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Unboxing The World's Cheapest New Car Reveals It's So Much Better Than You Think (13:12) ~ Jalopnik, 2020-06-02

How We Transported The World's Cheapest New Car From China To A Backyard In North Carolina (4:57) ~ Jalopnik, 2020-06-03

Here's What The World's Cheapest Electric Car Is Like To Drive (6:27) ~ Jalopnik, 2020-06-04

The Impressive Engineering Behind The Cheapest Electric Car In The World (15:36) ~ Jalopnik, 2020-06-05

Show notes:
"The cheapest new electric car in the world, the $1,200^* Changli Nemeca from Chinese e-commerce website Alibaba, is a truly amazing machine. This became clear as soon as my coworker Jason Torchinsky unboxed the car and saw its unexpected features, and even more so when he drove it. But it wasn’t until he and I looked at the tech under the skin that we truly realized the Changli’s unbelievable value. Here’s a look at the engineering behind the incredible 1.1 horsepower Changli."

"Jason had a vision last year: He was going to buy the cheapest electric car in the world from Alibaba, ship it across the ocean to the U.S., deal with all the customs paperwork, truck the car down to his place in North Carolina, and show the world what the wackiest form of EV ownership looks like. Amazingly, despite uncertainty within our company, and despite the coronavirus and related economic turmoil, he pulled it off. The car that began life in Jiangsu, China now sits in Jason’s backyard in Chapel Hill [North Carolina?], where the machine immediately blew us away with its impressive features."

*Likely US dollars, $930 without batteries, or ~$3,000 total including shipping from China.

This Is The Real-World Range Of The Cheapest EV In The World ~ Gizmodo, 2020-06
"Oh, I should also mention that while I’ve been calling the car the Changli NEMECA, an acronym for New Energy Mini Electric Car for Adults, as it was shown on the Alibaba site, I just found the original Changli site that seems to call the car the Freeman!"

DuckDuckGo: Changli Nemeca

Makes me really want to get one and trick it out and/or make it a mutant vehicle. Maybe wrap the entire thing in orange fun fur? It reminds me a bit of the 60s golf cart I rebuilt and restored in a week for my girlfriend's disabled brother to get around at Burning Man.

 

Bonus:

The '90s Gave Us A Not So Hot Rod: The Plymouth Prowler (2:51) ~ Jalopnik, 2020-06-12

I've loved the Prowlers since day one, for no other reason than they were radically different. I've never been in one and have no idea if they're just eye candy or actually good for anything.