4 ms·

As Elon Musk Abandons the $25K Tesla, This EV Costs Just $4,400

15 points by dragonbonheur 2y ago

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
throwaway4good 2y ago
Cars and transportation more broadly is under heavy regulation and political control. Part of it for obviously good reason. The rest of it for not so good reason. There should be innovation in vehicle form and size now that electric batteries and motors have become cheap and abundant; cars such as the depicted would already be whizzing around town if we were free to buy them but of course we are not. Perhaps innovation will happen outside the west where the politics of this is less locked down by special interests and overall conservatism.
- yorwba 2y ago
  There's plenty of special interests invested in Zhidou. As the article mentions, Zhidou went bankrupt in 2019 and was only resurrected recently. What they don't mention is that Zhidou went bankrupt after its vehicles at the time no longer qualified for central government subsidies. This article https://k.sina.cn/article_6011862187_16655bcab0200129v2.html?from=auto&subch=oauto&ab=qiche&_rewriteTime=1715507014620 https://k.sina.cn/article_6011862187_16655bcab0200129v2.html... tags a bunch of Lanzhou city and Gansu province officials at a Zhidou promotional event. Most likely they agreed to subsidize the company with local government money in order to give them a leg up in the competition against other provinces. It's unclear to me how they expect to avoid bankruptcy this time around.
ZeroGravitas 2y ago
I'm not a golfer, but I'm always surprised by the scorn expressed for "golf carts" as local transport. My brief interactions with even decades old, lead acid powered golf buggies was that they were a lot of fun to drive. And I believe there are actually many communities were these are the go to solution. I've also heard that golf carts with solar panels strapped to the roof are the latest thing in prepper circles.
- joey_spaztard 2y ago
  Tom Scott: The city of golf carts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcVGqtmd2wM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcVGqtmd2wM
jokoon 2y ago
Vehicle regulations, norms and crash test etc are not the same in china, and obviously it makes EU/US cars more expensive. Although it's obvious that those norms are probably bad and are created by the automotive lobby.

15 points by dragonbonheur 2y ago

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

Cars and transportation more broadly is under heavy regulation and political control. Part of it for obviously good reason. The rest of it for not so good reason. There should be innovation in vehicle form and size now that electric batteries and motors have become cheap and abundant; cars such as the depicted would already be whizzing around town if we were free to buy them but of course we are not. Perhaps innovation will happen outside the west where the politics of this is less locked down by special interests and overall conservatism.

yorwba 2y ago
There's plenty of special interests invested in Zhidou. As the article mentions, Zhidou went bankrupt in 2019 and was only resurrected recently. What they don't mention is that Zhidou went bankrupt after its vehicles at the time no longer qualified for central government subsidies. This article https://k.sina.cn/article_6011862187_16655bcab0200129v2.html?from=auto&subch=oauto&ab=qiche&_rewriteTime=1715507014620 https://k.sina.cn/article_6011862187_16655bcab0200129v2.html... tags a bunch of Lanzhou city and Gansu province officials at a Zhidou promotional event. Most likely they agreed to subsidize the company with local government money in order to give them a leg up in the competition against other provinces. It's unclear to me how they expect to avoid bankruptcy this time around.

ZeroGravitas 2y ago

I'm not a golfer, but I'm always surprised by the scorn expressed for "golf carts" as local transport. My brief interactions with even decades old, lead acid powered golf buggies was that they were a lot of fun to drive. And I believe there are actually many communities were these are the go to solution. I've also heard that golf carts with solar panels strapped to the roof are the latest thing in prepper circles.

joey_spaztard 2y ago
Tom Scott: The city of golf carts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcVGqtmd2wM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcVGqtmd2wM

jokoon 2y ago

Vehicle regulations, norms and crash test etc are not the same in china, and obviously it makes EU/US cars more expensive. Although it's obvious that those norms are probably bad and are created by the automotive lobby.