end ranges they targeted. Most of the commonly cited reasons for the low 1-2% margins were things like battery plants where startup costs are high but will not be a problem when they resolve yield issues.
    - panick21_ 3y ago
      The problem is at 'normal price points' you can't make the profit. The battery alone is so expensive, even at good yield, that it a huge part of the cars cost.

acdha 3y ago

It’s true that they need to invest more but that’s a self-inflicted problem: they have enormous resources and lavish government support available but they really want the high-margin light-truck era to continue and have been treating EVs as a fad they’ll support only if ICE buyers are willing to overpay as much as ICE SUV buyers have. We’re reading about Ford cancelling battery plants, not being unable to find funding. When Chevy cancelled the Bolt, it was their best selling EV - but not nearly as profitable as the luxury models they wanted people to buy.

panick21_ 3y ago
Every Bolt they sold was losing them money. Like literally making significant negative money. Its simply impossible for them to scale up the Bolt as is. Their plan was to rebase the Bolt onto the Ultium platform, but with all the issues they had on that platform, they weren't able to do it. If it was on Ultium then maybe they could not lose money on it.
- acdha 3y ago
  That’s a separate issue: the point was that there’s demand at normal price points, less so in the higher-end ranges they targeted. Most of the commonly cited reasons for the low 1-2% margins were things like battery plants where startup costs are high but will not be a problem when they resolve yield issues.
  - panick21_ 3y ago
    The problem is at 'normal price points' you can't make the profit. The battery alone is so expensive, even at good yield, that it a huge part of the cars cost.