The Withering Dream of a Cheap American Electric Car
The dream of a $25,000 electric vehicle for U.S. drivers is in trouble.Elon Musk has abandoned it. President-elect Donald Trump is unlikely to help. And the current economics of the U.S. auto industry don't support it.The key problem: America doesn't really sell cheap new cars anymore.Why would any automaker offer an EV -- with all of that costly technology -- at a price point that's half of what the average new vehicle goes for these days?Lucid which has begun taking orders for its coming $90,000 version of the new electric SUV called the Gravity, aims to bring out a more affordable midsize vehicle to compete against the Tesla Model Y in late 2026. That vehicle is said to cost less than $50,000, but a cheap EV is something Rawlinson said he would only support by licensing his technology to another company.A slowdown in the rate of EV sales growth has complicated the picture. So has the growing anticipation that the new Trump administration will eliminate federal tax credits that have