We are all buyers in the top 1-5% of Incomes in the US.

If it is increasingly unaffordable for high earners like us, then there is something fundamentally wrong.

And let's be honest, a sub-35k EV is a solved problem. BYD and similar companies sells in Australia, NZ, Central Europe, and Japan at a similar price point.

I agree that it would be nice to have sub 35k cars but I’m surprised people in the fields and levels you mentioned have to put off buying a car for financial reasons. When I first started working more than a decade ago I was making 60K and didn’t think twice about buying a 25K car. Multiply the numbers by 2 to adjust for inflation now and it should be similar.

> I’m surprised people in the fields and levels you mentioned have to put off buying a car for financial reasons

The monthly cost reaches $1k a month in 2023 (parking+interest+insurance).

We all can afford it, but the question is why spend $12k a year on transportation when Caltrain+BART+Muni+VTA and Uber come out for less.

> buying a 25K

The average new car in 2023 is $48k, and the average used is $26k. With used you end up paying more in insurance and get worse financing.

Ah yeah if you live in a big city served by public transportation, having a car becomes a luxury. I’m a suburb/rural guy so having a car is more of a necessity, but housing is cheaper and parking is free so the costs cancel out somewhat.

Yep.

Most of those high earning jobs are in the city and suburban areas, which makes car ownership a luxury.

Though, even in rural areas car ownership costs have become heavily unaffordable, now that average rent prices nationally are around $1400/mo compared to $700/mo a decade ago [0], while median salary in 2023 is at $4,000/mo (pre-tax)

[0] - https://www.census.gov/housing/hvs/data/histtab11.xlsx

And yet sales volumes for the past several years have been near record levels. Regardless of incomes, consumers are buying those expensive vehicles. So, why would manufacturers waste resources on building cheaper models if they don't have to?

BYD in Japan? November figure for all BYD was 166. In contrast, Toyota sold about 100 cars short of 17k Yaris, in just Japan in that name and the month alone. Sub 35k is as solved as any cost of market entry problems are.

If you're really a 1-5% earner and cars seem unaffordable, you're really overspending elsewhere.

Giving big "throwaway" energy.

It does. And it's not just GP. Most praised EVs are sold at loss. Most criticized are sold at profit. Everyone can see winds changing on Tesla, guess what happened to them few quarters back.