China, Tesla’s opponent is a $ 5,000 small GM

The Wuling Hongguang Mini Ev is a small electric car produced by GM and its Chinese partner and which in August beat the sales of the Elon Musk brand for the first time

It’s called Hongguang Mini Ev and it’s a Chinese electric car that costs $ 5,000; to build it is Saic Gm Wuling Automobile Co. which is a joint-venture of General Motors in China, which also used it to relaunch itself on the national market, where the American giant had lost points. Second Bloomberg in fact, in January 2019 a -15% was recorded compared to twelve months earlier, also thanks to the trade war between the United States and China which particularly affected Buick and Chevrolet. The success of the Hongguang Mini Ev was instantaneous with all 30,000 units planned for the first supply being ordered within 50 days of launch. The price of the Ev fluctuates between 28,800 yuan (around 3,600 euros) and 38,800 yuan (around 4,900 euros).

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The market wants it

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Such a great success was certainly not expected, especially since the Mini Ev does not enjoy state incentives. Until July 2019, China reserved 60,000 yuan (about 7,600 euros) for those who bought an Ev, while to date the bonus is 21,000 yuan (about 2,700 euros), but only for cars with autonomy over 250 km, when the Mini Ev has only 170. It turns out that some Chinese want a vehicle that is used to make the journey home-work-home and that’s it; the 170 km of autonomy is therefore sufficient and since the cost is so low it does not matter if it does not have access to state incentives.

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Level substitute

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The Mini Ev also occupies a mobility segment that begins shortly before the ordinary one of cars and motorcycles, and which is composed of what are defined as Lsev, Low Speed ​​Electric Vehicle, particularly used in China, where 45.4 million were produced in 2019. These are microcars, scooters, electric bicycles and all those vehicles that are used to make short journeys and errands a short distance from home.

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