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by toomuchtodo 77 days ago
BYD EVs are affordable. Electricity will get cheaper with more renewables, oil will not.
2 comments

Define affordable. A €40k Seal is anything but affordable. Eastern Europe (and I don't put Slovenia in this case here, they are much closer to Western Europe in every sense) will not mass change to EVs suddenly when everyone is shopping for 10 years old diesels from Western Europe for maximum €10k
> Define affordable.

Cheaper than the total cost of ownership of a combustion vehicle at $150-$200/barrel for prolonged periods of time.

Are We Approaching an Unprecedented Energy Crisis? - https://thedispatch.com/newsletter/dispatch-energy/iran-war-... - March 26th, 2026

France confirms oil crisis, says 30-40 percent of Gulf energy infrastructure destroyed - https://www.france24.com/en/france-confirms-oil-crisis-says-... - March 25th, 2026

Even the best-case scenario for energy markets is disastrous - https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2026/03/22/e... | https://archive.today/5OhRI - March 22nd, 2026

New cars have questionable affordability for most people. Particularly when you factor in dubious design choices and expensive marketing. Cars and driving are expensive. If that was a barrier there wouldn't be many people on the road.

Also, the Electric polo is supposed to be released at around 25k Euros. Given the lower running costs that seems like a good deal relative to legacy designs. For all those people will to spend 40k on a car you could put the money into solar panels instead.

If you think the Seal isn't affordable then don't buy one.

You can buy a brand new Dacia Spring for only £12,240. Personally I don't think it's a great car but it's certainly doesn't cost 40K.

If it were my money I'd spend a bit more on either a used Jag ePace or a Renault 5 but some people prefer new cars I guess.

Thanks for the nerd snipe! I just found the Citroen e-C3, for a couple thousand more than the Spring. Both look fine. They should just be station wagons, but this is our timeline.
> Electricity will get cheaper with more renewables

Citation?

Yeah a lot of noise in there. Zooming in on the COVID price spike and then recovery trying to suggest it was renewables - nice try.

Fact is if you zoom out 20 years Spain's prices have trended up. Your link just proves my point that while there has been an increase in the blend, it hasn't reduced prices.

You’re ignoring data and facts, that’s a choice of course.

https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/decoupled-how-spain...

> Decoupled: how Spain cut the link between gas and power prices using renewables

> Spain has some of the lowest wholesale electricity prices in Europe, largely owing to the country’s strong solar and wind growth which reduced the influence of expensive coal and gas power on the electricity market.