Comment by elihu

Somehow car manufacturers are able to make engines, transmissions, transaxles, and differentials really cheaply, so apparently all that precision manufacturing doesn't really cost all that much when producing at high volume. This should be equally true of EVs and combustion-engine cars.

Raw material costs might still be less than the manufacturing costs, but they're pretty hard to avoid. Also, materials that are cheap now might not be if demand grows faster than supply.