I honestly think the price reductions forecast by so many won’t come as quickly as forecast.
There’s too much happening in the market at the moment, new battery tech, new designs, more tech added as standard or added to options, new models to compete with someone else’s latest model. These are all happening and will keep the prices up. Add to that the fact that UK pricing appears to hold a premium over every other market and we’re a long way from the sub £20k cars we were promised 5 years ago.
Then, look at the price bands current cars are getting released into, the traditional ICE manufacturers have to recoup the considerable expense of factory changes to accommodate the new vehicles, so they’re aiming as premium as their badge allows (IF VW can produce cars sub £20k as ICE cars, why are they then pushing above £30 for BEVs?).
We also need to look at the cars the market are demanding, currently production is targeted to the SUV market, partly because it’s not a challenge to fit batteries in one and the lower centre of gravity of sub floor level batteries actually improves stability. They’ll not be making them if nobody was buying them… Cheaper cars will be the small family/city cars but they lack range (you can’t yet fit 60kWh of batteries under an E-up or Smart two2, to get the 300+ miles that customers expect despite driving their city cars around cities).
Listen to the naysayers and range, charge times and cost are factors they quote, in that order generally. If the 250 mile car for use around town needs to charge in less than 10 minutes, there’s always going to be an issue. The fact that cities are also the places where charging at home is least likely (look at the quantity of apartments, terraced houses without access to off street parking and new builds with parking away from the home in cities) doesn’t help with the price hopes.
I’d love to see a 200+ mile winter range that can hold 4 adults easily plus their luggage that can be added to the scheme without huge APs, the only one that fitted the criteria is the old Kona which has only returned on a limited basis. Once they’re sold out it’s either the Megane or the MG4 or spend lots and lots on an SUV.
I'm Autistic, if I say something you find offensive, please let me know, I can guarantee it was unintentional.
I'll try to give my honest opinion but am always open to learning.
Mark