Today at Frankfurt Motor Show 2019, SEAT announced the price of the Mii Electric in Germany, making it the cheapest VW triplet.

Let’s see the press release.

Goal: to democratise electric mobility

SEAT is also using the framework of the motor show to announce that pre-sales of the new Mii electric will begin from mid September, thus contributing to more affordable electric mobility with a vehicle that is agile and decidedly urban. The brand’s first electric model can be purchased starting at €145 per month with no down payment with a 36-month leasing formula in Germany or outright for €16,300 (including government and brand subsidies). The Mii electric is being sold in 14 countries (Spain, Germany, Italy, France, the UK, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Poland) since mid September and will come to market in early 2020. Coinciding with the commercial launch of the new Mii electric, SEAT is going to introduce a smart Wallbox home recharging solution. Customers can purchase the device and order its installation along with the vehicle, and it will enable them to optimise the car’s recharging time and manage all the information on their mobile phone or via an online platform.

Now the VW electric trio is complete.

SEAT Mii Electric

Germany: 20.650 euros (before subsidies) and 16.300 euros (after subsidies)

ŠKODA CITIGOe iV

Germany: 20.950 euros (before subsidies) and 16.570 euros (after subsidies)

Czech Republic: 429.900 CZK (16.633 euros)

Volkswagen e-up

Germany: 21.975 euros (before subsidies) and 17.595 euros (after subsidies)

As you can see the ŠKODA CITIGOe iV has a similar price in Germany, where government subsidies exist and in Czech Republic where they don’t exist (for private buyers).

Government subsidies aren’t effective to make electric cars affordable, they go straight into the pockets of automakers. Moreover, they are actually counterproductive and maintain prices artificially inflated. If automakers dropped the prices to affordable levels, governments would cut the subsidies…

The best way to make automakers switch to electric cars is by making ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) cars more expensive to buy and use by taxing them higher. When automakers realize that selling ICE cars is difficult, they’ll increase electric car production and sales, since it’s better to sell electric cars than no cars at all.

People often confuse price with cost. Regarding electric cars, price and cost are only remotely related.

Automakers first decide how many cars they want to produce and sell, only then they decide the price (try to sell them for as much as they can). If VW decides to sell 50.000 triplets units in a year and thinks that it can find 50.000 buyers that pay around 17.000 euros for each that’s what it’s going to do. If government subsidies exist automakers can increase the price and keep the difference.

Anyway, the VW triplets are the first electric cars with decent range (260 km in WLTP) that we can really call affordable. I’m sure we’ll see a lot of them in European cities in the coming years.

More info:

https://www.seat-mediacenter.com/newspage/allnews/motorshow/2019/SEAT-accelerates-its-electric-offensive-at-the-Frankfurt-IAA.html

https://www.seat.de/modelle/mii-electric/uebersicht.html

https://www.skoda-storyboard.com/cs/tiskove-zpravy-archiv/elektricka-budoucnost-znacky-skoda-startuje-zahajen-predprodej-elektrifikovanych-modelu-citigoe-iv-a-superb-iv/