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VW’s $50B Bet on an Electric Hatchback

bloomberg.com

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Re: VW’s $50B Bet on an Electric Hatchback

#121

Post by petre »

unlinked_dll wrote: post #80
blhack wrote: post #59

WHY do these vehicles always have to look so freaking dorky? This is one of the things that Tesla nailed. Their vehicles are beautiful, and look like first-class products. This, the "ID-3" looks like a prius. I'm sure it's a fine car, and I really do love EVs, but man oh man I wish the designers would take a page from Tesla's book. edit: to be clear, my current car (that my wife and I share) is a chrysler pacifica mi…

>WHY do these vehicles always have to look so freaking dorky? Someone once explained to me that it was because EVs try and minimize the weight of the chassis to extend the range of the vehicle, and it's difficult to get more traditional curvatures in the chassis while doing that and balancing with safety/cost. No idea how accurate that is.

Excuses. Build it out of carbon fiber, aluminium or a steel chasis and plastic panels like the Smart. The Smart looks like crap too but it's not like one cannot mold plastic to look good. Just pay some Italian designers to do it.

Re: VW’s $50B Bet on an Electric Hatchback

#122

Post by petre »

muzika wrote: post #115
unlinked_dll wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>WHY do these vehicles always have to look so freaking dorky? Someone once explained to me that it was because EVs try and minimize the weight of the chassis to extend the range of the vehicle, and it's difficult to get more traditional curvatures in the chassis while doing that and balancing with safety/cost. No idea how accurate that is.

This can’t be true, because most of the dorky features of these cars are definitely not affecting structure/auerodymanics etc.

They affect sales bigtime, nevetheless.

Re: VW’s $50B Bet on an Electric Hatchback

#123

Post by natch »

everdrive wrote: post #92
natch wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone on reddit recently bought a new Tesla for $30,000 after incentives (not counting savings on gas, oil, brake pads, and other maintenance). Sure that is double the price of some bottom rung cars but $30k is pretty common these days.

That’s more a reflection of how much people are wasting money these days than what a “reasonable” car is.

That’s a pretty uninformed opinion with an inflammatory word “wasting” given the benefits, but you are free to it.

Re: VW’s $50B Bet on an Electric Hatchback

#124

Post by krn »

lnsru wrote: post #54
raaaaraaaa12 wrote: post #22

VW is betting hard on EV cars - I guess that German goverment will cooperate and will invest heavily into EV infrastructure ...otherwise it will be huge failure. VW will finally solve problem with other brands within VW group - Skoda and Seat are sucessful brands and often cannibalize VW models (Skoda Kodiaq vs VW Tiguan, VW Passat vs. Skoda Superb etc...). VW presented recently strategy for next few years where they…

I am really sad about Skoda. Their current Superb is a wonderful car with great design. Design of current Passat is ugly as hell. If one cannot afford Audi A6, Skoda Superb is the only choice. After defeat device story VW group is anyway dead to me. I don’t want to finance these criminals. And I don’t believe in their EV initiative. They do it only to make people forget the story with defeat device.

> If one cannot afford Audi A6, Skoda Superb is the only choice.

I completely agree with this. In fact, in my country many people are buying Škoda Superb even if they can afford Audi A6, because they don't see Audi A6 as being worth 2x the price.

> After defeat device story VW group is anyway dead to me.

I noticed that all Volkswagen and smaller Audi cars released after 2015 came with much lower interior quality (more scratchy plastics), but the quality of Škoda and Seat cars has noticeably increased.

> And I don’t believe in their EV initiative. They do it only to make people forget the story with defeat device.

No, they do it in order not to become the Nokia of automotive industry after iPhone's release. Because that's where the entire European market is heading after the introduction of stricter emission standards.

Re: VW’s $50B Bet on an Electric Hatchback

#125

Post by natch »

psychometry wrote: post #62
natch wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone on reddit recently bought a new Tesla for $30,000 after incentives (not counting savings on gas, oil, brake pads, and other maintenance). Sure that is double the price of some bottom rung cars but $30k is pretty common these days.

Still, $30k is far from affordable for many people, whereas you can get plenty of decent ICE vehicles (e.g. Honda Fit) closer to 15k.

But those come with a raft of ongoing issues ranging from safety to maintenance so you generally pay the same or more long term.

Re: VW’s $50B Bet on an Electric Hatchback

#126

Post by gok »

blhack wrote: post #59

WHY do these vehicles always have to look so freaking dorky? This is one of the things that Tesla nailed. Their vehicles are beautiful, and look like first-class products. This, the "ID-3" looks like a prius. I'm sure it's a fine car, and I really do love EVs, but man oh man I wish the designers would take a page from Tesla's book. edit: to be clear, my current car (that my wife and I share) is a chrysler pacifica mi…

In the mind of a lot of traditional carmakers, the main reason someone might buy an EV is to signal their environmental bona fides. So they make them look purposely weird.

Re: VW’s $50B Bet on an Electric Hatchback

#127

Post by jliptzin »

lucideer wrote: post #102
blhack wrote: post #59

WHY do these vehicles always have to look so freaking dorky? This is one of the things that Tesla nailed. Their vehicles are beautiful, and look like first-class products. This, the "ID-3" looks like a prius. I'm sure it's a fine car, and I really do love EVs, but man oh man I wish the designers would take a page from Tesla's book. edit: to be clear, my current car (that my wife and I share) is a chrysler pacifica mi…

As others here have mentioned, this is obviously subjective. I could be wrong but I think beyond that it's also highly regional/cultural. Teslas look awful to me; they remind me of so many other examples of recent bland US car design: particularly Ford, and with a few hints of the sort of 90s-mazda-esque Corvettes of the past 10-15 years. All very popular aesthetically but to me seem a bit lacking in anything unusual…

What car looks good to you?

Re: VW’s $50B Bet on an Electric Hatchback

#128

Post by beefalo »

NikolaNovak wrote: post #20
d1zzy wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know how much Dieselgate has affected VW's bottom line but what I do know is that as a consequence of the scandal: - new cars now come with 6 years warranty which is more than anything anywhere in that price range - their second hand car program is great, includes 2 years of manufacturer warranty. Last time I wanted to buy a compact I very seriously considered getting a 2015 VW Golf diesel, it includes all fu…

Interesting - for context, can you share where these policies are in place? I don't believe the 6y new / 2y used is in place where I'm at.

I recently bought a Golf GTI in the US, bay area. It had 5k miles and still has the 6 year new car warranty plus 2 year cpo warranty so warrantied until 2017.

Re: VW’s $50B Bet on an Electric Hatchback

#129

Post by deckard1 »

> The ID.3, scheduled to hit the streets by midyear, is the first of at least 70 electric cars in VW’s pipeline.

This whole article is weird. Are we supposed to pretend the e-Golf hasn't existed for years?

> While the ID.3, priced from around $30,000 with a range of 200 miles or more, is aimed at countering the threat from Tesla’s Model 3, its stiffest competition will come from gasoline-powered cars such as VW’s own Golf hatchback.

I mean... yeah? The Model 3 isn't a hatchback. Americans still have reservations against hatchbacks for some silly reason. And the real competition against a VW hatchback is going to be the Prius. Tesla is a tech gadget. The VW is a car. You really can't discount the fact that many people buy Tesla because of the coolness of the gadgets.

Re: VW’s $50B Bet on an Electric Hatchback

#130

Post by petre »

brailsafe wrote: post #114
AgloeDreams wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, on the other hand, it is kinda like the iphone effect, Apple realized that new colors sell because people want others to know their choices and that they have the new thing. People who want an electric car so far have shown that they want that fact to be obvious. That said, have you seen the new Honda city car? It's beautiful.

Looks like kind of a standard boring Honda to me. What sets it apart for you?

More like a Golf 1, which was a dorky but quite functional car. I prefer that look to many of the modern small windows, no windows cars with lots of dead angles. Like the new Mazda 3 or the Toyota CH-R. We already have a Civic and I hate driving it in around town because of the low visibility.
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