VW’s $50B Bet on an Electric Hatchback • Hacker News Board

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

#131

Post by admax88q » Wed, Oct 23, 2019, 8:23 PM UTC

AgloeDreams wrote: post #105

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…

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.

> People who want an electric car so far...

The so far is key. BMW said the same when they launches the i3, that EV owners want to make a "statement."

But I think that's actually holding EVs back. I don't want to make a statement with my car (or phone for that matter). Always making EVs look exotic says that this product is only for enthusiast. I want the android of EVs not the iPhone.

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

#132

Post by Brakenshire » Wed, Oct 23, 2019, 8:26 PM UTC

deckard1 wrote: post #129

> 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…

The “first car in the pipeline” part is referring to the new generation of vehicles built on purpose built EV platforms shared across many models, whereas the e-Golf is an electric drivetrain retrofitted into a combustion car and the e-Tron is a one off.

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

#133

Post by WhompingWindows » Wed, Oct 23, 2019, 8:27 PM UTC

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…

Aerodynamics is a big design factor for EVs, as lower coefficient of drag leads to higher efficiency and less battery capacity needed. Tesla clearly has much more aesthetically pleasing aerodynamic cars better than others like Chevy and Nissan...in fact those cars are both uglier and less aerodynamic.

I am not a fanboy, but Tesla simply has the best EVs on the market.

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

#134

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Oct 23, 2019, 8:30 PM UTC

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…

[deleted]

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

#135

Post by petre » Wed, Oct 23, 2019, 8:35 PM UTC

krn wrote: post #124

lnsru wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 (mor…

The GP is right about infrastructure though. If EU states do not offer incentives for charging stations, the EVs will be worthless and they'll just shoot themselves and the auto industry in the foot with all the stricter emissions standards. Especially the Germans.

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

#136

Post by umeshunni » Wed, Oct 23, 2019, 8:37 PM UTC

Reminds me of a quote I read about the gap between what the electric car market wants and what legacy carmakers produce -

"Carmakers keep designing these cars thinking we want to buy their new electric cars, they don't realize we just want to buy their regular cars, in electric"

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

#137

Post by tyfon » Wed, Oct 23, 2019, 8:37 PM UTC

gambiting wrote: post #71

izacus wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More like the Polo, the cheapest and smallest of the VWs. For me it's also not an appealing look for such an expensive vehicle.

Up is the smallest of Volkswagens actually, and this has the front from that. It's not a good looking vehicle by any measure.

I have a 2015 e-up, it's very fun to drive and it has 210 nm of torque. My Toyota Avensis had 150 (at peak RPM).

It's like driving a go-cart in the city and it charges 75% capacity in about 15 minutes on fast chargers (enough for about 100 km more).

Personally I find it looks quite cool after I did a custom paint job. You can even get it in Honey Yellow [1] from the shop, but personally I think it's a bit gaudy.. My daughters really wanted that colour but I had to nix it!

[1] https://www.greencarguide.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/V...

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

#138

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Oct 23, 2019, 8:38 PM UTC

jliptzin wrote: post #127

lucideer wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

[deleted]

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

#139

Post by novok » Wed, Oct 23, 2019, 8:38 PM UTC

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…

I like the interiors of teslas, but the front of the model 3 looks fairly dorky to me, and the back looks like any other corolla. I don't think tesla is free from the dork factor.

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

#140

Post by novok » Wed, Oct 23, 2019, 8:39 PM UTC

umeshunni wrote: post #136

Reminds me of a quote I read about the gap between what the electric car market wants and what legacy carmakers produce - "Carmakers keep designing these cars thinking we want to buy their new electric cars, they don't realize we just want to buy their regular cars, in electric"

It reminds me of software firms using rewrites to try out all the things they have been wanting to do.