[thfuran]

>car companies would make them in an effort to maximize profit

That might make sense if the only two options were "make nothing" and "make EVs to sell for 20k". In the presence of other options, however, the manufacturer might decide that that's not the optimal strategy. Or existing regulations, tariffs, or subsidies might be distorting the market. Automobiles are probably one of the least-free markets this side of pacemakers.

[FredPret]

Fair, but a lot of the regulations are safety related and people would probably vote for those regulations directly if they could.

So a 20k EV probably just involves too many compromises to make it a winning proposition for both the buyer and the seller.