581–590 of 642 posts
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I recently bought a Polestar 2. For people who aren't familiar with the brand, I describe it as "Volvo makes a Model 3". Is it less high tech than a Tesla? Absolutely: Volvo is a car company. Is it better constructed than a Tesla? Absolutely: Volvo is a car company.
Glad to hear those picodollars won’t get converted to petrodollars ;-)
I've heard some auto analysts suggesting that Tesla's trick to drop their car prices was not necessarily an act of desperation, as much as an action of opportunity. While all other car manufacturers are upping prices and increasing lead times, Tesla is taking advantage of this by having vehicles available and lowering prices in order to gain market-share in a time when other manufacturers are expecting and preparing…
Why does everyone think that everything Elon does is 4D chess?
Read the above back to yourself: The legacy autos are choosing to raise prices and lengthen lead times, while Tesla is choosing to lower prices and shorten lead times. It's that simple!
Do you think there's more to it than "choosing" to do these things?
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Tesla's have a BMW-like ride, with significant road feel. Drivers love it, passengers hate it. There's a reason that limo's use Mercedes', not BMW's.
Maybe a BMW from 1995. Current BMW are very well sorted while still offering great handling.
I've heard some auto analysts suggesting that Tesla's trick to drop their car prices was not necessarily an act of desperation, as much as an action of opportunity. While all other car manufacturers are upping prices and increasing lead times, Tesla is taking advantage of this by having vehicles available and lowering prices in order to gain market-share in a time when other manufacturers are expecting and preparing…
When my Kia went tits up I called every dealer I could (except Tesla) to try to get a car immediately . They all had months-long lead times. Tesla? I downloaded the app and bought the car as an in app purchase ; 7 days later I picked up the car from the lot & left. If I'd been willing to settle for a white 7-seater, I'd've been able to pick it up same day. What's the point of being a car dealer if you can't sell me a…
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> I don't see people in the service industry picking up a used Tesla, now or in the foreseeable future. Purchase price, you've already touched on. You can't even get a USED Tesla for under $20K. The second problem is charging. Apartments generally have a lack of EV chargers.
You can't even get a USED Tesla for under $20K. And who wants to buy a used Tesla (or any EV) even if the price was competitive? The range degrades with the battery and replacing it costs more than the car is worth.
IIRC, one of the big reasons Teslas are comparatively expensive is because their batteries are gigantic relative to their range. They're basically using a lot of energy from the battery to power cooling systems to keep the battery cool, which means they degrade much more slowly.
You can look up user-generated plots of average battery degradation and see that most Teslas still have 90% of their range after 100k miles.
Other cheaper EVs manage this equation differently and their batteries do degrade more quickly.
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If you're in the market, go for a couple of test drives. The competition is mostly regular ICE cars with a battery bolted on, while Teslas are designed from ground up as EVs and it shows throughout in ways big and small. We were originally leaning towards getting a Polestar, but the difference between driving one and a Tesla is night and day.
> The competition is mostly regular ICE cars with a battery bolted on, while Teslas are designed from ground up as EVs and it shows throughout in ways big and small. This is not true, it's not 2017 anymore. Everyone is designing their EVs from "the ground up". How is it that people can both think that Tesla will dominate because building EVs is simpler, but also that the legacy auto world can't figure out how to do i…
On the other hand, Tesla (and the other new electric companies) have nothing else. It's electric or die. It's carve a space out in the market now, while the legacy players are still dragging their feet, still figuring out battery issues or production issues Tesla dealt with 5-10 years ago, still figuring out how to make good software for the last 20 years, still trudging along as if things haven't much changed. Kodak didn't lose because digital cameras were harder, they lost because they didn't want to cannibalize their existing products with something easier and cheaper.
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Relatively speaking an EVs 3s 0-60 is ~silent compared to any ICE doing the same 0-60 time. That level of acceleration generally requires a pretty rowdy ICE with the taps wide open.
Honestly, as someone who bikes all the time, there's very little difference at 50km/h from the amount of sound coming from an EV vs an ICE.
This is about the acceleration from 0-60 in 3 seconds.
Because of how quietly a fast EV can perform this feat, the argument is that it's encouraging bad/antisocial driving behavior in general.
When an ICE does that sort of 0-60 time the whole neighborhood hears about it. That alone has a moderating effect on most drivers behavior even if their ICE vehicle is capable of it.
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I've also driven my Nissan Leaf since 2013 with zero shop visits outside of tire shops. Wah. That is crazy. The total cost of ownership for that car must be incredibly low. Think about what that means for the future of all auto mechanics. Will there be far fewer? Anecdote about a Nissan Leaf: I'll never forget being on holiday in Sri Lanka, walking through a tiny, countryside village. I was on my way to see a Buddhis…
> Think about what that means for the future of all auto mechanics. Will there be far fewer? Definitely. This is one of the reasons why dealerships are reluctant with EVs: apparently a big chunk of their profits come from servicing the cars they sell.
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I've also driven my Nissan Leaf since 2013 with zero shop visits outside of tire shops. Wah. That is crazy. The total cost of ownership for that car must be incredibly low. Think about what that means for the future of all auto mechanics. Will there be far fewer? Anecdote about a Nissan Leaf: I'll never forget being on holiday in Sri Lanka, walking through a tiny, countryside village. I was on my way to see a Buddhis…
> I guess she is still driving it today! Why do some people refer to cars with female gender?
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IMV, apart from the Model S Tesla’s are ugly cars The Y looks like an over inflated balloon (BMW, Mercedes, Mini and others have the same issue with some of their models) And the 3 just doesn’t look like anyone designed the front end — the angle of the junction between the bonnet (hood) and the windscreen is wrong, and the front grill just looks like someone forgot it needed designing
Electric cars don't need a front grill — there's no radiator. Putting a big grill on an electric car is as stupid as putting a fake horse head on a horseless carriage. (and I quite like the look of the Tesla 3 front end.)