It’s Czech Republic and no, there are probably not any cheaper EVs here. I’m not counting Dacia Spring ($16,5k pre-tax) as it’s Chinese car in disguise and it’s just too small and weak I’d hardly consider it a proper car anyway. Some other “cheap” non-Chinese choices are Hyundai Inster for $21,5k, Fiat Grande Panda for $22k or Renault 5 for $26,5k, all prices pre-tax.
Overall it’s just so expensive here. A lot of people are skeptic about the tech both for being expensive and also because everyone thinks they probably need to drive 800 km every day and charging is too slow… I’d buy EV a long ago if it wasn’t so price prohibitive.
EDIT: Just for comparison, average monthly wage is ~$2300 and median is ~$2100 (before taxation).
I thought Dacia was made in Romania?
We had the Dacia too a few years back, but it disappeared pretty quickly, I suspect it simply wasn’t good enough, exactly because as you say it’s incredibly weak, and has a very small battery, and although it was the cheapest when available, it clearly had worse value than the slightly more expensive competitors.
I looked up if you have any particular registration tax on cars in the Czech Republic, and as far as I can trell you don’t, except a very cheap flat fee of CZK 800 (roughly €32) according to Google.
The other cars you mention are pretty close to the prices here. The Inster is $20,800 USD. The Fiat Grande Panda the same, and the Renault 5 $23,400 USD.
So at least not as bad as the Citroen, but still a bit more expensive in the Czech Republic.
That said however, there is a long tradition in Denmark to remove equipment that is standard in other countries, and have it as extras here. Especially smaller rims than standard are common. But also cruise control and seat heating. A package of extras to “upgrade” to normal easily runs up to a couple thousand dollars.
This tradition evolved because Denmark had some of the highest taxes on new cars in Europe. And as a funny side effect, cars were sometimes exported from Denmark, to other countries, because the price without taxes was lower here. This could even be to the country where the car was made. 😋
Unfortunately Skoda doesn’t have anything yet in the low price segment, VW recently announced the ID.Polo to arrive next year, maybe there will be an equivalent Skoda?
Skoda are absolutely good cars, I bought the VW instead mostly because it was significantly cheaper as used, and there were more to choose among.
Here the median and average are about twice what you get in the Czech Republic. We are personally not up to the average, but we are doing fine anyway. 😋
The usual Dacia is indeed from Romania, but Spring is their first EV and it’s basically some unknown Chinese car rebranded with Dacia’s body kit. The whole EV technology is Chinese, though. New one will be (supposedly) based on new Renault Twingo platform.
As for the tax: yes, there’s just that small registration fee specific to cars, but there’s also usual 21% VAT like on everything.
And that “upgrade” path? It is definitely not Denmark thing alone as we have it here too. Prices I listed are for the bare bones trims. Classic move is like this: Want something useful like parking cam? Pay up. And because manufacturers are pricks, it’s only available as a package with some other crap you don’t need nor want but still have to pay for…
Škoda revealed Epiq recently, which is I believe ID.Polo cousin. And it’s not cheap by far, for it’s size and specs. Basic trim starts at over $30k and that means things like gray color only, no parking cam, no keyless doors, no V2L, no heated seats, no wireless charger, etc. And also just basic 3 year warranty. Want better specs? You’re at price of Tesla Y… (Don’t want to bring its idiot owner here, just comparing cars offers.)
And my personal gripe of car industry: I absolutely hate every car review magazine/site/channel where they present new cars like “this new model costs just XY”, then proceed to show you nice car and at the very end they tell you it’s not the XY price base trim. It actually costs over twice as much, due to better trim, bigger battery and all the fancy options. Yeah, thank you and f*ck you with a cactus.
but there’s also usual 21% VAT like on everything.
We have 25% VAT!!
It’s disappointing to hear the Skoda equivalent to the ID.Polo is so expensive. I had hoped it would start $5k below that price.
That last part about saying the starting price and then showing a way more expensive model, sounds like it could be fined as illegally misleading marketing.
Here they always make such things very clear in reviews, and recently we have had influencers that had to pay pretty hefty fines for illegal marketing.
If they can do it to influencers, they can do it to reviewers too.
I had a similar situation with a popular site where some used cars were stated to have a Trailer hitch but hadn’t.
I wrote to a couple of dealers and stated they were legally obligated to meet their advertising, and sell me the car with trailer hitch at no extra cost.
It was kind of hilarious the polite answers I got back, turned out it was the site that added it because of a bug.
If what you write is true, I think it’s actually illegal by EU standards of consumer protection against misleading advertising.
It’s Czech Republic and no, there are probably not any cheaper EVs here. I’m not counting Dacia Spring ($16,5k pre-tax) as it’s Chinese car in disguise and it’s just too small and weak I’d hardly consider it a proper car anyway. Some other “cheap” non-Chinese choices are Hyundai Inster for $21,5k, Fiat Grande Panda for $22k or Renault 5 for $26,5k, all prices pre-tax.
Overall it’s just so expensive here. A lot of people are skeptic about the tech both for being expensive and also because everyone thinks they probably need to drive 800 km every day and charging is too slow… I’d buy EV a long ago if it wasn’t so price prohibitive.
EDIT: Just for comparison, average monthly wage is ~$2300 and median is ~$2100 (before taxation).
I thought Dacia was made in Romania?
We had the Dacia too a few years back, but it disappeared pretty quickly, I suspect it simply wasn’t good enough, exactly because as you say it’s incredibly weak, and has a very small battery, and although it was the cheapest when available, it clearly had worse value than the slightly more expensive competitors.
I looked up if you have any particular registration tax on cars in the Czech Republic, and as far as I can trell you don’t, except a very cheap flat fee of CZK 800 (roughly €32) according to Google.
The other cars you mention are pretty close to the prices here. The Inster is $20,800 USD. The Fiat Grande Panda the same, and the Renault 5 $23,400 USD.
So at least not as bad as the Citroen, but still a bit more expensive in the Czech Republic.
That said however, there is a long tradition in Denmark to remove equipment that is standard in other countries, and have it as extras here. Especially smaller rims than standard are common. But also cruise control and seat heating. A package of extras to “upgrade” to normal easily runs up to a couple thousand dollars.
This tradition evolved because Denmark had some of the highest taxes on new cars in Europe. And as a funny side effect, cars were sometimes exported from Denmark, to other countries, because the price without taxes was lower here. This could even be to the country where the car was made. 😋
Unfortunately Skoda doesn’t have anything yet in the low price segment, VW recently announced the ID.Polo to arrive next year, maybe there will be an equivalent Skoda?
Skoda are absolutely good cars, I bought the VW instead mostly because it was significantly cheaper as used, and there were more to choose among.
Here the median and average are about twice what you get in the Czech Republic. We are personally not up to the average, but we are doing fine anyway. 😋
The usual Dacia is indeed from Romania, but Spring is their first EV and it’s basically some unknown Chinese car rebranded with Dacia’s body kit. The whole EV technology is Chinese, though. New one will be (supposedly) based on new Renault Twingo platform.
As for the tax: yes, there’s just that small registration fee specific to cars, but there’s also usual 21% VAT like on everything.
And that “upgrade” path? It is definitely not Denmark thing alone as we have it here too. Prices I listed are for the bare bones trims. Classic move is like this: Want something useful like parking cam? Pay up. And because manufacturers are pricks, it’s only available as a package with some other crap you don’t need nor want but still have to pay for…
Škoda revealed Epiq recently, which is I believe ID.Polo cousin. And it’s not cheap by far, for it’s size and specs. Basic trim starts at over $30k and that means things like gray color only, no parking cam, no keyless doors, no V2L, no heated seats, no wireless charger, etc. And also just basic 3 year warranty. Want better specs? You’re at price of Tesla Y… (Don’t want to bring its idiot owner here, just comparing cars offers.)
And my personal gripe of car industry: I absolutely hate every car review magazine/site/channel where they present new cars like “this new model costs just XY”, then proceed to show you nice car and at the very end they tell you it’s not the XY price base trim. It actually costs over twice as much, due to better trim, bigger battery and all the fancy options. Yeah, thank you and f*ck you with a cactus.
We have 25% VAT!!
It’s disappointing to hear the Skoda equivalent to the ID.Polo is so expensive. I had hoped it would start $5k below that price.
That last part about saying the starting price and then showing a way more expensive model, sounds like it could be fined as illegally misleading marketing.
Here they always make such things very clear in reviews, and recently we have had influencers that had to pay pretty hefty fines for illegal marketing.
If they can do it to influencers, they can do it to reviewers too.
I had a similar situation with a popular site where some used cars were stated to have a Trailer hitch but hadn’t.
I wrote to a couple of dealers and stated they were legally obligated to meet their advertising, and sell me the car with trailer hitch at no extra cost.
It was kind of hilarious the polite answers I got back, turned out it was the site that added it because of a bug.
If what you write is true, I think it’s actually illegal by EU standards of consumer protection against misleading advertising.