EVs

[Morris Minor]

Chevy Bolt at a Tesla charger:
https://youtu.be/YSscxmAmKHU

F150 Lightning:
https://www.reddit.com/r/teslamotors/comments/11erc63/ford_f150_lightning_plugs_into_the_tesla/

[Morris Minor]

A Tesla, a Lucid and a Rivian walk in to a bar... 

https://youtu.be/W-oaVLRH-js

[veeman]

My cousin just leased a Polestar.  A Polestar 2 I think.  Something like 0 down, $7 hundred something a month, 7500 miles/year.  Because it's a lease, the dealership gave him the $7500 govt credit towards the lease price.  He plans on going over 7500 miles/year and then when it comes time to turn in the lease, to buy the car. 

I sat inside for a few minutes.  Minimalist design (like a Tesla).  The roof is a giant sunroof like in the Tesla.  The electronic interface ipad screen thing isn't very well integrated into the dashboard but overall I liked the interior.  Didn't get a ride in it.  I think real world this car has a 200 mile range.

[AutobahnSHO]

My cousin just leased a Polestar.  A Polestar 2 I think.  Something like 0 down, $7 hundred something a month, 7500 miles/year.  Because it's a lease, the dealership gave him the $7500 govt credit towards the lease price.  He plans on going over 7500 miles/year and then when it comes time to turn in the lease, to buy the car. 

I sat inside for a few minutes.  Minimalist design (like a Tesla).  The roof is a giant sunroof like in the Tesla.  The electronic interface ipad screen thing isn't very well integrated into the dashboard but overall I liked the interior.  Didn't get a ride in it.  I think real world this car has a 200 mile range.

I'm sure it's a great car, I just don't spend that much $$$$$

[Morris Minor]

The dealer franchise lobby told him to jump. His only question was to ask 'How high?"
If Tesla, Rivian et al had allowed them to wet their beaks, all this unpleasantness would have been unnecessary.

Bill restricting electric car stores now law in Mississippi.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/tate-reeves-ap-tesla-bill-mississippi-b2301008.html

[Laconian]

Bah. This is simply a proxy skirmish for the War on Libs.

[veeman]

Most people buy a Tesla online anyways, which this bill doesn't prevent. 

[SJ_GTI]

So my brother bought an EV on Friday. He is/was working for Subaru so always had a car through them, but he just took a new job and resigned so had to hand is Ascent back in. His first instinct was to try and find a Bolt (and Bolt!) but couldn't find one at any dealer within driving range. He did then find a Ford dealer who agreed to sell him a Mach-E (AWD, but not the GT) for MSRP so he ended up buying that instead. I took it for a spin Friday afternoon and thought it drove really nice. IIRC it is listed at something like ~260 HP but of course feels much faster. Nice interior with comfortable seats. Much bigger than I would personally like, but it works well for him, his wife, and two kids.

[Morris Minor]

So my brother bought an EV on Friday. He is/was working for Subaru so always had a car through them, but he just took a new job and resigned so had to hand is Ascent back in. His first instinct was to try and find a Bolt (and Bolt!) but couldn't find one at any dealer within driving range. He did then find a Ford dealer who agreed to sell him a Mach-E (AWD, but not the GT) for MSRP so he ended up buying that instead. I took it for a spin Friday afternoon and thought it drove really nice. IIRC it is listed at something like ~260 HP but of course feels much faster. Nice interior with comfortable seats. Much bigger than I would personally like, but it works well for him, his wife, and two kids.

.
It'll be interesting to see how it works out for them once the novelty wears off and it becomes part of the family's routine.

[r0tor]

My coworker has a model Y lease and he thinks he is going to switch to a PHEV next car... He has had enough range close calls that he's growing a bit tired of things

[MrH]

So my brother bought an EV on Friday. He is/was working for Subaru so always had a car through them, but he just took a new job and resigned so had to hand is Ascent back in. His first instinct was to try and find a Bolt (and Bolt!) but couldn't find one at any dealer within driving range. He did then find a Ford dealer who agreed to sell him a Mach-E (AWD, but not the GT) for MSRP so he ended up buying that instead. I took it for a spin Friday afternoon and thought it drove really nice. IIRC it is listed at something like ~260 HP but of course feels much faster. Nice interior with comfortable seats. Much bigger than I would personally like, but it works well for him, his wife, and two kids.

I think the AWD ones are like 325 hp?  Of course, Ford's website is a mess, so I can't tell.  You can only order the top 2 trim levels on their site, you can't even do a Build of the lower trims to see what the specifications are

They seem like good cars?  Matt Farah really likes his.  My coworker has one too.  They're just too expensive for what they are IMO.  You're looking at $50k-$60k for a decent spec it seems.  Again, can't really tell though

What did you think of the looks?  I can't get on board with it.

[SJ_GTI]

I think the AWD ones are like 325 hp?  Of course, Ford's website is a mess, so I can't tell.  You can only order the top 2 trim levels on their site, you can't even do a Build of the lower trims to see what the specifications are

They seem like good cars?  Matt Farah really likes his.  My coworker has one too.  They're just too expensive for what they are IMO.  You're looking at $50k-$60k for a decent spec it seems.  Again, can't really tell though

What did you think of the looks?  I can't get on board with it.

It's definitely on the pricey side. IIRC MSRP was a little over 50k on the one he got. I think he will qualify for both a federal credit (7500) and a NJ credit (4000), plus EV's are exempt from sales tax. So all things considered he will be out of pocket ~40k, or equivalent to an ICE car of like ~37.5k.

I think it looks good. Better than the Model Y or VW ID.4, but not as nice as the Lyriq or Kia/Hyundai twins.

[r0tor]

So the Ford Explorer is now in Europe a rebodied VW ID4... WTF is going on

[CaminoRacer]

So the Ford Explorer is now in Europe a rebodied VW ID4... WTF is going on

WTF is wrong with Ford's marketing/naming department. It's 2 feet shorter than the gas Explorer, and the gas Explorer will still be offered. Why is the EV called an Explorer, then? Call it something else! It's Escape sized.

[FoMoJo]

What version of VW is it?

[Eye of the Tiger]

WTF is wrong with Ford's marketing/naming department. It's 2 feet shorter than the gas Explorer, and the gas Explorer will still be offered. Why is the EV called an Explorer, then? Call it something else! It's Escape sized.

I could work for Ford's marketing department.

Explorer Mach 1
Excremental Sport Trac
Excrescent Live Wire
Exoplanet Proxima Centauri
Excargot With Garlic Butter
Expresso With Skim Milk and Two Splenda
Executable notavirus.EXE
Explainyourself Ford

[r0tor]

ExplosiveDiarrhea GT

[Eye of the Tiger]

Exercisebike LN7

[giant_mtb]

Explorer Sport Trac would have been a fun little name revival. Nobody remembers the OG version anyways, especially in Europe.

[Eye of the Tiger]

Explorer Sport Trac would have been a fun little name revival. Nobody remembers the OG version anyways, especially in Europe.

You're doing it wrong.


Extendedwarranty Edsel Edition 500

[r0tor]

Seriously though, it's bad enough EVs are basically just derivative boxes on a skateboard... Do we now also need automakers even making them more boring and just using each other's skateboard for even mainstream products?

Where is the competition, innovation, uniqueness, passion that use to define the industry.

[Morris Minor]

It's built on VW's 6 year-old MEB platform, same as the ID3, ID4, Q4 e-tron and more. I think this Explorer is Europe only. Ford needed something so it could compete down market from the Mach-E. It doesn't even have a front trunk - no room left by the mess of disaggregated sloppy clutter.

I'm sure Jim Farley would have preferred to develop Ford's own platform & not be shackled to VW.

[SJ_GTI]

The new Explorer looks really nice. I am surprised they won't sell it in the US though. Maybe they are worried it will cannibalize the Mach-E? It seems to perfectly fit the CUV market the US loves.

[Morris Minor]

The new Explorer looks really nice. I am surprised they won't sell it in the US though. Maybe they are worried it will cannibalize the Mach-E? It seems to perfectly fit the CUV market the US loves.

It would go up against the Chattanooga-produced ID4. Maybe VW said no to that.

[giant_mtb]

Seriously though, it's bad enough EVs are basically just derivative boxes on a skateboard... Do we now also need automakers even making them more boring and just using each other's skateboard for even mainstream products?

Where is the competition, innovation, uniqueness, passion that use to define the industry.

You speak as if platform sharing hasn't already been happening for decades. 

[Morris Minor]

Seriously though, it's bad enough EVs are basically just derivative boxes on a skateboard... Do we now also need automakers even making them more boring and just using each other's skateboard for even mainstream products?

Where is the competition, innovation, uniqueness, passion that use to define the industry.

I hope they're just not reskinning VW's disastrously awful software.

[SJ_GTI]

It would go up against the Chattanooga-produced ID4. Maybe VW said no to that.

That would kind of make sense from VW's POV.

It would have to mean Ford is making a similar sized EV CUV using a different platform though. They can't just not sell anything at this size. They'd be ceding a lot of territory to GM/VW/Hyundai/Kia.

[r0tor]

You speak as if platform sharing hasn't already been happening for decades. 

Agree... But I feel that it's a bit different case when Toyota uses it to bring a low volume fun car to market vs Ford using to it bring what should be a fairly mainstream vehicle to market.

[Morris Minor]

Ford was late to the game & ran out of time, so they had to make the deal. It was this or let the Chinese have the segment.

[Eye of the Tiger]

Ford was late to the game & ran out of time, so they had to make the deal. It was this or let the Chinese have the segment.

I'd like to get a closer look at some Chinese engineering. I am not impressed with American or German. Can it be worse? They just copy stuff.