This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
The R2 will start at $45,000 and will begin rolling off the production line in Normal, Illinois early in 2026.
These new EV companies have no plan to release affordable EVs anytime soon, huh? The sort of EV's equivalent of honda fit / ford fiesta with minimal features at affordable price?
I mean theres a couple of layers to it. One, they don't have the production capabilities to mass produce yet. They were able to produce ~25,000 in 2022 and then ~58,000 in 2023.
Two, the margins tend to be low on cheaper models which means you need to sell more. For a brand new company that needs to set up its own production line in addition to design, engineering, etc. it's a lot of money to burn through.
It also gives them time to fix issues and figure things out so they aren't recalling a million vehicles, but a much smaller set instead. These companies aren't going to get everything right the first time so going to the mass market off the rip would be suicidal.
If they make it through the next couple years or so, we may begin to see a much more affordable price point from these new EV companies
Yep these things are still in their infancy. You can't really compare them to vehicles with traditional powertrains that have been built and sold for the last 100+ years.
The r3 might be cheaper. Rivian isn’t big enough to sell cheap vehicles.
You can get a hybrid Corolla for under $25k if you want cheap.
Isn’t the Leaf under $30k?
It's still too expensive without government incentives, and the Leaf is going to be discontinued next year, right? Also replaced with a $40k crossover. Instead of producing cheaper EVs, they produce even more expensive EVs to replace the previous models.
I thought R2 is pretty much the size of a Honda CRV, much bigger than a Fit. The Fit has very little 2nd row room and a pathetic amount of space behind the seats, about as wide as a single carryon suitcase.
The R3 looked like the size of a Civic (but taller) and I do hope that one can get down into the 20k range, but I'll be surprised. Model 3 is still nearly 40k at minimum.
Maybe it's the proportions, but that thing does not look compact to me.
Looks like yet another SUV to me.
Normal SUVs are so huge one that's the size of a house is considered "compact."
The usability on that website is a disaster. Makes me leave the page immediately.
I remember being excited about the "hot hatch styling" of the Hyundai Ioniq 5 until I found out it's actually the size of an SUV.
Also, it will probably be twice as heavy as my GTI. That will be super great for handling, I'm sure.
Then again, normal people don't buy those things and the fact that I don't like this will ensure it's a hit
Compact/xover SUVs don't weigh much more than an equivalent sedan. They're basically slightly larger hatchbacks with a bit of height in the cabin.
Weight isn’t as much of a problem with so much of it set so low compared to most ICEs. We’ve seen this in a lot of EVs by now.
A low CoG helps, for sure. But if the car is twice as heavy everything that holds the car off the road needs to be twice as strong to handle it. And then there's still inertia to deal with, especially when turning or braking.
And then to get the same amount of performance out of it they need to make it incredibly overpowered, and then sell it to people who have no business driving something that can go 0-60 in four seconds.
I checked to see if there were any EV sports cars because having handling like that would be amazing, but the ones that aren't hypercars are all just special trims on base model cars.
Electric cars, especially these "luxury" vehicles, are for saving auto corporations and maintaining car dependency, not for saving the planet and maintaining a decent life.
You’re not being realistic if you think cars could go away.
You're not being realistic if you think we can't beat car dependency, or we have to completely eliminate cars from society. We need to eliminate the system that ensures that cars are the only option, something everyone is forced to own because they make everything else far less safe and convenient. That is a choice that is repeatedly and consistently made in favor of car dominance over humans, and it shouldn't be.
So, uh...what's your solution for removing 95% of the land area of the United States so we can all travel by foot?
You guys know trains and planes exist. And you're not so daft you fully invented the part where I said tear apart all roads and destroy all cars.
