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Ask HN: What will be the future differentiator in electric vehicles?

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Re: Ask HN: What will be the future differentiator in electric vehicles?

#81

Post by bin_bash »

natch wrote: post #17
sokoloff wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems to me that the Taycan is competing quite favorably on performance and don’t see a reason to think that will go away by virtue of everyday $35K electrics having that same level of performance.

https://www.autoevolution.com/news/porsche-taycan-owner-comp... “they were surprised to learn that Superchargers could not be used to fill up their Taycan.” Sounds about right.

I think EU-spec Teslas use CCS so they would actually plug in (though you can't actually use them). You can also use Tesla destination chargers even in the US on any EV so I feel it's not totally unreasonable to be surprised by this.

EDIT: I incorrectly said CHAdeMO

Re: Ask HN: What will be the future differentiator in electric vehicles?

#82

Post by J_cst »

throwaway0a5e wrote: post #2

Do you want an answer or do you just want lunchroom discussion? You may as well be asking for stock tips or tonight's lotto numbers. You won't find an answer that's accurate and reliable enough to be actionable here or anywhere. If anyone could do more than idly speculate (probably dressed up with some tropes that play to the audience's confirmation bias to maximize virtue points) OEMs wouldn't be paying millions of…

OP may well be interested in HN crowd comments and points of view and that seems acceptable to me. At the end of the day, this is HN, not S.O. Be well! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ◉‿◉

Re: Ask HN: What will be the future differentiator in electric vehicles?

#83

Post by bin_bash »

pmorici wrote: post #21
sokoloff wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems to me that the Taycan is competing quite favorably on performance and don’t see a reason to think that will go away by virtue of everyday $35K electrics having that same level of performance.

Taycan is not price competitive with Model S and won’t be performance competitive when the S plaid ships this quarter.

The new Corvette is as fast as the 911 for half the price but that's not stopping people from buying 911s

Re: Ask HN: What will be the future differentiator in electric vehicles?

#84

Post by bluGill »

neogodless wrote: post #29

56 million cars sold last year. How many do you think were bought because they do not create emissions, or because of any serious consideration of the engineering behind them? People buy a Toyota Corolla or Prius because it's below the median price, reliable and efficient. They will buy it and then never think about it again because it'll "just work." People buy a Ford F150 because they either have some real use for…

Thanks for writing what I couldn't figure out how to put into words.

I'll add one more thing: there are enough cars sold that there is enough market to support developing lots of different cars.

Re: Ask HN: What will be the future differentiator in electric vehicles?

#85

Post by jagger27 »

The differentiator for me is battery weight. Mazda can't make an electric MX-5 Miata with current battery density as it would cease to be a Miata. One of the core improvements (in my opinion) between the 3rd and 4th generation Miatas is the diet it went on, and that was only 110 lbs in the 2.0l model. The Japan-only 1.5l lost over 300 lbs over the 3rd gen.

Consider the Lotus Elise and the original Tesla Roadster. The Elise weighs in around 2,000 lbs. The Roadster is around 2,800 lbs. It's not 4,000 lbs, but it's a good chunk o' change more. I think we'll get closer eventually.

Re: Ask HN: What will be the future differentiator in electric vehicles?

#86

Post by Answerawake »

petercooper wrote: post #63
twobitshifter wrote: post #39

If someone can get full self driving and patents it, they’ll have the market. Software is where we are seeing most innovation right now. Self parking, 3D surround cameras, accident avoidance, auto lane change, etc. I think you’re correct that there will be less appeal from a technical performance perspective to buy an individual brand. All EVs have fast enough acceleration (some dangerously so.) So competition there…

All EVs have fast enough acceleration (some dangerously so.) So competition there is not going to continue. I'm less sure about that. I think it will remain a distinctive feature that people will actively choose for or against, at least. The new Mini EV from BMW (and which is replacing the i3 as BMW's 'flagship' EV) has only 0-60 in 7s which is not very interesting at all. But they're not aiming at the performance cr…

From what I understand(I could be mistaken) BMW reused the i3 drivetrain in the Mini. While its impressive that they squeezed it into a smaller car, it shows their lack of seriousness that they reused 2013-ish technology in their newest EV. Given this, is it any surprise that the range, acceleration and other metrics are lacking compared to what else is on the market?

Re: Ask HN: What will be the future differentiator in electric vehicles?

#87

Post by chadlavi »

probably the same things that are differentiators now, right? performance/efficiency, durability, look, price. The combustion engine doesn't really play into this much today, except in as much as it affects performance, efficiency and durability.

Re: Ask HN: What will be the future differentiator in electric vehicles?

#88

Post by giantg2 »

Personalization.

One big thing is that they are closed ecosystems and you can't really modify or work on your car. In some cases, it seems that they make it intentionally difficult to fix it modify the vehicle, like Tesla.

I think options are another big thing that falls under this. They do have a bunch of options, but there aren't any stripes down versions. I get that the margins are low so they have to offer higher end, more expensive vehicles. I just want a simple work truck...

Oh, and physical buttons/switches for vehicle controls.

Re: Ask HN: What will be the future differentiator in electric vehicles?

#89

Post by NDizzle »

throwaway0a5e wrote: post #62
JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #4

It will probably just stay the same as now. People will buy based on a perception of brand quality based on reliability, coupled with how the car looks on the inside and outside.

> People will buy based on a perception of a perception of brand quality based on perception of a perception of reliability Fixed that for you. Consumers are fickle.

Found On Road Dead, FORD, coming to a new generation of automobile consumers!

Re: Ask HN: What will be the future differentiator in electric vehicles?

#90

Post by neogodless »

recuter wrote: post #5

Food for thought: https://newatlas.com/ree-modular-mobility-platform/60486/ Here's What The World's Cheapest Electric Car Is Like To Drive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GG1RC7GV0Y You can already order one of these golf-kart like cars from China for less than $5,000 shipped. An easy to mass produce skateboard platform is bound to emerge, so basically who ever has the cheapest reasonably good batteries and marketi…

> basically who ever has the cheapest reasonably good batteries and marketing wins

wins... the market for "cheap golf-kart like cars". But the market for "cars" extends way beyond that very narrow definition of a car.

Also interesting to note that the skateboard platform idea has been floating around for a couple decades now. GM planned a potential one when they dabbled with hydrogen fuel cell EVs back in 2002.

[0] https://www.autoblog.com/2010/09/24/forgotten-concept-2002-g...

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