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Volkswagen launches its first all-electric SUV, the ID.4

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Re: Volkswagen launches its first all-electric SUV, the ID.4

#191
post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Half of the US population lives paycheck to paycheck and they need cars. I'm not sure their minimum wage can afford them carbon taxes.

It’s weird because I associate car ownership with wealth! I’m in my 40s in London in the UK earning an ok salary and neither me nor many of many friends have a car.

Outside of the big cities in England almost everyone has a car too. Most of the US is like that.

Re: Volkswagen launches its first all-electric SUV, the ID.4

#192

I feel like the prices on electric vehicles are starting to become their biggest hurdle (instead of range, availability, or charging which are solved enough). If you're from California or New York, I'm sure $40K starting for this or a Model Y seems complexly within your means, but there's a large chunk of the US (by population AND land) where People love to spam $40K US "average" while entirely ignoring that the aver…

> Worse still as electric vehicles become more popular the rare earth metals that seemingly remain popular within the batteries may increase in cost offsetting our future reductions.

That's one reason I'm hoping that we start seeing more lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cells in mid-range cars, as they don't require nickel or cobalt. (They still require lithium, which is starting to approach where nickel and cobalt prices per ton are, but I'd rather deal with one bottleneck resource mostly mined in Australia versus 3 bottleneck resources, one of which is primarily sourced from Congo.)

Re: Volkswagen launches its first all-electric SUV, the ID.4

#193

I feel like the prices on electric vehicles are starting to become their biggest hurdle (instead of range, availability, or charging which are solved enough). If you're from California or New York, I'm sure $40K starting for this or a Model Y seems complexly within your means, but there's a large chunk of the US (by population AND land) where People love to spam $40K US "average" while entirely ignoring that the aver…

Isn't this short term thinking? That is the upfront cost. What about the total lifetime cost of the vehicle?

Oh, oh, I can answer this, given ownership of a ten year old Leaf ($35K) and a fifteen year old Scion xB/rebadged Toyota Echo ($20K): the $20K car is still going to win in TCO. Because the Leaf already starts out $15K in the hole. That's a lot of oil and coolant changes. That's a lot of brake pads. And those are pretty much the three things an ICE needs done versus BEV. After 100K miles, the Scion needed a $1500 clutch job. After 50K miles, the Leaf needs a new $5K battery pack (it'll last a few more years, but it's coming).

The Leaf still needs tires. It still needed the 12V accessory battery changed out. It still needs a cabin air filter changed once in a while. The Leaf has been reliable, nearly maintenance-free, and pretty appliance-like. But the Scion is a close second. We'll probably never buy an ICE again, that's how much we've like the Leaf and BEV in general. But "out of touch" doesn't even begin to describe someone arguing that those willing to spend $20K should spent twice as much because "TCO".

Re: Volkswagen launches its first all-electric SUV, the ID.4

#194

It’s interesting to see the word ‘pollution’ seems to have been completely replaced by ‘emission’. I guess the car industry won?

Zero emission vehicles still pollute with their tires.

I'll take tire pollution over gridlocked non-moving cars spewing fumes right next to my apartment, thank you.

Re: Volkswagen launches its first all-electric SUV, the ID.4

#195
post #155
post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It looks like a Honda CUV or Toyota Rav-4 to me. Not sure where your outrage is coming from.

No, I'm asking - is this a VW, but electric, or is this an e-initiative space-car ? Genuinely unsure. I would classify the Chevy Bolt (which we own) as the latter .

I went from a Bolt to now having an ID4. So far it seems to fall in the VW but electric category (although this is my first VW, so take that with a grain of salt). Major things I prefer over the bolt: nicer (in my opinion) interior, more interior space, travel assist is pretty awesome, slightly longer range, and higher fast charging rate. The higher fast charging rate is what's making it more viable for us to take that instead of my wife's gas car for trips, since charging stops don't need to be as long.

Re: Volkswagen launches its first all-electric SUV, the ID.4

#196
post #142

Is it their electric car or is it their car, electric ? I don't want your electric car. I don't want your e-initiative i-mobile green-tech tron-car. I want one of your actual cars, just electric . I don't want an ID.4 - I just want a Passat. I don't want the polestar e-initiative i-concept - I just want a V90 wagon. I don't want a future space truck, I just want a Silverado - but electric. God. Dammit.

Designing an electric car has a lot of different design tradeoffs than a gas car, so cars that are designed from the ground up as electric are going to perform better than gas cars that are electrified. The biggest two factors are that the battery is large and heavy, but is flexible in the shape it assumes. For good handling, you'd like to have this weight as low on the car as possible, and close to the center. The a…

But Tesla's cars are exactly this - they are largely gas sedans that look normal and are electric.

People don't want some dorky looking electric car like Volkswagen's or BMW's. They want a normal car that's electric.

Re: Volkswagen launches its first all-electric SUV, the ID.4

#197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A base tesla model3 is cheaper than a base ID.4. It does look like the ID.4 will be cheaper after the tax credits, but not dramatically so.

Right but the model 3 is a sedan while the ID.4 is a compact SUV. Size wise this vehicle is more on par with the Tesla Model Y, not the 3.

It's not.

The ID.4 is 4.6 metres long. the Model 3 is 4.7 metres long. The Model X is 5.0 metres long.

The ID.4 is 1.85 metres wide, the Model 3 is 1.85 metres wide and the Model X is 2.00 metres wide.

The ID.4 is 1.64 metres tall, the Model 3 is 1.44 metres and the Model X is 1.68 metres.

The Model 3 has about 425 litres of trunk space, the ID.4 has 540 litres of trunk space, and the Model X has like 1400 litres with five seats up (this was really hard to source). Seats folded the Model 3 has like 1140 litres, the ID.4 has like 1575 litres and the Model X has about 2000 litres.

Re: Volkswagen launches its first all-electric SUV, the ID.4

#198
post #5

I'm kicking around the idea of an electric car, but the ranges of these things just utterly disappoint me. With some companies offering, or planning to offer 500ish mile ranges, it would feel immediately outdated to me to throw 40k on something with a ~200 mile range. Is battery tech that different between companies, is it cost prohibitive?

Do you have to buy a "Sport Utility Vehicle"? Sedans like the Model 3 have a higher range.

I like cargo space and don't like to bottom out on dirt roads or my driveway (also a dirt road). Although I doubt the ID.4 has enough ground clearance for me.

edit: looks like it has 8.2 inches of ground clearance, so that would be fine. Too bad it's ugly but oh well. Cars don't have to be pretty.

Re: Volkswagen launches its first all-electric SUV, the ID.4

#199

Here is a great no frills review of the ID.4 https://youtu.be/3oC9sUiwyL8 The TL;DR is even if its electric its not a serious competitor to tesla. The UI is terrible as the drive is unable to find a charger while navigating to their destination. Electric car charging stations are going to look completely different the gas stations as they costs a few thousand dollars to install rather than a cool million for a gas st…

Hopefully they can update the crappy destination charging through an OTA update. If not, it's DOA.

Re: Volkswagen launches its first all-electric SUV, the ID.4

#200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A base tesla model3 is cheaper than a base ID.4. It does look like the ID.4 will be cheaper after the tax credits, but not dramatically so.

Right but the model 3 is a sedan while the ID.4 is a compact SUV. Size wise this vehicle is more on par with the Tesla Model Y, not the 3.

Probably more of a Model Y than a Model X,
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