Link: https://www.whichcar.com.au/news/byd-drops-price-atto-1-essential-19990-cheapest-ev-australia

~ USD $14000

That's only 12,400 Euro! At that price one has to wonder if batteries are included. 😋

WLTP range of 220km

Obviously the battery can't be big at that price, but still good enough for commuting and most daily drives.

Huh… at that price I might actually just buy one.

I wonder what’s required to disable the spyware.

Does Australia have tariffs on Chinese cars?

Just say "1989 Tiananmen Square massacre" intermittently and put a sign up on the dashboard saying it too.
I bet everything going to China will be turned off pretty quickly.

No they don't:

https://www.autonext.co/news/australia-evs-outsell-petrol-august-2026-no-chinese-tariff

Australia is the one rich market where Chinese cars pay nothing at the border

That's a great idea.

And that’s why dumb shit like the slate is DoA.

A good-looking, cheap electric car? I want one.

Me when I say 1970 Kent state massacre and my ford f150 shuts down and calls ice to my location

Australia told GM and Ford to fuck off years ago. They no longer make cars.

How about reliability? Talk to me after 5-6 years.

Well, fuck that. Loans are for suckers.

Try saying Renee Good.

Batteries now cost $85 kwhr. 30kwhr battery is now $2600.
Battery costs driving EV prices was Musk's bullshit, his cars had the highest profit margin in the industry. Model S batteries dropped 90% in price 2012-2024.

EVs should cost less than ICE. A battery pack is now close to the cost of catalytic systems in ICE.

$2600 for a 30kWh battery? Can I get a battery like that without the car attached.. Jackery and most others are fairly similar, for that price you would only get a few kWh.

Check out the Dacia spring, not Chinese or American! Depending on import rates should be fairly similar price.

I think ford and GM said to fuck off first. Which was a shame because their Aussie divisions were killing it.

Short answer is yes, but you'll have to dig up suppliers and handle the form factors on your own. Used EV batteries (i.e. once their capacity becomes an issue for use in a car, or after the car is wrecked) are commonly used for things like grid storage and home battery backup.

You can try to get one from a junkyard, but usually someone else has beaten you to it.

Is buying something only to set it on fire even more for suckers?

In Australia (where this article is written) it's more expensive to drive a petrol car than to get a loan for a new EV. The average commute costs $125 per week in petrol. An EV loan to get this car costs $90 per week in repayments and less than $10 per week in electricity.

Literally cheaper to give the ICE car away and get a loan for an EV than to continue to buy petrol and burn it.

Not exactly, GM and Ford in Australia and Canada lived off billions in corporate welfare. When Australia refused to keep paying, they left.

Canada really needs to rethink it's relationship with Detroit. Ottawa likes the export value numbers, but we certainly subsidize this industry that only makes thirsty trucks.

Your comment just critical striked me. LOL

BYD will likely never be allowed in the US, so there's one market Slate is going to do well in, at least among people looking for cheap electric vehicles.

Inverters are pretty expensive too. And you have to remember those combined with the battery merely replace a gas tank that probably cost less than 10 bucks to make.
But then the electric motor is probably cheaper to make than a combustion engine. Also the heavier weight of a BEV car makes brakes and suspension more expensive.

But despite all that, I think that BEV cars are actually mostly at the level of ICE car prices now. Especially if you compare in the 400-500 hp AWD range.

Wow never heard about that before.
That's absolutely disgusting!

Eight of the shooters (National Guard) were charged with depriving the students of their civil rights, but were acquitted in a bench trial.

For fucks sake USA, and you didn't learn diddly?!

Putting tarrifs on Chinese vehicles wouldn't be logical, because there is no domestic car manufacturing left in Australia for tariffs to protect.

Ford and GMH both stopped making cars there a decade ago, Mitsubishi stopped in 2008. All of them were propped up by the Australian government with hundreds of millions before they left.

True, but they could still have a tariff on ALL cars. Or only Chinese just to make USA happy.
Here in Denmark where we also don't make cars, we used to have a very high tax on cars, officially to limit pollution, but also because the state was low on money.
This dated back to post WW2 where for years for instance color film was illegal to import, because the country lacked the wealth to import luxury items.
Even when in the EEC later EU we still had/have high taxes on cars, but they were not called import taxes, they were added at registration, so it was called a registration tax, that however was obviously a workaround, and EEC/EU allow it.
Taxes are now way lower on cars, because to stimulate transition to electric, they have way lower registration tax, and the sales of BEV cars is 90% now.

The EV Detroit is Dying to Benchmark - BYD Seagull

Is there any sort of after market community with guides on how to make this thing not a surveillance capsule?

Wut. slate is the only EV I might buy. all the others are horrifying surveillance capsules

What do you need an inverter for? Cars are small. Isn't everything DC?

Just like what happened to used veggie oil...

the motor is ac

Dude, I have been pondering the idea of getting an electric truck, hauling a fifth wheel and recharging the truck off of the fifth wheel's solar (not while driving, of course. That's a quick recipe to overheat your battery). Also using the EV as the fifth wheel's third battery (you have the main battery and the backup battery for if the main blows built in, and then the EV is the second backup. It's unlikely you'll need it but do you want to be caught without a second backup?

Charging from home is AC, and IDK maybe it also contains the charging control for DC?
Anyways the inverter alone is generally upwards of 1000 Euro.

Why? Wouldn't that behavior make the surveilers listen more closely?

Most of tiny EVs are having range of like 100-150. At 220, it's an upgrade!

It's only the smaller 65kWh battery but still exceptional value, no comporable ICE car is as cheap in Australia.

i have a BYD in Aus and have had it since February last year, I give zero shits about Chinese spyware, I'm worried about the Australian government, or one of the 5 eyes spying on me, they want to do my harm.

Having user connect is good: OTA software updates, can turn charging off and on remotely, can preheat the car and turn the seat heaters on 10 mins before you leave (good in Tassie winters) can check the SOC remotely etc.

You can grab Toyota, Cupra or VW ecar, they have no connected services in Aus. but the main gripes on forums is they have no connected services eg software updates (notified by email etc ) need you to go in to the dealer and an can take all day (i. e when they get to it)

there is a version with a bigger battery, longer range etc and a few other upgrades, but costs more of course, the one in the OP is the base model

I’m sure there are dozens just like you willing to drop an extra 10k for the poverty spec. Dozens!

https://www.motor1.com/news/808120/trump-opens-door-chinese-car/

Matter of time.

I think people are wising up a little

BEVs are not heavier than US trucks and SUVs. Atto1 weighs 1295kg.

Kent State was just one example, there were other universities were students were bayoneted for singing. UNM. No one was ever held responsible.

Australians are more prosperous after giving up subsidizing an auto manufacturing industry. The option to have $20k cheaper alternative EVs of equal value is $400/month in financing savings. Another $400+/month savings in fuel (current prices) and maintenance savings, and $50/month insurance savings. Australia has embraced suburban sprawl and home solar, and a 2nd car is perfect as (both) EV. Free daytime charging if not used much, and V2L models can charge home overnight reducing utility dependence.

A single car middle class household saving $850/month tax free is almost like a UBI to boost their standard of living. Where 2nd cars are a necessity, its more.

The motors are AC and it'll have a variable frequency drive (fancy inverter that changes frequency to drive the motor at the desired speed). Also provides the regenerative braking by running at a lower speed than the motor.

DC motor EVs are not really a thing any more, outside of hobby conversions.

Low power VFDs are dirt cheap these days, but a 65kW one would run a few thousand. A brand name industrial spec one in that power range would cost $5-10k USD.

Or only Chinese just to make USA happy.

I don't think they make much of anything right hand drive in the US, at least not enough to matter, and their Tesla's are made in china too.

They have complete vertical integration, China owns everything from mining operations to the refinement, to the production of the battery packs. Any non-Chinese manufacturers are going to have to pay ~2x as much for battery packs, especially in Europe because China won't sell them as cheap to our manufacturers as they do their own and we have environmental regulations preventing us from doing large scale lithium refinement AFAIK.

Not to mention that there's a subsidy that China pays on all NEVs, regardless of where they're sold.