Photo: GM
Electric vehicles came into the world as an unlikely way of curbing environmental problems and saving the earth from pollution. They were laughed at and even today, a lot of people think of them as “not real cars”. But something has fundamentally changed in the past years, and suddenly EVs are cool. Cool enough for many to be willing to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars and then some to buy one.
Electric vehicles were expensive in the beginning but came with the promise that they will be affordable one day when the technology will become mature enough. We accepted that the Tesla Model S would be a fairly expensive car and hailed the Model 3 as a truly affordable electric vehicle. We were promised a $25,000 Tesla and were eagerly waiting to buy one but then everything shattered to pieces when the prices started to go haywire.
Despite more carmakers working to bring electric vehicles on the market, EVs have become more and more expensive. Blame the pandemic, the chip shortages, and the war in Ukraine, but the bottom line is that electric vehicles have become really expensive, like prohibitively expensive. Tesla itself abandoned the plans to bring the EVs to the masses, ditched the $25,000 car plan, and started to jack up prices for the existing models like there’s no tomorrow.
As expensive as EVs have become in the past months, it’s amazing that people step on one another’s toes to get one. To put it bluntly, electric vehicles have become the new status symbol for rich people. This is why people don’t blink while paying close to $300,000 on a pre-owned GMC Hummer EV. It would be totally uncool to spend just the $115,000 or so which is the MSRP of the Hummer Edition 1.
Dealers are astonished too, especially when they see customers ordering additional equipment for a vehicle that is already loaded up with features. Because buying stock is so lame, you get it. GMC says customers are spending between $2,000 and $4,000 on average on accessories for the electric pickup truck, according to Automotive News. As lesser trims will launch later into the year, customers are likely to spend even more on options and accessories.
After Edition 1 batch has sold out, the customers kept ordering similar configurations by adding everything on the menu to whatever version was available at the time of the reservation. Popular accessories include the power-retractable tonneau cover for the bed and the lighting package with front off-road auxiliary lights, interior footwell lighting, rearview mirror project lights, and tailgate step lighting.
Of course, the reservations do not equal orders, but in the case of the GMC Hummer EV, the conversion rate exceeds 90%. Everybody wants one, even if it means paying a fortune to secure the hulking electric truck. And this should become the norm with other electric vehicles expected to come on the market in the following years.
Despite more carmakers working to bring electric vehicles on the market, EVs have become more and more expensive. Blame the pandemic, the chip shortages, and the war in Ukraine, but the bottom line is that electric vehicles have become really expensive, like prohibitively expensive. Tesla itself abandoned the plans to bring the EVs to the masses, ditched the $25,000 car plan, and started to jack up prices for the existing models like there’s no tomorrow.
As expensive as EVs have become in the past months, it’s amazing that people step on one another’s toes to get one. To put it bluntly, electric vehicles have become the new status symbol for rich people. This is why people don’t blink while paying close to $300,000 on a pre-owned GMC Hummer EV. It would be totally uncool to spend just the $115,000 or so which is the MSRP of the Hummer Edition 1.
Dealers are astonished too, especially when they see customers ordering additional equipment for a vehicle that is already loaded up with features. Because buying stock is so lame, you get it. GMC says customers are spending between $2,000 and $4,000 on average on accessories for the electric pickup truck, according to Automotive News. As lesser trims will launch later into the year, customers are likely to spend even more on options and accessories.
After Edition 1 batch has sold out, the customers kept ordering similar configurations by adding everything on the menu to whatever version was available at the time of the reservation. Popular accessories include the power-retractable tonneau cover for the bed and the lighting package with front off-road auxiliary lights, interior footwell lighting, rearview mirror project lights, and tailgate step lighting.
Of course, the reservations do not equal orders, but in the case of the GMC Hummer EV, the conversion rate exceeds 90%. Everybody wants one, even if it means paying a fortune to secure the hulking electric truck. And this should become the norm with other electric vehicles expected to come on the market in the following years.
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