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Honda says making cheap electric vehicles is too hard, ends deal with GM (arstechnica.com)
submitted 2 years ago by [M, B] to c/technology@lemmy.world
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Honda says making cheap electric vehicles is too hard, ends deal with GM::The platform was to use GM's Ultium batteries.

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[–] 67 points 2 years ago (7 children)

They’re saying they don’t care about the cheaper segments and are just going to sell expensive vehicles. I don’t know what those of us who can’t afford 60k vehicles are expected to do for transit though… I suspect this is a ploy to get the American government to subsidize an affordable car range.

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  • [–] 23 points 2 years ago (6 children)

    We can buy Chinese cars. They are starting to kill it on EV’s, with an already expansive supply chain. It is only a matter of time before they start showing up in the US.

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  • [–] 29 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    If they get approved by the DOT, which is unlikely both due to government sentiment towards Chinese businesses and the fact of they probably don’t actually meet our safety guidelines

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  • [–] 26 points 2 years ago* (2 children)

    Some of BYD's models just got 5 star saftey ratings in the EU.

    Those super cheap, tiny, death trap looking cars, are mostly just that, but these newer EV companies are making better vehicles. They'll be in the US soon enough. Safety won't be an issue.

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeltaylor/2022/10/13/byd-ev-enters-europe-with-a-5-star-euro-ncap-safety-score

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  • [–] 14 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I see you don’t understand how lobbying works in this country.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

    There are already cars being built in China being brought into the USA.

    All that's going to happen is these newer companies will need to meet our standards (BYD has proven they can now), deal with some politics bullshit, and end up having to deal with some hefty tariffs that will put them at a disadvantage.

    They won't be completely stopped.

    Edit: BYD already has busses running in the USA even.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    Cars built in China is not the same thing as cars designed and manufactured entirely in China. And “some politics bullshit” is a hell of a way to describe overcoming the auto and union lobbies in the US.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    They just need to get them to stop bursting into flames and they'll be fine.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOA7qKMcjcE

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago

    Chinese cars like Great Wall have been a thing in New Zealand for a long time but they’re quite terrible. Chinese built Teslas seem to be reasonably built, but I would steer clear of any cars built by a Chinese brand until there are long term reliability studies.

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  • [–] 9 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

    Buy a used car. At some point people started thinking new cars was something for people without money.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

    But if the base price is 60k and a replacement battery costs something like 30 even used cars are going to be too expensive. You're thinking like they're ICE cars where you might be able to buy an old shitbox for 5k and maybe rebuild the engine for the same amount.

    I hardly see that happening with these smartphone cars. Lithium battery s would need to get really cheap and a lot of consumer protection laws would have to be passed to keep manufacturers from charging whatever they want for replacing them like they do now.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Don't buy a 60k vehicle. Batteries are more like 15k installed. Those reports of 30k batteries are edge cases.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    Also EV batteries have a life expectancy of 200k miles. Most people consider 100k to be a cars retirement age, so I think the battery problem isn't as big of an issue as we think. Your car is statistically likely to be worn down or wrecked by that amount of mileage.

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  • [–] 9 points 2 years ago

    I think as the infrastructure expands, those cheap cars will come. The batteries drive the cost and everyone is putting huge batteries in luxury cars to get 300+ miles of range. But imagine a decade or so from now when charging stations are as ubiquitous as gas stations. Range anxiety won’t be about breaking down on the side of the road. It’ll be about how often you have to stop and wait 10 minutes to charge. At that point, car companies will be able to make affordable new cars just by halving the battery size.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Force your City or government to improve public transit options.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago

    My local government keeps refusing to expand public transit options because they say it will increase crime. They’re so fucking racist they don’t want busses and trains to make it easier for people to get around because then the “wrong” people might come to the burbs

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  • [–] -1 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    Have you seen the size of most US states?

    All of England could fit in Alabama (they're practically the same size). And it's in the lower half of state sizes.

    Great Britain would fit in, I don't know, Missouri?

    It takes sixteen western OECD countries to equal the land mass of the US.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    You're not referring to a specific problem here, and general size isn't an issue.

    The comment you replied to is a bit shortsighted, public transit in more rural areas or small towns wouldn't work that well.

    There's absolutely room for great public transit anywhere else though, cities and more sizable towns can easily have great public transport and there's even options for American suburbs. Trains connecting cities together in a lot of areas would also be relatively cheap for most places, and a lot of bigger cities used to have public transport that was eventually torn down to make room for cars.

    I think a lot of you forget that things don't have to be perfect, especially first try and that things can easily be changed.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    Do you comute going from NY to LA? No right, so what's the point?

    Doesn't matter if you live in USA or Switzerland, a city is a city, of course suburban sprawl doesn't help, but this has nothing to do with the size of the country

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    Ok. While I am convinced that train is even better than planes I was talking about public transit in cities. And yes I know that conny from the rual area won't be able to drive 100 miles by bus. But that is not your problem in the us. Your problem is, that you must use a car for 2 miles within the City because you can't safely walk there.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    ...you buy ICE until affordable EV is a thing? Is that so bad?

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  • [–] 0 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    The brands are saying they aren’t/won’t be making affordable EVs because the luxury market is too lucrative. And ICE is done in just a few years, by the time my current hybrid dies ICE won’t be sold

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  • [–] 0 points 2 years ago*

    ICE is done in just a few years, by the time my current hybrid dies ICE won’t be sold

    You're delusional if you actually believe this.

    And I absolutely guarantee you by the time ICE is not sold anymore, there will be affordable EVs on the market.

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