In recent years, the electric car debate has been feverish and the high price of new cars has made them prohibitive. However, analysts in the US have recently made a bold prediction that the global price of electric cars will drop significantly over the next 10 years, with the average price falling to US$3,000 to US$5,000. The main factor is that batteries are no longer expensive to produce, and with both traditional and new car manufacturers entering the electric car business, Elon Musk has publicly stated at his annual Battery Day conference that he will be selling electric cars for $25,000 with lower cost, home-made Tabless batteries. With increasing production volumes effectively spreading the average cost of ownership, there is scope for a significant downward adjustment in the price of EVs in the future.
Chinese EV manufacturers, including Geely, BYD, Lixiang, NIO, Xiaopeng, etc., have benefited from the Chinese government’s subsidies and policy support to develop the EV industry, and are actively developing small, affordable EVs to increase their market share.
At the same time, China’s Xiaomi Group, one of the world’s leading smartphone manufacturers, announced on 30 March that it would invest US$10 billion in electric vehicles. Meanwhile, Japan’s Toyota Motor is also considering partnering with Tesla to develop an affordable version of the electric car, with Toyota providing the electric car platform and Tesla providing the on-board systems and self-driving software technology. The trend towards affordable electric vehicles is inevitable; electric vehicles are no longer expensive, and the launch of affordable versions of electric vehicles to capture the market has become an important objective for electric vehicle manufacturers.
Lei Jun, chief executive of Xiaomi Group, has also invested heavily in the EV industry in the past, and is very optimistic about the smart EV industry; he says he is willing to put his life’s reputation on the line to lead Xiaomi to develop EVs and fight for the “Xiaomi Smart EV”. We are looking forward to the introduction of affordable and high quality smart EVs to the market.
Picture source: Xiaomi
