It seems like every week there is a new company that produces electric cars. Are EVs so easier to make compared to ICE cars?
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While not of it is simple, electric motors have been around for a long time. So have batteries.
In that sense, an EV drive is, on basic fundamentals, not super complicated. We have known for a long time how to move large amounts of electrical energy and convert that into rotational motion. The real innovation will be in state of the art motors and batteries. With Tesla pioneering the way and many manufacturers now making batteries in large quantities, the major pieces to make an EV viable is now fairly readily available.
It used to be that a company either used pretty poor (lead acid) batteries or had to invest many tens of millions making custom batteries if they wanted to make an EV and that is before a vehicle could even be produced. The market is now fairly established with standards, specifications, availability and costs that can support EV production.
Of course, car design is now over a century old (and even older if we consider things like horse drawn coaches). So the market for things like suspension, steering, brakes, wheels/tires don’t require the reinvention of the wheel, as it were. There are a ton of companies that make these components as a system.
Then there is computerization. Powerful, cheap and reliable computing makes the control and integration of the vehicle relatively straightforward. Many things can be tested in simulation making it far less costly and quicker to prototype and test concepts and ideas because the early problems can be identified before making hardware.
Other significantly contributing technologies would be advances in 3D printing (relatively new) and computer aided CNC machining. Much of the barrier to entry to producing expensive and complex product is in the prototyping and test efforts. To make a car, one needed experts in material sciences, chemistry, mechanical engineering, craftspeople, industrial design, fabrication experts, tooling experts, electrical engineering, thermodynamics experts, etc etc. A lot of this can be outsourced or done using computers.
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