It’s amazing again how limited the US is with choices. In the rest of the world including soon Canada, there is a much greater choice of EV’s. Take Australia for example: besides Tesla there is BYD, Seekr, Geely, MG, KIA, Polestar, Cherry, Hyundai, Skoda and WV.
But because of the unsubstantiated hatred of anything Chinese, the US has only a couple of choices. Funnily enough, the CEO of Ford drives a Xiaomi SU7 and does not want to hand it in. Look up his interview after he visited China.
The same applies to mobile phones. There are amazing phone brands in the rest of the world but again the US is limited. Land of the free but as long at it is beneficial to the US corporations. Competition is frowned upon.
But because of the unsubstantiated hatred of anything Chinese
That might apply for the Chinese manufacturers you’ve listed, but the others are available in the US, even the ones with significant Chinese ownership (Volvo/Polestar mostly owned by Geely, Mercedes Benz owned significantly by Chinese investors). Many of these companies simply choose not to go through the trouble of importing or manufacturing some of their EVs for the US market, despite continuing to manufacture/import other EVs for the US market. See, for example the Kia EV6 GT (no longer offered in the US, despite other trim levels continuing to be sold), the VW ID.7 (canceled plans to bring into US and Canada), Polestar 2 (no longer available in the US), Ford F-150 Lighting (the recently discontinued electric version of literally the top selling vehicle in the United States), etc.
A big part of the problem with the US isn’t that there aren’t choices, it’s that many of the choices are bad. Lots of EVs are expensive, and competing for the expensive luxury market. Even then, some of those brands are struggling. I don’t know what the future holds for Rivian or Lucid in the U.S., but those companies aren’t exactly making money.
Without sales volume, they won’t hit the economies of scale necessary to actually profitably sell those cars. Lucid is absurdly expensive while the company loses money on each sale. Rivian has similar problems, although they might actually turn the corner to profitability soon. Polestar is probably in the same boat for the US market, but is propped up by its owners and partners for now.
So no, I don’t think that US EV new car buyers are suffering from a quantity of options. It’s just kinda a quality problem, where the consumer has a lot of mediocre choices, and only a few good choices.
Geely is a brand on its own too and produce their own vehicles.
Geely also is a major share holder and partner of Mercedes Benz, like the Smart in China and are looking at strengthing their relationship in regards to EV.
It’s amazing again how limited the US is with choices. In the rest of the world including soon Canada, there is a much greater choice of EV’s. Take Australia for example: besides Tesla there is BYD, Seekr, Geely, MG, KIA, Polestar, Cherry, Hyundai, Skoda and WV. But because of the unsubstantiated hatred of anything Chinese, the US has only a couple of choices. Funnily enough, the CEO of Ford drives a Xiaomi SU7 and does not want to hand it in. Look up his interview after he visited China. The same applies to mobile phones. There are amazing phone brands in the rest of the world but again the US is limited. Land of the free but as long at it is beneficial to the US corporations. Competition is frowned upon.
Or non-automobile EVs such as e-bikes, electric subways or streetcars, for that matter.
That might apply for the Chinese manufacturers you’ve listed, but the others are available in the US, even the ones with significant Chinese ownership (Volvo/Polestar mostly owned by Geely, Mercedes Benz owned significantly by Chinese investors). Many of these companies simply choose not to go through the trouble of importing or manufacturing some of their EVs for the US market, despite continuing to manufacture/import other EVs for the US market. See, for example the Kia EV6 GT (no longer offered in the US, despite other trim levels continuing to be sold), the VW ID.7 (canceled plans to bring into US and Canada), Polestar 2 (no longer available in the US), Ford F-150 Lighting (the recently discontinued electric version of literally the top selling vehicle in the United States), etc.
A big part of the problem with the US isn’t that there aren’t choices, it’s that many of the choices are bad. Lots of EVs are expensive, and competing for the expensive luxury market. Even then, some of those brands are struggling. I don’t know what the future holds for Rivian or Lucid in the U.S., but those companies aren’t exactly making money.
Without sales volume, they won’t hit the economies of scale necessary to actually profitably sell those cars. Lucid is absurdly expensive while the company loses money on each sale. Rivian has similar problems, although they might actually turn the corner to profitability soon. Polestar is probably in the same boat for the US market, but is propped up by its owners and partners for now.
So no, I don’t think that US EV new car buyers are suffering from a quantity of options. It’s just kinda a quality problem, where the consumer has a lot of mediocre choices, and only a few good choices.
Geely owns Volvo and Polestar
Geely is a brand on its own too and produce their own vehicles. Geely also is a major share holder and partner of Mercedes Benz, like the Smart in China and are looking at strengthing their relationship in regards to EV.