Niyato Industries, Inc. recently announced that it will offer all-electric sedans, made in America by Americans for Americans, for under $50,000. In a bit of a rare move, Niyato is not technically selling its own EVs – rather than pouring resources into developing their own platform, they’ll be converting existing vehicles instead.
“We at Niyato Industries Inc. are all Americans and we have created Niyato Industries to put Americans to work.”
A bold statement – most of Niyato’s pitch revolves around creating American jobs rather than selling the actual product, which leads me to believe that the product itself is sort of blah. Despite their emphasis on affordability, the vehicles for sale aren’t really any cheaper than the Leaf or the Volt. Then again, since conversions are saving Niyato money that would have been spent on development, I have to give them points for figuring out how to make what must be a pretty healthy profit on electric cars.
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Don’t get me wrong – I love that Niyato is trying to strengthen the American economy (I live in the States, after all). Niyato’s American-based conversion factories should provide jobs and keep those employees spending money earned from actually working. I also love that Niyato is marketing and selling electric cars at all – with solar, wind, water, and geothermal energy providing electricity (in addition to traditional sources, which admittedly have some dirt of their own), the potential for staggeringly low carbon emissions is there.
Niyato states that they want to reduce American dependency on foreign oil, and stick to local factories instead of outsourcing beyond American borders. They believe that conversion offers a more sustainable economic model. They will even be selling vehicles to the U.S. government to help meet its quota of fleet conversions to alternative fuels by 2015. All in all, it’s a pretty good deal.
Of course, you could also just go ahead and do the conversion on your own.
If you were in the market for an electric car, which route would you take? Let us know in the comments, below.
Source: Business Wire | Image: Niyato Industries.
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