Hyundai just launched its cheapest EV in Japan
electrek.co

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53 points

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zfg

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3 hours ago

46 comments

twelvechairs ・ 2 hours ago

China has dozens of even cheaper EVs. The best selling electric car in China - the Wuling Hongguang Mini EV [0] is just over $4,000 USD. There are now also convertible and 5-door versions too. And a version being produced in the EU (Vilnius) that is just under 10,000EUR.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuling_Hongguang_Mini_EV

  • gitdowndirty ・ an hour ago

    Most of these EV companies in China are going bankrupt, selling each car at a loss. Recently, Ji Yum Auto, founded by Baidu and Neely, shut down last December. A live streamer was live streaming selling the car. Upon hearing the news, she was bawling and told the listener to not to check out the car https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYdm2K81bW0.

    As Chinese EV makers close, drivers of “smartphones on wheels” say software updates and maintenance are in jeopardy. https://restofworld.org/2024/ev-company-shutdowns-china/

  • wordofx ・ an hour ago

    There are a LOT of ev fires in China that get scrubbed from the internet and media in China. If you had Weibo you can see them almost daily.

    You get what you pay for. Cheap junk.

    • mitthrowaway2 ・ 20 minutes ago

      This is no doubt true. But this could either be an inevitable result of corner-cutting, or simply mistakes caused by inexperience, design errors, and poorly dialed-in process parameters.

      It matters is because in the former case, the unit cost advantage disappears as the problem gets solved. In the latter case, it does not.

    • thfuran ・ 15 minutes ago

      There's something like 170,000 car fires per year in the US. It's just one of those things that's bad and too common to really make the news except maybe locally.

  • timewizard ・ an hour ago

    "Early models did not include a driver airbag, but later models such as the Mini EV Macaron include the feature as standard."

    You don't get what you don't pay for. Scary that's even an option.

    • tomrod ・ an hour ago

      When the median vehicle in the US is the size of a small commercial freight vehicle, absolutely. It's a vicious cycle driven entirely by gaps in CAFE standards and overcompensation for perceived personal flaws.

      • 1123581321 ・ an hour ago

        China is not a particularly safe country, going by road deaths. It would be foolish to think small cars make airbags unnecessary.

      • timewizard ・ an hour ago

        > When the median vehicle in the US is the size of a small commercial freight vehicle, absolutely.

        It's the mass that matters. Even smaller cars, and in particular EVs, are getting heavier even though they're not getting larger. The major contributor to this weight gain is, yep, safety systems.

        > It's a vicious cycle driven entirely by gaps in CAFE standards and overcompensation for perceived personal flaws.

        I don't think you're being entirely objective. 1/6 of all vehicle fatalities are actually pedestrians. 1/6 are motorcycles. 1/2 involve drugs or alcohol. 1/2 are single car accidents.

        There's a lot of contributors to roadway fatalities, like people who get flung out of the vehicle. That still happens more than it should.

bane ・ 36 minutes ago

Korean car companies are making lots of headway by trying everything. Honda makes a big deal about the Clarity of LPG converted civic. Almost everybody I know in Korea has some combination of different fuel types and transmissions. It's sort of a wild "east" and the Korean companies are throwing everything at the wall.

Among people I know off the top of my head:

- VW diesel SUV (manual)

- domestic diesel Kia SUV (automatic)

- Tesla (auto?)

- domestic petrol ancient Daewoo (manual)

- domestic Hyundai LPG (auto)

- domestic Hyundai Hydrogen (auto)

- Honda petrol CRV (auto/CVT)

- petrol domestic Bongotype (pickup analog) (manual)

- diesel domestic Bongotype (pickup analog) (manual)

- domestic petrol Hyundai small car (auto)

- domestic petrol Kia SUV (auto)

- petrol Jaguar (auto)

it's wild. My friends and family are spread across everything from hair dressers to architects, so this kind of diversity is unusual to me.

My friends in Japan are much more focused, and the it seems to me that the brands are overcommitted to very few sets of fuels, transmissions, and technologies -- even if the form factor and packaging appear different.

With the possibility of Honda and Nissan merging among other consolidation in Japanese autos, I feel like this will only continue (saying this as a (slightly dismayed life long Honda owner).

The elephant in the room is of course the massive diversity and cost effectiveness of Chinese cars...which are completely unknown and mocked in the U.S., but turn out to be surprisingly decent these days, and are increasingly electrified and are in the process of refinement. A recent trip to Spain and Portugal reminded me that "hey these exist" and a few rides around in Ubers let me see them up close. They'd sell like hot cakes in the U.S. if they were allowed to.

  • seanmcdirmid ・ 9 minutes ago

    There is no point classifying an EV as Gavin an automatic transmission, you mostly don’t use gears (maybe to go reverse? But you could run the motor backwards). I would be surprised if hydrogen fuel cell cars had transmissions as well.

  • numpad0 ・ 28 minutes ago

    fyi: Honda is Japanese and has no relationships with Hyundai(actually pronounced hyoon-deh in Korean, meaning "modern era"), which weaponized spelling for US recognition long time ago and haven't fixed it.

numpad0 ・ 2 hours ago

> Buyers in Japan can choose from three trims with prices ranging from 2,849,000 yen ($18,000) to 3,575,000 yen ($22,700).

It might be $18k normalized in USD, but locally still "$35k" product.

  • bikitan ・ 2 hours ago

    This is key. The yen is still weak, so framing it in terms of today's value in USD is going to make it seem much more affordable than it actually is for the average Japanese person.

    • mitthrowaway2 ・ 17 minutes ago

      That definitely matters for the marketing landscape in Japan. But as far as Hyundai's ability to make a profit at that price, it's still a big challenge to US automakers like Tesla, isn't it?

ofrzeta ・ an hour ago

It's still a lot of money. For instance Mitsubishi Space Star starts at around 13k with a gas engine. Why are EVs so expensive? We were told technology is comparatively less complex, so it should be cheaper, right? Is it only economy of scale?

  • csomar ・ 14 minutes ago

    It is not economy of scale. They need to "re-factor" their factories/models/cars/marketing for little gain. why do it? Tesla was kinda the only player in town and thus commanded high prices and high margins. It's only when the Chinese showed up that the technology is clearly cheaper; and everyone else was caught by it.

  • numpad0 ・ 34 minutes ago

    Isn't it just the raw materials cost of battery? I mean, gold bullions are technologically not that complicated to make, right?

pg5 ・ an hour ago

I would absolutely love a low tech electric car - like an Elantra hatchback EV. I hate how every EV has to be all touchscreen-based with fancy software that needs to be updated frrquently just to drive.

  • VariousPrograms ・ 21 minutes ago

    Are there any simple vehicles left in the US, EV or otherwise? The lowest frills cars I can think of are the Mirage and Versa, both on their last legs. Similar to the vocal minorities who want compact hatchbacks, wagons, small trucks, or manual transmissions, it feels like so few people want simple, non-smartphoney cars that the market segment will never be catered to.

p0w3n3d ・ 12 minutes ago

EVs are not the future. Change my mind.

-- spoiler alert --

Hydrogen fuel cell powered are

neya ・ an hour ago

This looks like they just slapped a battery and motor on what they sell in India as the Exter. So, doesn't look like a dedicated EV platform that it's built on. But still, decent VFM.

I think they might not be that much successful in breaking into the Japanese EV market because the Japanese don't buy products based on just price alone, but rather based on the company's nationality as well. And Koreans and Japanese are always competitors and Japanese people are quite patriotic. It will be interesting to watch, nevertheless.

  • numpad0 ・ 42 minutes ago

    Looks like Hyundai and BYD sold high three digits and low four digits in Japan during 2024, surprising but growth is definitely not exponential. Tesla's interestingly in high four too and not growing.

    I wonder what are differentiations for these cars in context of Japan against local cars with local factories. I can see that Teslas would be substantially different from Leafs, but what pain points of Japanese cars do IONIQ 5 or Seal solve?

martin_henk ・ 2 hours ago

Nissan has launched its very cheap EV called Sakura around 2 or 3 years ago? Should hover around the same price point and can be ordered with ProPilot 2 as a option I think

https://www.businessinsider.com/japans-best-selling-ev-nissa....

  • NotSammyHagar ・ 2 hours ago

    I don't see any information about whether they will bring these into the US. They'd sell well here. It will be hard to make a profit on these, because you can't have much overhead.

    But clearly, a less than $20k ev with ~200-220 miles, a city car, would sell very well in the us. It would open up EV ownership to more groups. Imagine what a 2 or 3 year old one would sell for? Those used ones would again open up EVs to new groups.

    • numpad0 ・ an hour ago

      I too have long assumed that EVs would appeal more to city dwellers but apparently it's the opposite.

      City drivers can pull over anytime they like for gas topups and only when they've driven the car, so setting up charging infrastructure and having to plug in every day without failure just to remove gas stops makes little sense to them. OTOH, gas stations for rural house owners are travel destinations of its own, and they welcome offgrid home charging and everyday full tanks.

      Short range grocery getter EV exists in the middle ground of those extremes, only in locations where it's rural enough that finding gas is annoying enough, while at the same time daily driving range is short enough that the car's range covers it.

      Only reason urban citizens would prefer EVs is if they have specific opinions about personally owning ICE device, but those people aren't the biggest majority.

      • karlshea ・ an hour ago

        An EV would start to get pretty irritating if your only option is street parking. I have a garage I could charge one in right now, but most of the people on my block don’t. And if I wanted to move I may not end up with one.

    • RankingMember ・ an hour ago

      > They'd sell well here.

      I'd love to agree because I like kei cars and small cars in general, but I don't think they would. These cars on US roads would be dwarfed by SUVs and pickups, and Americans have voted with their wallets that they don't want small cars, which is why manufacturers have almost uniformly stopped making them (most don't even make regular mid-size sedans anymore).

      • Glyptodon ・ an hour ago

        I think cars are now so expensive that a small car, van, or truck that was like half as expensive but high utility would sell well.

    • tdb7893 ・ 2 hours ago

      The longest drive I ever do is 350 miles (most days I drive less than 10 miles) so a cheap EV with slightly more than 200 mile range would be perfect. I already own a steam deck and have books on my phone so stopping to charge once or twice is the opposite of a problem. Less than 20k would be crazy, that's the price I paid for my Fit 8 years ago

    • aurareturn ・ 2 hours ago

      US car industry and government are too in bed together to allow competition.

    • klooney ・ 2 hours ago

      This is basically the Nissan Leaf's lane, albeit at like, 26k. It hasn't done that well after the initial rush, I think?

      Americans have long commutes.

      • wat10000 ・ 2 hours ago

        A 200 mile range would cover 99% of American commutes. The real issue is that Americans buy their cars for road trips. Even if it’s only once every year or two and it would be way cheaper to buy a cheaper car and rent a more capable one for the road trips, people generally won’t do it.

  • fallinghawks ・ 2 hours ago

    The Sakura is briefly mentioned at the end of the article, a bit less expensive at $16,500 (2.6 million yen)

Animats ・ an hour ago

BYD's current line is generally considered OK by reviewers. The comparable BYD product is the Dolphin, at $13,700. It's much better looking, too.

minebreaker ・ 2 hours ago

I don't think this goes well. $18,000 is not cheap at all. People will just buy Spacia for $10,000 and can't be happier.

  • jader201 ・ an hour ago

    I bought my first new car in 1999 only two years out of college for about $20k.

    In 1999.

    $18k today for an electric car is far from “not cheap at all”.

    • numpad0 ・ an hour ago

      Cheapest car with 4 wheels in Japan is like $6300. That price range is something like $23k in US. Average wages in Japan has literally flatlined since like 1995.

      It's not like this car is equivalent of 4x18k in local currency, but not that far from it.

    • minebreaker ・ an hour ago

      Obviously you don't understand the Japanese market. College graduates earn ¥2,160,000 in average in their first year. So yeah, $18,000 is not cheap at all. As I said you can buy a brand new Suzuki Spacia for ¥1,500,000, and it's not a random car from a random brand. Suzuki is much popular than Nissan or Subaru in Japan. Yes, it's an ICE car but if you think Japanese will pay extra money just because it's EV that is the huge mistake.

      • jader201 ・ an hour ago

        Yeah, fair point, I’m completely just talking US market here.

        I’m assuming this would go for the same price ($18k) in the US, where that would be a very good price for an EV.

        I would love to see an EV in the US for sub-$20k.

mb__ ・ 44 minutes ago

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