You have 2 issue here, maybe you come from a developing country which have a different standard of living than we in the West? Or You are just ignorant of the issue because you don't live here. First of all,
NO ONE, I will repeat
NO ONE will ever earn less than minimal wage, you get paid minimal wage or above, if you get paid less than minimal wages, your employer will be breaking the law, it wasn't early 2000 when paying people $10 an hour can fly... Again, I don't know where you live, maybe wage theft is a very widespread problem there? If so, then I feel sorry for you.
On the other hand, again, inflation is NOT 20%, where you will be forced under when you are earning minimum wage, I mean, I don't know where you live, it may be true over where your place is, but not here in Australia. I mean 50k a year, you are talking about 5-6% inflation. It wouldn't push people under......
The latest monthly consumer price indicator shows inflation fell sharply to 5.6 per cent over the 12 months to May, down from 6.8 per cent in April.
www.abc.net.au
And as the maths I lay out, even people on minimum wages, which IS THE LOWEST in this country can get, can afford to buy a Tesla rather easily, because the price range for a car you buy is generally 4 times your yearly wages for a 5 years loan. I mean even if just you, doing a dead end job and earning $50,000 a year, your would still have around $20,000 a year disposable income. Think about this, you earn $880 a week, rent is around $250 a week, food is about $70 and you pay around 300 a month for electricity, internet and so on, you are left with around $2000 a month ($880 x 4 = 3520, you taken out 4 weeks of rent (= $1000) 4 week of food (= $280) and $300 a month utilities, you left 3520-1000-280-300 = 1940 a month), 12 months is $23280 in your pocket that is disposable. You can more than easily afford a $56000 car if you go for a 5-year loan.
The second issue you have is you don't understand people's buying habit in the west. Again, I don't know because of your countries' conditions or you, sadly to say, cannot afford a lot of thing in your life, or you can simply be a very fugal person, I don't know, but when people look at Price tag, and if people can afford all the option, most of them won't go for the cheapest option, unless you
SPECIFICALLY aim for it, again, like you just want to save money for whatever reason, it's a common trend for people to go for the best option if they can afford stuff, otherwise we won't be using anything but Chinese product because if this is the trend, then people will be buying only Chinese product because it is cheaper than the other brand. I mean TCL would have outsell Samsung or LG for TV, or Oppo will be outselling Samsung and Iphone here. If the majority of people is like you said, only focus on value, then EU/US brand would have been extincted in Australia or the US.
The only way what you said make sense is for people to not be able to afford any product other than the Chinese cheaper replacement. But as I said, this is wrong because at the very bottom level, a person who work only 40 hours a week in minimal pay, could have $23280 a year save up (more if they live with parent or didn't live alone) and you can more than enough to afford Tesla or even a Merc EV if you try to stretch it out.
Again, I am not saying people who like to save and choose the cheaper option would not happen, but
THAT WAS NOT THE TREND HERE, that is not the trend for TV, for mobile phone, for white goods or food, and it certainly not for buying an ICE car. We have Chinese car here already, if what you say was true, then people would have been buying Haval or MG or GVM in dove, because everyone want to save, but that is not the case here. I mean, if people can normally afford a Toyota and buy a Toyota, it wouldn't change suddenly when you are talking about EV, they would still be able to afford a Toyota EV, you would have expected ICE car have a same trend than EV
Here's a list of Australia's top 10 car brands, as ranked by the number of vehicles sold in 2015 by Australian car brands.
techquirer.com
So with all due respect, you are wrong. As for what make me speak for people here? Well, I live here, and I am not just saying stuff, I am using all kind of data backing up what I said, and unless you do know more than me about buying a car in Australia. I would have to say my knowledge on this subject matter is better than yours.
