Many EV buyers would buy a Chinese car if it was cheap enough, according to a recent survey.
    • cosmic_cowboy@reddthat.comEnglish
      52·
      7 months ago

      The massive size of vehicles in the U.S. is ridiculous. I think a lot of people would buy smaller, cheaper cars if they were on the market.

      • antler@feddit.rocks
        152·
        7 months ago

        The EPA makes really tight emissions targets for vehicles under a certain size or the auto makers have to pay a fee iirc. Pretty sure they the medium sized stuff out of existance, an unfortunately I’m guessing the same fees would apply to imports too.

      • toastal@lemmy.ml
        8·
        7 months ago

        I think folks bought into SUVs since they were bigger & selfishly less likely to take more damage in a crash. As such, with SUV tanks everywhere, being a pedestrian or in a small car on the road on in an SUV’s trajectory can often lead to lethal injury.

    • lemmus@lemmy.world
      25·
      7 months ago

      Absolutely. So many sensible sized European cars aren’t sold in the US because bullshit market research says small car bad big truck good.

      • Moonrise2473@feddit.it
        7·
        7 months ago

        But the European market is also pushing bigger cars and SUV.

        The smart is now a 4 meters SUV

        The Volkswagen up (small 4 person car) is out of production and they’re selling nothing under 4 meters

        The fiat panda (another small 4 person car) is in the process of being redesigned and the mockups look like a huge range rover SUV

        Skoda, after retiring the citigo, has the Fabia that’s relatively small (almost 4 meters) and the rest are huge

        Most automakers are giving up on the cheap and small compact car segment, leaving a big gap for Chinese automakers

      • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        7 months ago

        Nope, it’s the government’s mileage standards. If you make a truck with a shorter wheelbase and track, it has to hit higher gas mileage standards. Easier to make a big truck that’s allowed worse mileage.

        https://youtu.be/azI3nqrHEXM

        Also, I did a brief stint selling cars in the 90s. One of the salesmen explained it like this, "What’s the real difference in a big truck and a small truck? Same engineering effort, same production work, all that. Hell, same parts for most systems.

        More steel on the big one, and steel is cheap. We can charge a premium for the larger truck."