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Are there any answers from that conversation that stood out to you in particular? I'd be really interested to hear them!
Basically...you can't build a car with a novice and expert operator mode as much sense as that would make. Also the amount of thought that goes into some decisions kinda amazed me.
PHEVs were such a misconceived idea. So many more parts to wear out for such little benefit.
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So why bother with an electric at all?
Regenerative braking, significantly simpler drivetrain, pure electric for the cities. Only problem I have is they use normal car engines as range extenders. Could've gone with a simpler/cheaper wankel or microturbine optimized for high RPM, but I guess it's quicker to slap on an engine you already have.
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They also never advertised it at all. The only people who knew about them either researched them or heard about them from word of mouth. The total absense of advertising for a vehicle that so many people loved has always reeked of lack of commitment from one side of the house. That doesn’t even factor in how Chevy dealerships would actively try to talk you out of them.
I heard about it when it first came out and frankly the name itself was a turnoff. I had no idea that they were selling so many. Maybe with some better branding it could have done better in the market.
So I wonder if you could elaborate on what made the name a turnoff?
Thanks!
Earlier quoted context omitted.
So why bother with an electric at all?
Regenerative braking, significantly simpler drivetrain, pure electric for the cities. Only problem I have is they use normal car engines as range extenders. Could've gone with a simpler/cheaper wankel or microturbine optimized for high RPM, but I guess it's quicker to slap on an engine you already have.
This was really shortsighted. PHEV is currently the best technology. I think the push for full EV is premature for mass market. It works for niche cases like Tesla, but not something that can be truly mainstream. With current battery tech and infrastructure, EV is a 50 mile technology. It has nothing to do with battery tech itself, doesn't matter how light or dense the battery is. The limit is infrastructure. 50 mile…
>With current battery tech and infrastructure, EV is a 50 mile technology. It has nothing to do with battery tech itself, doesn't matter how light or dense the battery is. The limit is infrastructure. 50 miles is about what you can charge with a level 1 charger overnight. The vast majority of first-time EV buyers also install a 240v charging station, which typically costs about $1200 including labour and will fully c…
It takes 15 to 20 minutes. I know because I watch the GPS and I check the ETA number after a stop.
Will 20 minutes be enough for 3 hours of driving?
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> how to extend the range to something everyone is used to, like 200-300 miles for road trips? There's two options, more batteries or an ICE engine. quick-change batteries would work for now
The lost route IMO was modular batteries. Say your Model S has a bank replacable modules instead of a single monolith. These can be pulled and swapped with pre-charged cells in minutes. This also allows older packs to be pulled from circulation, removing the fear of aging batteries causing depreciation on the vehicle.
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God has wish that conversation was recorded, I’d probably listen to it twice.
We talked for a while about using the onboard GPS to help the hybrid system optimize decisions about power management if it knew where you were going. We also talked about variable regenerative braking which ended up in the 2nd gen Lawyers and 'the idiot public' we're a lot of it.
Even the Bolt that is replacing the Volt as their go-to-EV is still losing money per car sold (for now): > An unnamed source cited by Bloomberg News estimates that General Motors is expected to take a loss of between US$8,000 and US$9,000 per Bolt sold. A GM spokesman first declined to comment on the expected profitability.[20] Opel refuted that in December 2016 and states that GM has battery cell costs of $130/kWh,…