Peter May wrote in a message to Greg Mayman:

 PM> You have to start doing your sums at this point, the unit has two
 PM> 12 volt lead acid batteries, an electronic control unit, horn,
 PM> wheels, brakes, frame, rare earth permanent magnet motor and belt.
 PM> All for under $100?

One wonders how they do that,  and how long they're going to be able to keep it up...

 PM> My local battery supplier wants $120 for a small lead acid battery
 PM> for my aging National Camcorder.

That's absurd.

 PM> Someone obviously is making the middleman money here, so what's his
 PM> profit, margin? Even more interesting, just how much are the
 PM> chinese exporting these things for?

Worse yet,  how much can they be making considering that at the price
mentioned they can't be selling all that many of them.

 PM> Do they use slave labor or robotics to save costs?

Depends on whether we're talking about China or Japan,  I guess.

 PM> What do the workers and downstream industries get paid?

As little as possible,  apparently.

 PM> I recently bought an 650 watt electric planer with a 3 year
 PM> replacement warranty for under $60! How can they do this? 

 PM> How can this be economically sustainable in the long term
 PM> environmental sense?

I can't see how it could be.

 PM> You cant keep digging ore out of the ground and turning it into
 PM> "things" for almost free, so where are the costs of the raw
 PM> materials?

 PM> What is this doing to other, well thought out industries in other
 PM> countries, where natural resources still have some value attached
 PM> to them?  

Good questions,  those.

---