Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Electric vehicle sales are booming in South America – without Tesla

reuters.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

211–220 of 237 posts

Re: Electric vehicle sales are booming in South America – without Tesla

#211

Post by baranul »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #31
Animats wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Although Ford's CEO now gets it, Ford's product line doesn't reflect it yet. Farley has been bringing a few sample BYD cars to the US, for Ford people to drive around and to take apart. Farley dragged his executive team to China to see a BYD plant. They came back scared. But what Ford actually sells is 1) an F-150 converted to electric, 2) a Ford Mustang converted to electric, and 3) a Ford Transit converted to elect…

"Americans only want trucks and SUVs." (I hear people say.) Cool. Then allow BYD non-trucks, non-SUVs into the U.S. then. The Japanese back in the 70's showed U.S. automakers that price and mileage (in that decade anyway) were important to Americans. I suspect price is still important.

The statement is likely to be justification propaganda from those companies that have focused on trucks and SUVs. There is still a car market in the U.S., and for that matter, in South America and Canada.

Something else that is not being told in the mainstream media, is the U.S. bias and negative attitude towards South American countries has left the door wide open to China. And China is firmly establishing itself there, where it is unlikely that the U.S. can compete for at least a decade, if not a generation.

Re: Electric vehicle sales are booming in South America – without Tesla

#212

Post by rainsford »

_ea1k wrote: post #75
Marsymars wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Also, F150 lightening is such a failure. There was a recent video of it trying to haul very minimal load and it pretty much drained the battery in less than 100 miles. Was that due to something specific with the Lightning, or was it just due to the intrinsic energy requirements of hauling loads? (Or in other words, does an EV even exist that's notably better at hauling loads?)

TBH, those tests are mostly marketing failures. EV trucks aren't really good at hauling trailers over large distances, as the aerodynamics produce a massive impact on range. Multiple tests have shown this by showing 50% or more range reduction from pulling lightweight, non-aerodynamic loads. The marketing failure is that the companies have allowed consumers to incorrectly extrapolate from this to thinking that heavy…

> EV trucks aren't really good at hauling trailers over large distances, as the aerodynamics produce a massive impact on range.

Maybe I'm being stupid, but how could that possibly just be a problem for EVs? The aerodynamic physics don't care what's powering the car so the impact on range should be roughly the same.

Or is the problem that even if EV range impact is similar to fossil fuel range impact, the extra time required to recharge vs refuel makes that range impact more, uh, impactful for drivers?

Re: Electric vehicle sales are booming in South America – without Tesla

#213

Post by rainsford »

AngryData wrote: post #131
_ea1k wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TBH, those tests are mostly marketing failures. EV trucks aren't really good at hauling trailers over large distances, as the aerodynamics produce a massive impact on range. Multiple tests have shown this by showing 50% or more range reduction from pulling lightweight, non-aerodynamic loads. The marketing failure is that the companies have allowed consumers to incorrectly extrapolate from this to thinking that heavy…

Yep, so many people think hauling weight kills your gas mileage, but it doesn't really have that big of an effect unless you are hauling a massive load through stop and go traffic while in a hurry. The vast majority of people do most of their hauling of things down the highway, not through the middle of cities, and 90% of the losses from hauling load is just wind resistance against the poorly aerodynamic trailer whic…

Not to be nitpicky, but that's only really true if you're driving down a perfectly flat, straight highway at a constant speed. Any hills or traffic slowdowns and your car or truck is doing more work the more it weighs.

Re: Electric vehicle sales are booming in South America – without Tesla

#214

Post by rainsford »

pixl97 wrote: post #119
Marsymars wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Also, F150 lightening is such a failure. There was a recent video of it trying to haul very minimal load and it pretty much drained the battery in less than 100 miles. Was that due to something specific with the Lightning, or was it just due to the intrinsic energy requirements of hauling loads? (Or in other words, does an EV even exist that's notably better at hauling loads?)

I want an electric drive train with the engine that works like a generator at a fixed speed. Don't think anyone offers something like this.

Some hybrid cars almost work this way. I know at least Honda's hybrids basically do what you're suggesting but at constant highway speeds will directly couple the engine to the drive wheels. They presumably could use electric motors powered by the engine in all driving scenarios, but I believe direct engine drive at highway speeds is more energy efficient.

This is probably why most hybrid systems I'm aware of don't only use electric motors to power the drive wheels. The idea sounds cool and I've also wondered why you can't buy something like that in the US (I think it exists elsewhere), but the math doesn't really work out. Even in terms of engineering complexity, because the engine is only directly driving the wheels at certain speeds, you can get by without a lot of the mechanical drivetrain components like transmissions.

Re: Electric vehicle sales are booming in South America – without Tesla

#215

Post by Tade0 »

ponector wrote: post #207
Tade0 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But most people aren't in that situation. Those who commute from the suburbs actually save even more as hybrids achieve their lowest consumption going a steady 50-70km/h. Of course the same people could just get an EV and charge at home, but in terms of cost-effectiveness hybrids still win in this use case.

Unless you have a really cheap electricity at home (not like in EU) the best price per km has old Prius with LNG fuel. Also reliable, there are tons of them with 500k+ km on the clock.

Over here LPG is the gas of choice and indeed taxi drivers regularly have that installed in their hybrids.

Re: Electric vehicle sales are booming in South America – without Tesla

#217

Post by jack_tripper »

sofixa wrote: post #110
jack_tripper wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>but the average car is a VW Golf or a Renault Clio sized That hasn't been the case here in a long time. SUVs and crossovers are outselling all other categories.

Where is "here"? Most cars on this list, and the ones I see while living in one big European city, and regularly visiting lots of others, are not SUVs. There are plenty of them, but even then it's on the smaller side (e.g. a Renault Captur, not a Escalade 8 wheeled 65ton) https://bestsellingcarsblog.com/2025/11/europe-october-2025-...

>Where is "here"?

Austria, central Europe.

>the ones I see while living in one big European city

Except that statistics don't give a damn about what you see in your city. In 2024 54% of vehicles sold in EU are SUVs.[1] And indications point to 2025 being 57% in some months.

Which matches what I see where I live with a lot of Tesla Model Ys and BYD SUVs. Plus, Volvo only makes SUVs, which should tell you why SUVs are becoming majority.

Also matches the purchases I see amongst my acquaintances where their wives push for bigger cars for perceived safety of their family so they all got SUVs.

>it's on the smaller side (e.g. a Renault Captur, not a Escalade 8 wheeled 65ton)

Now you're moving the goalposts to what a SUV is. A Renault Captur is still classified as a SUV, which is what I was talking about. Don't try to spin this around just because European SUVs are smaller than US ones.

[1] https://www.jato.com/resources/media-and-press-releases/euro...

Re: Electric vehicle sales are booming in South America – without Tesla

#218

Post by rkomorn »

jack_tripper wrote: post #217
sofixa wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where is "here"? Most cars on this list, and the ones I see while living in one big European city, and regularly visiting lots of others, are not SUVs. There are plenty of them, but even then it's on the smaller side (e.g. a Renault Captur, not a Escalade 8 wheeled 65ton) https://bestsellingcarsblog.com/2025/11/europe-october-2025-...

>Where is "here"? Austria, central Europe. >the ones I see while living in one big European city Except that statistics don't give a damn about what you see in your city. In 2024 54% of vehicles sold in EU are SUVs.[1] And indications point to 2025 being 57% in some months. Which matches what I see where I live with a lot of Tesla Model Ys and BYD SUVs. Plus, Volvo only makes SUVs, which should tell you why SUVs are…

Are you considering subcompact crossover SUVs SUVs because the letters are literally in the name?

Re: Electric vehicle sales are booming in South America – without Tesla

#219

Post by jack_tripper »

rkomorn wrote: post #218
jack_tripper wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Where is "here"? Austria, central Europe. >the ones I see while living in one big European city Except that statistics don't give a damn about what you see in your city. In 2024 54% of vehicles sold in EU are SUVs.[1] And indications point to 2025 being 57% in some months. Which matches what I see where I live with a lot of Tesla Model Ys and BYD SUVs. Plus, Volvo only makes SUVs, which should tell you why SUVs are…

Are you considering subcompact crossover SUVs SUVs because the letters are literally in the name?

Not sure what you mean, I'm considering the statistics

Re: Electric vehicle sales are booming in South America – without Tesla

#220

Post by jack_tripper »

sofixa wrote: post #113
rootusrootus wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> that's what marketing has convinced Americans it's what they need Is there some kind of objective analysis which supports this claim? It seems more likely that people vote with their wallet, and bigger wins out a lot of the time. It's hardly an American manufacturer thing, either, Japanese cars have reliably gotten bigger year after year as well.

> Is there some kind of objective analysis which supports this claim It's a bit hard to have objective research on marketing and public perceptions. But how else do you explain all the marketing in that regard, and the fact that Americans, on average, even urbanites, keep buying massive pickup trucks, the majority of which are never used for anything more than a commuter vehicle for 1, maybe 2 occupants? Even in rich…

>very few people buy trucks

Because most buys SUVs instead.

>massive pickup trucks, the majority of which are never used for anything more than a commuter vehicle for 1, maybe 2 occupants? Marketing, an arms race, manufacturers not offering much else because their marketing works, Americans being very aspirational about what they'll do with their vehicles, idk.

Not sure why you have this judgmental and holier than though "Europeans better, Americans stupid for buying trucks" stance throughout this conversation. It's not like Europeans are immune to marketing car oversizing with their affinity for SUVs which is why Volvo only makes SUVs for the past 8+ years now.

Post reply on HN