Dacia Sandero will most likely be the best-selling car in Europe in 2024, according to preliminary data covering 97% of sales in the EU, European Free Trade Association countries, and United Kingdom. Looking at the provisional rankings, the Sandero leads the Top 10 with 247,210 units sold in the...
I’m obviously not a fan of Tesla but it’s a shame that the most sold car went from an electric to a gas powered one.
It went to a car that costs a quarter of the Tesla. Can you really blame people for not being rich?
The Dacia Spring Electric costs 16900€ new.
And you need to own a single-family home or at least live in a small enough apartment building to be able to convince people to install chargers at parking spots. If you do own house, you can probably afford a nicer car.
It pretty much has no engine or battery to speak of so if you need to use it outside of the city (you know, the place where you could just use public transit or walk), it’ll just… Suck. If you need to charge it at public chargers, it’s more expensive to run than a diesel in some countries, while not being as convenient.
I’m glad the option exists, but I don’t see poor people rushing to electric unless the infrastructure and public charger pricing greatly improve, and I don’t see a lot of wealthy people buying this Dacia either.
That’s probably why the cheap ICE powered Dacia is so successful. It’s more successful at targeting the people who can’t afford a big expensive EV. Because those people often also can’t afford the limitations and practical requirements of a cheap EV.
(Disclaimer: not a car person, asking for clarification…)
Does what you said not apply to Tesla as well?
Tesla had an early popularity advantage. It was the first EV that actually made use of the performance advantages of an electric motor. Until some point you could get a crappy Leaf or an upmarket Tesla with little in-between.
You also need a lot more money to buy a Tesla, you can’t really generally get a 12 year old used one for the price of a new Dacia. So the market for Tesla was always people who probably have houses or don’t REALLY care about the charging prices at public stations.
Gotcha. Thanks for the explanation. I was also curious whether the existing EV infrastructure for Tesla is usable by other models, because I think this would be a crucial factor for mass adoption.
I believe Tesla started opening up their chargers to other brands a few years ago as they can’t stop people from buying other EVs, but they CAN make more money off their extensive charger network.
I don’t know if that also applies for the EU, I know it was being discussed in the US.