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Chevrolet Bolt EV Is the 2017 Motor Trend Car of the Year

motortrend.com

21–30 of 160 posts

Re: Chevrolet Bolt EV Is the 2017 Motor Trend Car of the Year

#21
post #5

I'd like to take a moment to point out, as was done in the article, that receiving this award is further validation that electric cars are becoming mainstream. We can compare it to an upcoming competitor (the Model 3) but at the end of the day, they're vying for positions on the same team. That being said, a lot of this felt like an advertisement as another poster mentioned. One thing I would like to see is better ch…

It's like the rise of California wineries. If someone wins they all win.

Re: Chevrolet Bolt EV Is the 2017 Motor Trend Car of the Year

#22
post #16

The article only briefly touches on this, but LG Korea is a huge part of this. They make the motor, battery & drivetrain, basically everything that makes this car an electric car. Chevrolet is just manufacturing the parts that would be mostly identical to any of their other cars. Rather than Tesla being worried about Chevrolet, I think they'd be more worried about the likes of LG & Samsung in the longer term.

This is a great point. Tesla is, to me, fundamentally a battery company.

Re: Chevrolet Bolt EV Is the 2017 Motor Trend Car of the Year

#23
post #16

The article only briefly touches on this, but LG Korea is a huge part of this. They make the motor, battery & drivetrain, basically everything that makes this car an electric car. Chevrolet is just manufacturing the parts that would be mostly identical to any of their other cars. Rather than Tesla being worried about Chevrolet, I think they'd be more worried about the likes of LG & Samsung in the longer term.

Isn't Tesla's battery tech developed by Panasonic? And I believe that some of their initial Autopilot tech was sourced from Mercedes. It's very difficult to find an auto manufacturer that can build a car from the ground up, primarily because the economics aren't scalable.

Re: Chevrolet Bolt EV Is the 2017 Motor Trend Car of the Year

#24
post #16

The article only briefly touches on this, but LG Korea is a huge part of this. They make the motor, battery & drivetrain, basically everything that makes this car an electric car. Chevrolet is just manufacturing the parts that would be mostly identical to any of their other cars. Rather than Tesla being worried about Chevrolet, I think they'd be more worried about the likes of LG & Samsung in the longer term.

This is a great point. Tesla is, to me, fundamentally a battery company.

It's not just you. They're pretty open about the fact that they're a battery company.

Re: Chevrolet Bolt EV Is the 2017 Motor Trend Car of the Year

#25
post #23
post #16

The article only briefly touches on this, but LG Korea is a huge part of this. They make the motor, battery & drivetrain, basically everything that makes this car an electric car. Chevrolet is just manufacturing the parts that would be mostly identical to any of their other cars. Rather than Tesla being worried about Chevrolet, I think they'd be more worried about the likes of LG & Samsung in the longer term.

Isn't Tesla's battery tech developed by Panasonic? And I believe that some of their initial Autopilot tech was sourced from Mercedes. It's very difficult to find an auto manufacturer that can build a car from the ground up, primarily because the economics aren't scalable.

It's said most IP is Panasonic's although Tesla is partner and probably works on tech too for optimizations for the Gigafactory.

Re: Chevrolet Bolt EV Is the 2017 Motor Trend Car of the Year

#26
post #7

I wonder where the top Speed Limit comes from, is it battery cooling or artificial limiting to proclaim a better Range? In Germany that number raised a few eyebrows.

Most electric cars lack a variable-ratio transmission. At some point and you only have the final drive to reduce the speed of the electric motor. The final drive has to strike a balance between torque for negotiating inclines and top speed, as the electric motor cannot rev to infinity, neither can the power systems handle infinite power though them. An electric car with a two-ratio gearbox would be ideal for both tak…

One of the concerns I have is that many of the EVs that are being released are not capable of towing significantly. I own a horse and we need something that can tow a braked 3.5T trailer.

This market in the EU is primarily serviced by diesel 4x4s. I can see a future where the diesel engine is banned and only at that point will something fall out of the woodwork to cope with that towing capacity.

Re: Chevrolet Bolt EV Is the 2017 Motor Trend Car of the Year

#27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a great point. Tesla is, to me, fundamentally a battery company.

It's not just you. They're pretty open about the fact that they're a battery company.

The spin is shifting, they started as a car company with socio-ecological conscience and now moving onto green energy of all forms.

Re: Chevrolet Bolt EV Is the 2017 Motor Trend Car of the Year

#28
post #18

I wonder where the top Speed Limit comes from, is it battery cooling or artificial limiting to proclaim a better Range? In Germany that number raised a few eyebrows.

A top speed around 150 km/h isn't unusual for smaller ICEs either. Unless you spend that much time on the Autobahn and do mostly city driving the speed limit isn't really a problem in my experience. But I guess with an electric vehicle you're unlikely to drive long distances at those speeds anyway.

Not a big Problem, but being limited to 150 was one of the main things why my old ICE car to me felt unsafe to drive on the Autobahn. For short periods its just safer to be able use the most left lane at 160-180 than to go 120-130 in the Center and wait for a chance to overtake with not much headroom over the left at 140-150.

Re: Chevrolet Bolt EV Is the 2017 Motor Trend Car of the Year

#29
post #17

I wonder if taking pre-orders for the model 3 was a way for Tesla to lock up orders in anticipation of competition?

I thought the pre-order down payment was fully refundable.

It is, so it's not really a "lock," but it'll get some people to wait if they have money in it. And it's also an easy way for Tesla to raise some money. They got $400+ million for "free" that way.

Re: Chevrolet Bolt EV Is the 2017 Motor Trend Car of the Year

#30
post #16

The article only briefly touches on this, but LG Korea is a huge part of this. They make the motor, battery & drivetrain, basically everything that makes this car an electric car. Chevrolet is just manufacturing the parts that would be mostly identical to any of their other cars. Rather than Tesla being worried about Chevrolet, I think they'd be more worried about the likes of LG & Samsung in the longer term.

This is a great point. Tesla is, to me, fundamentally a battery company.

To me, Tesla feels like a "marketing" company. And I don't mean that in a bad way.

Yes, their battery tech is improving, and they make pretty damn good cars, but most of all Tesla is getting people excited for electric cars.

Before they came around, electric cars were shitty ecoboxes that were worse in just about every way to an ICE car. They were ugly, had no range, were missing features, expensive, slow charging, etc... There were exceptions, but for the most part this was what the average person believed.

And while you could argue that much of this is still true with Teslas when compared to other luxury brands at the same price point, Tesla has gotten people interested. They've gotten people excited for electric cars. They've made people want them even though they might be worse on paper.

And that's a big deal. They are not only making a great product, but they are pushing their competitors to step up their game and really focus on their electric offerings.

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