Kandi has been on a mission to provide the cheapest electric car, and probably cheapest new car in general, on the market with its duo of the K27 and K23 cheap electric cars. Kandi announced that their two small Chinese-made EVs have made headway into being approved for sale in the country by way of certification from the EPA presenting Certificates of Conformity.
Johnny Tai, CEO of Kandi America commented on the importance of the certification
“What a milestone for Kandi. By way of this final certification requirement, we can officially bring to market America’s most affordable electric vehicles. We are in the process of finalizing our fulfillment plans and look forward to seeing our EVs on U.S. roads very soon.”
Kandi’s claim to fame, and specifically the K27, is no doubt their super low price. The design is bland, the interior is ordinary, and the range will restrict you to only local travel (59 miles for the K27). But it is by far the cheapest electric cars you can buy and one of the cheapest new cars you can find in general before applying any sort of incentives.
With a starting price of only $17,499, the K27 goes down to a four-digit price of $9,999 after the $7,500 federal tax credit. Add in any sort of available state incentives and we get even lower, in California, you can have the K27 for just $7,999 and in Colorado, you can bring the price all the way down to an absurd $5,999.
Now like I said, there is not much going in terms of design or performance, but when you are getting a new car at a sub-$10,000 price, it’s hard to be choosy. While it certainly won’t be for everyone, for those that are really wanting to get into an electric car and are on a super-tight budget then this is your option, but I hope you won’t ever have to travel over 60 mph as the K27 is limited to 68 mph.
The K27’s older brother, the K23 does offer a little more comfort, size, and performance, but does so at a higher price. The 111-mile range K23 can be had as low as $15,999 when combined with the federal tax credit and the most generous of state incentives.
It is important to note that both of the vehicles have promotional pricing for the first 1,000 customers and will increase their prices by $1,000 afterwards, but will obviously remain cheap compared to all other electric cars.
Lack of big range in either model will be one of the hardest sells for the cheap electric cars. Automakers tend to not send their urban cars to the US due to our love of having high range, but those cars tend to be nowhere as cheap as what Kandi is offering, so maybe the trade-off will be acceptable for some.
It will be interesting to see how this strategy plays out from Kandi. There isn’t exactly an abundance of cheap used electric cars aside from some very early Nissan Leafs, so we will see how big the market is for such a cheap new car or if the market will keep to their aspirations of one day owning a Tesla.
Both the Kandi K23 and K27 are available for pre-order.
What do you guys think? Let us know down in the comments below.
Source: Kandi America
