Electric Crossovers and Trucks are Coming to the US, But Smaller, Bestselling EV's Aren't Being Brought Here

If you keep up with the news about EV's, you will perceive a lot of of excitement in the US right now about electric SUV's, crossovers, trucks and big sedans. The Mustang Mach-E, which despite its name is not a Mustang, but a crossover, has been selling very well. The Hyundai Ioniq 5, another crossover, is coming soon, as are big fast sedans from Lucid, Polestar and Audi, and trucks from Rivian and Tesla and Bollinger, as well as newer versions of great big huge EV's which have already been on sale in the US for a while. And a report from some alleged geniuses says that VW "could" eventually compete with Tesla in the EV market. The VW id.4, a crossover, will go on sale in the US very soon, if it hasn't already.

In Europe, the best-selling EV right now is the VW id.3, a hatchback a bit smaller then the id.4, which hit the market last year. 2nd place: the Renault Zoe, which has been around for years and sold a huge number of units, over 250,000 and counting fast, 4th all-time among EV's after the Tesla Model 3, the Nissan Leaf and the Tesla Model S.. 

Neither the id.3 nor the Zoe is on sale in the US. 

And European reviewers are very excited about many other smallish EV's, such as the Honda E, which also are not for sale in in the US. The best-selling EV in China is the Wuling HongGuang Mini EV -- not on sale in the US.

"They" say that we Americans love SUV's, crossovers and trucks. But it's sort of hard for us to make the case that we would often prefer smaller cars when it's literally impossible for us to buy them.

 

Jeepers, why were almost 4 times as many EV's sold in Europe last year as in the US? It's a complete and stupefying mystery! The number sold in China was almost identical to Europe. Europe just barely won.

 

I'm old enough to remember the 1960's and 70's, when the US market was full of muscle cars, station wagons and huge sluggish sedans. Not very exciting machines, but the manufacturers made huge profits per vehicle. What's going on right now in the US EV market feels very familiar, unfortunately. Except that in this case it's doubly stupid, of course, because EV's are supposedly about efficiency.

The Cute EV of the Month Award goes to the Citroen Ami. This time it wasn't even close.

 

This French 2-seater is technically not even  a car, at least not according to French laws. 14-year-olds can legally drive it. The exterior is entirely made of plastic. The Ami doesn't have any of the sound insulation found in conventional automobiles, so you hear the very small electrical motor whizzing away as you drive. It doesn't seem to be able to top 30mph, except maybe downhill. Don't quote me on the downhill over-30mph, I'm not entirely sure about it. So far it's only available in France. Despite the total lack of anything even remotely resembling frills, British reviewers are going, please please please, Citroen, bring it to the UK, and Citroen is saying, Okay, maybe, we'll see, which makes the British reviewers hop around with glee.

What about in the US? Haha. Ahhhh, haaaa-hahahaaaa, haahaa, haha!  

No, as far as I know, there are no immediate plans to bring the Citroen Ami to the US.

I've got a great idea for a commercial for the Citroen Ami. "Ami" is French for "friend." In the commercial, someone is walking along the sidewalk, while an Ami rolls along silently in the street just behind him. There's no-one behind the steering wheel. He turns around and the Ami stops. He starts walking again and the Ami starts rolling along behind him again. He turns around again and looks at the Ami for a longer period of time. Then the Ami says, in a voice like ET: "Friend."