Yes. Most vehicles that are talked about for years and highly anticipated usually sell less than 4,000 units within six months and then suddenly sell 100,000 units the next year.

Well at least Lexus knows what it looks like when you take their waterfall grill too far

More random luxury MPV reviews.

Well I did more research and it seems like these luxury MPVs are really exploding in China.

I think the Lexus LM kicked off the trend and everyone is trying to get in on the new trend.  Unfortunately they all copied the Lexus LM in trying to have the largest and ugliest grill possible.

https://uk.motor1.com/news/689410/mpv-vans-back-in-fashion-europe-china/

It seems like several have over 500hp, including this one packing 560hp

https://www.motor1.com/news/699935/voyah-dreamer-electric-mpv-video/amp/

Honestly for 65k, I'd love a 560hp plug in hybrid, super spacious luxurious van if it ever came to the states (but sadly likely never will).

So my cousin got a new vehicle to replace his Cadillac ATS.

He told me he got a 7 passenger vehicle to ferry around his two kids and his parents around (as they take care of his kids).

My cousin lives in China, and apparently luxury minivans (MPVs) are a thing there.

Anyway he got a Chinese company Wey Gaoshan extended model.

I thought I was going to find it weird but ultimately lacking.  I also expected it to be smaller than our good American focused Mini Vans.

First off this thing was HUGE.  I looked up the specs afterwards and it's nearly 10 inches longer in wheelbase and overall length than a Sienna and 5 inches taller. It's marginally narrower, but it's very slab sided so all it's width translates into interior space.

And speaking of interior space, the inside was like an executive lounge compared to the children penalty box that our minivans are.

He drove us around in it and even with 5 adults in it the thing fucking MOVED OUT.  Apparently it's packing 480hp and 565 ft lbs of torque from a plug in hybrid powertrain and a 38kw battery pack that gives it around 90 miles of EV only range, does 0-62mph in 5.7 seconds.

It's got a cooler/heater for food, trick massaging chilling reclining captain seats.

Honestly I've never been jealous of any of my friends or family's vehicles until now.

If this thing was available in the states I would absolutely buy the shit out of this thing.  The grill is hideous but I wouldn't see it while sitting in one of those 2nd row chairs, I just need to find someone to drive me around in it.

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https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2024/04/22/tesla-cybertruck-recall-electric-truck-sales/73416419007/

The Cybertruck recall showed that 3878 were sold since it came out in November. This compares with (1st quarter sales) 7743 Lightnings, 1688 Hummer EVs, and 2399 Rivian RIT pickup trucks.

It's very early in the production run.

Very hard to predict how it will play out in 2025.  100 thousand sales?  Probably too expensive.

RIP Gigacasting
https://www.yahoo.com/tech/exclusive-tesla-retreats-next-generation-153236776.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly9vbGQucmVkZGl0LmNvbS9yL1JlYWxUZXNsYS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAALVcXLqrWixgE9F7Z6pd8-SefbYthV59PO2tTBz-B-X2eMqUgIe-s5aDC4HUShyzOJf7zoPu_0bCsS54MtAyt2oVWHD-FJZdHujuF0gB09-bV2-ZDHUOckPvbvc6_0wvvkDeKsE5APTunKxidUqf1jfKxWIafTP7jIdn7G-7L5xN

Quote from: Laconian on May 03, 2024, 12:35:35 PMTheir R&D spend is much lower than other tech companies.

I think they just market themselves as tech in order to justify their ridiculous P/E.

95% of their revenue is from car sales.  They're a car company.  They want the ridiculous P/E of a tech company, but don't have any of the benefits of being a tech company (tiny COGs, quickly scalable, minimal capex required, etc).

Their R&D spend is much lower than other tech companies.

I think they just market themselves as tech in order to justify their ridiculous P/E.

Quote from: GoCougs on May 02, 2024, 06:03:25 PMI have zero experience in either automotive or autonomous driving (aka, AD) but have many years in the exact technologies used in AD for "autonomous" operation of factory automation and robotics - vision, LIDAR, algos, safety, process design, etc. It's been 15 years, and AD hasn't worked, AD doesn't work, and there is no known path by which AD will ever work. These are facts that I welcome others to challenge. The AD "investment" continues because Tesla, Google, Cruise, Zoox and Apple have astronomical market capitalizations a goodly portion of which is due to WtP rewarding them for chasing The Next Big Thing.

Tesla gets away with its Funny Business because of its laughable market valuation (about equal to ALL notable established automakers combined - GM + Ford + Toyota + Honda + VWAG + etc.). If Tesla had a market valuation in line with other automakers, it literally would have ceased to exist many moons ago. But WtP need to be chasin'! As the EV market continues its decline and AD divestment continues, we'll see how long WtP will put up with the chase. My bet is there's a bit of steam left in it yet however.

Comparing Tesla to automakers isn't really very useful IMO.  It's more of a tech play than a metal bending operation. I mean sure, Tesla bends metal too but their hardware is mostly only interesting in demonstrating their early realization that EVs are laptops on wheels.