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Comment by rsynnott | Hacker News Reader

FWIW, electric _cars_ at or below this price point are certainly a thing, though possibly not in the US.

Unfortunately the US is missing a lot of competition in this space. Chinese EV companies haven't been allowed to sell cars to consumers by tariffs and other disincentives/regulatory hoops. Japanese and Korean automakers aren't importing their sub-$30k EVs to the US because their US divisions don't understand them/want them because they don't look like oversized trucks or SUVs. Similarly for the EU automakers that have US divisions/affiliates. Renault, Dacia and Skoda among others making cheap EVs have no US presence at all.

So much for 'home of the free market' that between regulatory capture and broken dealership models and import tariffs the competition looks so bad.

I'd buy the microvan version of the 2013 Nissan Leaf with a 170 mile range for 25k USD. And I'd never buy a new car.

Nissan didn't add active battery temp management until about the 2018 model year, so I'd be careful which part of the US you buy that van from depending on your interest in battery replacement.

When people ask "where are the <$30k cars?" they generally mean new cars, because the more $30k cars that are sold new should imply more <$10k gently used cars on the market. The used market doesn't get cars that people can't afford to buy new in the first place.

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