China is eyeing the lucrative US market for Electric Vehicles

A new Chinese electric car company is preparing to enter the US market. EV builder Kandi will either take the electric car market by storm because the products are super cheap, or the same fate as the Yugoslav "Yugo" in the early 1990s, with which every good car joke began. Chinese electric car maker Kandi has announced its official American debut, and the price tag will make these electric cars the cheapest in the country. The only question now is: do you get what you pay for? Two models that are currently ready for pre-order will be on the market at the end of 2020. They begin in a limited area in Texas and are sold through Texas-based Kandi America, the trading name of Kandi's wholly-owned subsidiary SC Autosports, LLC. The K27 model ships with a 17.69 kWh battery and range of up to 100 miles and starts at $ 20,499. It's also eligible for the $ 7,500 federal income tax credit, which would bring it to just under $ 13,000. The larger K23 has a 41.4 kWh battery and a range of more than 180 miles with a starting price of just under $ 30,000, again before federal incentives are applied. Both models are cheaper than other EVs sold in the US even without the federal incentives. Kandi says it is now actively looking to build an electric car factory in North America. And while it is largely unknown to most western consumers, Kandi is a big name in China. It is a joint venture between Kandi Vehicles and one of the largest Chinese automobile manufacturers, the Geely Group, which in turn is the parent company of the Swedish company Volvo. Kandi's chairman Xiaoming Hu said in a statement that the target audience is middle-class Americans who have few affordable EV choices. "... ownership of the (EV) car often eluded consumers who wanted a great EV alongside all the other conveniences of modern life. Kandi is changing that by revolutionizing the EV buying experience for many. The Mission from Kandi is to make electric cars accessible to everyone, "the statement said. So while the boxes for affordability are ticked here, reliability and performance remain big unknowns. Kandi started EV production in 2007, and in the domestic market, their cars are mainly used by the car sharing companies. However, China has different security standards. Until now, it has been difficult for Chinese automakers to gain a foothold in the US market as the vehicles sold here require approved safety equipment such as anti-lock braking systems, airbags, traction control and exterior lighting. In addition, all vehicles sold in the USA are crash tested by the NHTSA. Last February, Kandi announced that it had received approval from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to import the two models mentioned, which are still not sold in the Chinese market. However, Kandi is not listed on the EPA's website on fuel economy or under the NHTSA's crash tests, so progress on certification is not clear. CNN wrote that its reporters in China could not find any records of crash tests on these two models or any other Kandi model. As for the yugo, in the early 1990s, UN sanctions on what was left of Yugoslavia stopped exporting and that was the end of the yugo in America. Despite being dubbed the "Worst Car Ever" and "Worst Car of the Millennium," but also the cheapest car, the Yugo still sold nearly 140,000 during its 8-year tenure in the US market Cars. Due to their popularity and technical features, none of these can be found on the streets of the United States today.