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Comment by xbmcuser | Hacker News Reader

It looks too small for the US market but I think can dominate in most other markets. When you take into account how price of solar and batteries is still falling every year it will be interesting to see how the world changes when ice cars are incompettive in all categories.

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The U.S. market isn’t a monolith: if you sold these to the 80% of people living in urban areas, that’s a large market - some people are going to insist on driving Canyoneros but there are a lot of smarter people who appreciate easier parking along with much lower costs.

What I’d worry more about are safety standards: some of the U.S. requirements add a lot of weight and cost because there aren’t easy ways to address impacts at highway speeds with 2-3 ton vehicles.

I loved my Spark EV with its measly 135km range, which was perfect for SF city driving and going around the Bay Area. BYD Seagull has 305km range (30kWh instead of 16kWh) and the dimensions are with cm of the Spark EV. I'd insta-buy this with cash if it was available in North America even if pricing was a bit higher due to safety certifications and importing.

Bolt EV is nice, but starts at 25K USD and is significantly longer and taller than Spark EV; this makes a difference since I've parked in so many SF street spaces where I literally fit with cm. (And I need four seats for two adults, baby, and dog so Smart car is out).

The Spark EV was one of the best vehicles I have every owned. Quiet, snappy, fun to drive, easy to park, and surprisingly roomy. I lost count of the number of times passengers were shocked by the rear doors. It did everything I needed it to do to exist in the bay area.

The Spark is also very good at rallycross :)

Can get within an inch of cones easily!

Reality is coming for combustion engines very quickly. What's interesting to me is essentially I would think a lot of traditional makers are going to go bankrupt. GM and Volks make a huge percentage of their money from China and all of a sudden they aren't selling many cars there.

I think we are going to see a lot of car company bankruptcies. Interesting times.

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