• kalkulat@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    Looked up that $5000 (where?) Chinese car. Here it is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuling_Hongguang_Mini_EV

    As of a year ago, it’d sold 1.1 million globally; it’s the most popular EV in China. Coincidentally, saw one of these rolling by the house here in the PNW (the red/black model, kind of a standout among the silver turds).

    It’s manufactured by the three-way international joint venture SAIC-GM-Wuling, in the factories of Liuzhou. (Note the GM in there.) The new VW Bug.

    EDIT: Wired review from 2022: https://www.wired.com/story/review-wuling-hongguang-mini-ev/

    • BuelldozerA
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      7 months ago

      Coincidentally, saw one of these rolling by the house here in the PNW

      I wonder how it was imported and then registered. There’s a zero percent chance it meets US DOT standards and it’s not nearly old enough for the “classic” import exemption.

      I suppose it’s possible that it was a GM test mule but the PNW isn’t a common place to see those.

      • admiralteal@kbin.social
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        7 months ago

        A lot of US states are starting to close the classic vehicle exceptions too. Because their pickup-loving busybody mid-level bureaucrats are aesthetically displeased by kei trucks and so wield the levers of the administrative state to ban them for bullshit reasons.

        I was definitely already amid doing the research for getting an old Kei truck and converting it to electric when I found out my state wouldn’t tolerate me doing it anymore. Because evidently a kei is super dangerous to be in on the road. More dangerous than a motorcycle or bicycle. Somehow.

        • BuelldozerA
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          7 months ago

          Huh, I didn’t realize that an individual state could do that. I thought that the Federal rules covered it. TIL.

      • kalkulat@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        I remember more than one time time when I thought I was wrong but I wasn’t. ;-> Howsabout ‘I thought I saw one…’. I’ve never seen a UFO either!

      • kalkulat@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        Yeah, it’s intended to be a city car. In the city I live, a LOT of the vehicles I see going by on a 35-45 mph arterial are at or no bigger than this size. Avoid crowded, busy streets, drive safely, I’d have no worries. A LOT of the people who live here could easily commute every day a total recharge takes 6.5 hours.