Mass-producing IC engines, even complicated state-of-the-art ones, is exceedingly simple and cheap. Assembling an EV battery is actually pretty damned hard and energy-intensive. This is all reflected in the price. If it were easy to make an EV battery, they would cost less. If it was hard to make an IC engine, there would be no $4500 motorcycles.
The equivalent of your $4500 motorcycle is the $4000 - $6000 mini EVs sold in second-tier chinese cities[1], the best-known of which is probably the Wuling Hongguang Mini EV[2]. There are many reviews of them on Youtube, some in English by native english speakers. These EVs have the same number of airbags as motorcycles, but more seatbelts.
Edit: apparently they now have more airbags than motorcycles, as well as more roll cages and other safety features.
To what degree do you think this reflects learning over time? My impression is that high precision manufacturing is something that we've gotten very good at, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's easy.
I don't see what the difference is between being good at something and it being easy. I think the prices of these things are indicative. The fact that an ICE has a bazillion parts is superficial, aesthetic, and irrelevant. A bicycle chain has 400 moving parts, state-of-the-art metallurgy, and costs $10.
I guess it's a question of whether battery production will one day be easy as well. Certainly, 200 years ago modern ICE production wouldn't have been easy, so maybe we're just at a similar point in the history of battery production.
