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GM, Volkswagen Say Goodbye to Hybrid Vehicles

wsj.com

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Re: GM, Volkswagen Say Goodbye to Hybrid Vehicles

#91

Post by gambiting »

sho_hn wrote: post #68
jedberg wrote: post #58

I'm trying to replace my 2012 SUV with another SUV. I've been looking all over for a plug in hybrid SUV, and there aren't any good ones. I want the plug in hybrid because 95% of the time we do less than 30 miles locally, but once in a while we drive a couple hundred. I would be fine with an all electric SUV with a decent range, but those don't exist either. The model X is not sufficient, and is also terrible for ever…

How do you feel about the EQC?

(not OP) I'd love one, but the price here in UK is insane. £65k for an electrified mercedes GLC? Uhmmm....nope.

Re: GM, Volkswagen Say Goodbye to Hybrid Vehicles

#92

Post by arrrg »

dreamcompiler wrote: post #72

50 years from now we'll look back on hybrids as a brief transition phase in the history of automobiles. They're much more complicated than ICE cars and vastly more complicated than electric cars. Once good enough, cheap enough batteries happen (i.e. now) there's no reason for hybrids to exist.

Cars like the Volt are most certainly not more complicated than ICE cars …

You can simplify those cars significantly due to them being an hybrid.

Re: GM, Volkswagen Say Goodbye to Hybrid Vehicles

#93

Post by twblalock »

toast0 wrote: post #33
neogodless wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I mostly agree with your statements, I think you could argue that Ford is up there with Honda, if not ahead of them in supporting (if not pushing) hybrids. The Fusion hybrid outsells the Accord hybrid (at least in the U.S.) by a wide margin, and not far behind the Prius. https://afdc.energy.gov/data/10301

Where does the fusion fit in Ford's plan to build Mustangs and trucks only? [1] [1] https://www.nbcnews.com/business/autos/ford-stop-making-all-...

Hybrid F150s and Mustangs are both expected in the next few years.

Re: GM, Volkswagen Say Goodbye to Hybrid Vehicles

#94

Post by hnModsRDanger »

MegaButts wrote: post #25
hnModsRDanger wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone in automotive, if anything breaks on your car, it's worst case scenario. In 2019, people don't want their cars to break at all. Even a trivial matter might have you lose a customer.

Are you a product manager, a marketer, an accountant, an engineer, or what? I've often been surprised to find out how the sausage is made in most businesses where I quickly learned making the best product is rarely a goal (and sometimes this is actually the right decision since you should focus on "good enough" for most applications) and that planned obsolescence is a real thing. In the case of autos, many of the dea…

There is definitely no planned obsolescence.

There are specifications. We don't buy overkill material.

At worst, we stop tracking issues of they are too old, like after 5 years of use.

Edit, due to HN limits. The person below me doesn't understand engineering and how specs work. You make your product at specific costs and quality. Not everything can be made out of titanium.

Re: GM, Volkswagen Say Goodbye to Hybrid Vehicles

#95

Post by MegaButts »

happycube wrote: post #61
ecpottinger wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All I can say, as a person who has been interested in electric cars for some time, when I went to my local GM dealer I was surprised at how much lies he used to try and discourage me from buying a Bolt. Worse, when he started saying there were no local charger available he refuse to do a web search to prove his point since the last time I looked there were plenty available locally. I just walked out, on the other han…

That kinda dealer/salesman would've hated you for paying cash as well...

Luckily this is very easy to circumvent. Just agree to whatever financing terms they offer, negotiate on the sale price, then pay off the car ASAP. You'll likely save several thousand dollars (depends on the car and new vs used) and, at most, pay a couple hundred dollars in interest. It usually ends up being less than a hundred but obviously each contract is different.

Re: GM, Volkswagen Say Goodbye to Hybrid Vehicles

#96

Post by NickM »

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #47

Well, I love my Volt. Maybe it will be a collectors car some day. Amazing piece of engineering. I charge at work and at home and use gas about once every two months. I don't have "range anxiety", I have "range requirements"; no way I'm going on an 8 hour drive to go skiing in the Adirondacks or in Vermont with a pure electric. A pure BEV won't meet my needs.

Admittedly it is still a small compromise, but I’ve done 8 hour road trips in my Tesla to go snowboarding in Vermont and having to stop and charge adds under an hour to the trip. The Volt does seem like a great car, but to me it’s not worth the maintenance/space/reliability compromise of a gas engine in exchange for not having to take a relaxing break every few hours when I’m road tripping; obviously my values may be different but to me the extra time spent feels pretty inconsequential in the grand scheme of things.

Re: GM, Volkswagen Say Goodbye to Hybrid Vehicles

#97

Post by aaomidi »

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #47

Well, I love my Volt. Maybe it will be a collectors car some day. Amazing piece of engineering. I charge at work and at home and use gas about once every two months. I don't have "range anxiety", I have "range requirements"; no way I'm going on an 8 hour drive to go skiing in the Adirondacks or in Vermont with a pure electric. A pure BEV won't meet my needs.

Soon you'll be able to. Range anxiety goes away with time and planning.

Fast DC chargers are going to be everywhere in the near future. They're already on every major highway except i94.

Re: GM, Volkswagen Say Goodbye to Hybrid Vehicles

#98

Post by aaomidi »

throw0101a wrote: post #26

My parents' house does not have a garage or a driveway, how exactly will the only-full-EV future work for them? Where are they supposed to charge?

Charging infrastructure is still weak, but gas pumps weren't built overnight. Maybe this is a space for some new startup to get involved in?

Re: GM, Volkswagen Say Goodbye to Hybrid Vehicles

#99

Post by MegaButts »

hnModsRDanger wrote: post #94
MegaButts wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you a product manager, a marketer, an accountant, an engineer, or what? I've often been surprised to find out how the sausage is made in most businesses where I quickly learned making the best product is rarely a goal (and sometimes this is actually the right decision since you should focus on "good enough" for most applications) and that planned obsolescence is a real thing. In the case of autos, many of the dea…

There is definitely no planned obsolescence. There are specifications. We don't buy overkill material. At worst, we stop tracking issues of they are too old, like after 5 years of use. Edit, due to HN limits. The person below me doesn't understand engineering and how specs work. You make your product at specific costs and quality. Not everything can be made out of titanium.

I'm guessing you're an engineer (please correct me if I'm wrong). And what you're effectively saying is cars aren't designed to last longer than their warranties, and in fact you don't even have data on what happens afterwards. It sounds like you're passively participating in obsolescence, even if it's not intentional. Apart from that, the people actually selling the cars absolutely have a financial incentive for the cars to fail as soon as the warranties are up, which is conveniently when you stop looking at the data.
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