▲ 270 ▼ Americans Are Open To Cheap Chinese Cars. That’s 'Scary' For The Rest Of The Auto Industry (insideevs.com) submitted 2 years ago by schizoidman@lemmy.ml to c/technology@lemmy.ml 145 comments fedilink hide all child comments cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/15089465 Americans Are Open To Cheap Chinese Cars. That’s 'Scary' For The Rest Of The Auto Industry
[+] lemmus@lemmy.world 28 points 2 years ago (2 children) [deleted] permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 4 child comments replies: [–] Moonrise2473@feddit.it 7 points 2 years ago (1 child) But the European market is also pushing bigger cars and SUV. The smart is now a 4 meters SUV The Volkswagen up (small 4 person car) is out of production and they're selling nothing under 4 meters The fiat panda (another small 4 person car) is in the process of being redesigned and the mockups look like a huge range rover SUV Skoda, after retiring the citigo, has the Fabia that's relatively small (almost 4 meters) and the rest are huge Most automakers are giving up on the cheap and small compact car segment, leaving a big gap for Chinese automakers permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] maynarkh@feddit.nl 3 points 2 years ago (1 child) The smart is now a 4 meters SUV Is it? I haven't heard about it, I've seen some weird concept picture, but the Fortwo as currently being manufactured is still the same 2.6m long car as it was in 2014 as per Wikipedia. The Volkswagen up (small 4 person car) is out of production and they’re selling nothing under 4 meters Skoda, after retiring the citigo, has the Fabia that’s relatively small (almost 4 meters) and the rest are huge They are the same company. The Skoda Citigo and the Seat Mii are both just rebadged Volkswagen Up cars. The fiat panda (another small 4 person car) is in the process of being redesigned and the mockups look like a huge range rover SUV Those mockups are actually the redesign of the Panda Cross, which was an SUV-ish thing they introduced in 2014. Fiat still makes the subcompact 500, having recently made an electric version. Some EU automakers are doing weird stuff, but if you look at the electric car market for example, at lest where I live, locally produced electric kei trucks actually outsold Tesla at some point. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] Moonrise2473@feddit.it 1 point 2 years ago* The smart fortwo has been discontinued a few months ago, replaced by the 2 ton smart #1 The fiat panda cross was just a fancy trim of the fiat panda, same size and weight just bigger bumpers and higher wheels permalink fedilink source parent [–] shalafi@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago* Nope, it's the government's mileage standards. If you make a truck with a shorter wheelbase and track, it has to hit higher gas mileage standards. Easier to make a big truck that's allowed worse mileage. https://youtu.be/azI3nqrHEXM Also, I did a brief stint selling cars in the 90s. One of the salesmen explained it like this, "What's the real difference in a big truck and a small truck? Same engineering effort, same production work, all that. Hell, same parts for most systems. More steel on the big one, and steel is cheap. We can charge a premium for the larger truck." permalink fedilink source parent
[–] Moonrise2473@feddit.it 7 points 2 years ago (1 child) But the European market is also pushing bigger cars and SUV. The smart is now a 4 meters SUV The Volkswagen up (small 4 person car) is out of production and they're selling nothing under 4 meters The fiat panda (another small 4 person car) is in the process of being redesigned and the mockups look like a huge range rover SUV Skoda, after retiring the citigo, has the Fabia that's relatively small (almost 4 meters) and the rest are huge Most automakers are giving up on the cheap and small compact car segment, leaving a big gap for Chinese automakers permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] maynarkh@feddit.nl 3 points 2 years ago (1 child) The smart is now a 4 meters SUV Is it? I haven't heard about it, I've seen some weird concept picture, but the Fortwo as currently being manufactured is still the same 2.6m long car as it was in 2014 as per Wikipedia. The Volkswagen up (small 4 person car) is out of production and they’re selling nothing under 4 meters Skoda, after retiring the citigo, has the Fabia that’s relatively small (almost 4 meters) and the rest are huge They are the same company. The Skoda Citigo and the Seat Mii are both just rebadged Volkswagen Up cars. The fiat panda (another small 4 person car) is in the process of being redesigned and the mockups look like a huge range rover SUV Those mockups are actually the redesign of the Panda Cross, which was an SUV-ish thing they introduced in 2014. Fiat still makes the subcompact 500, having recently made an electric version. Some EU automakers are doing weird stuff, but if you look at the electric car market for example, at lest where I live, locally produced electric kei trucks actually outsold Tesla at some point. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] Moonrise2473@feddit.it 1 point 2 years ago* The smart fortwo has been discontinued a few months ago, replaced by the 2 ton smart #1 The fiat panda cross was just a fancy trim of the fiat panda, same size and weight just bigger bumpers and higher wheels permalink fedilink source parent
[–] maynarkh@feddit.nl 3 points 2 years ago (1 child) The smart is now a 4 meters SUV Is it? I haven't heard about it, I've seen some weird concept picture, but the Fortwo as currently being manufactured is still the same 2.6m long car as it was in 2014 as per Wikipedia. The Volkswagen up (small 4 person car) is out of production and they’re selling nothing under 4 meters Skoda, after retiring the citigo, has the Fabia that’s relatively small (almost 4 meters) and the rest are huge They are the same company. The Skoda Citigo and the Seat Mii are both just rebadged Volkswagen Up cars. The fiat panda (another small 4 person car) is in the process of being redesigned and the mockups look like a huge range rover SUV Those mockups are actually the redesign of the Panda Cross, which was an SUV-ish thing they introduced in 2014. Fiat still makes the subcompact 500, having recently made an electric version. Some EU automakers are doing weird stuff, but if you look at the electric car market for example, at lest where I live, locally produced electric kei trucks actually outsold Tesla at some point. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] Moonrise2473@feddit.it 1 point 2 years ago* The smart fortwo has been discontinued a few months ago, replaced by the 2 ton smart #1 The fiat panda cross was just a fancy trim of the fiat panda, same size and weight just bigger bumpers and higher wheels permalink fedilink source parent
[–] Moonrise2473@feddit.it 1 point 2 years ago* The smart fortwo has been discontinued a few months ago, replaced by the 2 ton smart #1 The fiat panda cross was just a fancy trim of the fiat panda, same size and weight just bigger bumpers and higher wheels permalink fedilink source parent
[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago* Nope, it's the government's mileage standards. If you make a truck with a shorter wheelbase and track, it has to hit higher gas mileage standards. Easier to make a big truck that's allowed worse mileage. https://youtu.be/azI3nqrHEXM Also, I did a brief stint selling cars in the 90s. One of the salesmen explained it like this, "What's the real difference in a big truck and a small truck? Same engineering effort, same production work, all that. Hell, same parts for most systems. More steel on the big one, and steel is cheap. We can charge a premium for the larger truck." permalink fedilink source parent