As Elon Musk walks away, once again, from the idea of a $25,000 Tesla, let’s take this opportunity to step back and appreciate what really An affordable electric vehicle can be. For this we must ignore the Nissan Leaf (currently the cheapest EV in the US at $29,280) and skip Europe, home of the adorable but flawed $10,000 Citroen Ami, and head to China.
Here you will find the equally cheap BYD Seagulla small electric hatchback designed by former Lamborghini designer Wolfgang Egger and with a range of 200 miles.four times that of Ami.
But what if even that is too expensive? Then let us introduce you to the Zhidou Rainbow. It is a compact urban electric vehicle with a price of 31,900 yuan before subsidies, that is, only 4,400 dollars. For a new electric car. WIRED literally recommends electric bikes that cost more than this.
The Rainbow has three doors and four seats, and an interior with a 5-inch digital driver display and a 9-inch touchscreen for the infotainment system. There’s even a connected smartphone app, charging scheduling, and the promise of over-the-air (OTA) software updates.
Buy the iconic Color Cloud Edition (which costs $5,800, or about half the price of Porsche’s fanciest bike) and you can paint every panel of your Rainbow a different color. A bit like Volkswagen did with the something crazy Harlequin Polo in the mid-90s.
Cheaper than an electric bike
There are two models on offer. The former is priced at $4,400 and is powered by a 20 kW (27 horsepower) motor with 85 Nm (63 ft-lbs) of torque and powered by a small 9.98 kWh battery. Spend 39,900 yuan ($5,500) and your Rainbow will be equipped with a 30 kW (40 horsepower) motor with 125 Nm of torque and a 17 kWh battery. Range is between 78 and 127 miles using China’s generous CLTC testing standard.
Don’t get your hopes up, these are small numbers. Even the larger battery has the same capacity as a plug-in hybrid Honda CR-V, which also uses a 2.0-liter engine to help it get around. But the range is not awful. Even if the test standard is generous and the larger battery has a more realistic range of 100 miles, that’s about the same as the Honda e, which cost a whopping £37,000 ($46,000) before going on sale at the end of 2023.