1k for a wheelchair is unbelievable for me. In Bangladesh they cost about 7 to 9 thousands taka which is equivalent 60 to 100 USD. I don't understand.
There are obvious COL differences between regions which can account for a huge part of that. There's a reason we lost our manufacturing base in the west to China.
Are the chairs you're speaking of customized? Are they using the components of a similar quality? That may be a component, as well.
>I don't understand.
Almost completely different products.
Those are shitty wheelchairs not meant for use by people permanently disabled by western standards. We have plenty of imported cheap wheelchairs on Amazon in the US.
I mean sure you could use them, but they aren't customized to your body dimensions for life long comfort. They won't hold up to long term abuse actually going outside daily for life and work.
In the west, we actually legally mandate buildings and transportation accommodate wheelchair users, so they can actually live like normal people. Heck they can also legally drive.
Back to the wheelchair, the foundation of this $1k wheelchair which is bent aluminum instead of welded metal is a massive increase in reliability where a cheap chair could instead break a weld and leave someone stranded in the middle of nowhere.
Those are not custom (typically come pre-sized) and are generally not very usable outdoors to get around other than short distances. Sometimes known as "hospital wheelchairs". For people with temporary injuries who are mostly taking time off from work it's fine.
This is a everyday wheelchair that people can use to get to somewhere a mile or two away and back, often used by people to get to work or around a university campus independently. It is custom made to your measurements: https://notawheelchair.com/pages/configurator
https://www.sammcintosh.com/blog/wheelchairtypes0620