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The Impressive Engineering Behind The Cheapest Electric Car In The World 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, where the machine immediately blew us away with its impressive features.