Electric Vehicles: General topics

[BigMcGuire]

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1512960943805841410/

Amazing a pd in CA is still using crown vics. But lol that made me laugh.

 

[Herdfan]

Saw an ad last night for what I guess is the new Chevy Bolt. It includes them coming to your house and setting up your home charging port.

Got to say, seems like a brilliant marketing strategy.

 

[AG_PhamD]

Saw an ad last night for what I guess is the new Chevy Bolt. It includes them coming to your house and setting up your home charging port.

Got to say, seems like a brilliant marketing strategy.

Let’s hope this new model doesn’t burn your house down like the old model.

I think it’s a smart marketing move- but even from the perspective of making installations cheaper (obviously the cost is built into the cost of the car). I’ve heard outrageous prices and wait times for home EV charger installs, particularly during the pandemic when getting any home-related work done was extremely competitive and costly. I would assume GM would hire x-number of electricians to install chargers full time for them.

I suppose the question is what the limits are for installations and if they charge for work beyond their standard install or refuse it all together. Clearly the amount of work required to install a charger varies greatly.

Unfortunately, the Bolt in my opinion remains one of the most unappealing EV’s on the market- granted for $32k and 260 miles that’s a good value- granted I suppose the small size helps attain that range. This new version version doesn’t look as cheap as the original, but it’s still not particularly attractive. The Bolt has never been a particularly hot seller like all “cheap” EV’s, but I suspect it will be soon outcompeted by more compelling EVs.

 

[Eric]

Let’s hope this new model doesn’t burn your house down like the old model.

I think it’s a smart marketing move- but even from the perspective of making installations cheaper (obviously the cost is built into the cost of the car). I’ve heard outrageous prices and wait times for home EV charger installs, particularly during the pandemic when getting any home-related work done was extremely competitive and costly. I would assume GM would hire x-number of electricians to install chargers full time for them.

I suppose the question is what the limits are for installations and if they charge for work beyond their standard install or refuse it all together. Clearly the amount of work required to install a charger varies greatly.

Unfortunately, the Bolt in my opinion remains one of the most unappealing EV’s on the market- granted for $32k and 260 miles that’s a good value- granted I suppose the small size helps attain that range. This new version version doesn’t look as cheap as the original, but it’s still not particularly attractive. The Bolt has never been a particularly hot seller like all “cheap” EV’s, but I suspect it will be soon outcompeted by more compelling EVs.

Like anything I have done in my home I always get multiple estimates and the charger varied from $1500 to $450 for the exact same work, it pays to shop around.

 

[DT]

Oh wow lots of neat EVs being shown at the big NYC Auto Show!

Homepage - New York International Auto Show

New and exciting exhibits will be showcased with the very best that the automobile industry has to offer in an exciting and unique way. With the largest electric vehicle test track ever created at an auto show we’re embracing one of New York’s core beliefs that bigger is better and bringing...

autoshowny.com

That would be cool to see … oh, wait …

 

[cloudflare420]

Two new EVs were shown off today

BMW unveils i7 electric car with over 300 miles of range and a less polarizing design

BMW has unveiled its latest electric car, the BMW i7, as part of the next-generation 7 Series. The new electric...

electrek.co

BMW i7

Lexus finally reveals its all-electric RZ 450e SUV

Lexus’ first-ever EV has an estimated 225-mile range.

www.theverge.com

Lexus RZ

 

[DT]

Dupe'ing the NY Auto Show part of my post from the "Vacation location ..." thread We happen to be in NYC during the show so we popped in Sunday afternoon for an hour or so!

***

Also, amazing timing, the New York Auto Show was this past weekend! We went 6 years ago by design, this time, just happen to be there And it was super close, 3 avenues away, so off we went, and it was some unexpected fun!

Snapped a few pics, won't post too many here (maybe in a car thread), but some neat stuff, I mostly was interested in the EV presence (notably missing was both Lucid and Rivian).


Upcoming VW Bus/Van, aka the ID.Buzz electric.

View attachment 13360


Some mind blowing displays, the background and most of the floor was LCD panels, so everything was in motion! This was the huge Subaru exhibit (the vehicle is their new EV), they had rope bridges ... and "snow" falling from the ceiling


View attachment 13362

And I love all the EV trucks on the way, that's the next major market to get into ZEV technology, and I have to say from a design standpoint, liked the Chevy better than the Ford, the latter is clean, and very nice, the Chevy has a little more EV character.


View attachment 13363

***

 

[DT]

Kia EV 9, really like this design, it's got a bit of the Hyundai Ioniq 5 design language, and there were several companies offering this sort of flat/matte paint finish.

As mentioned above, the Ioniq 5, Hyundai and Kia both had a huge presence at the show, Hyundai had an indoor test track and EV tech was definitely a big part of their presence.

And this is Vinfast who's going to be a notable player, they're a Vietnamese company, who are opening a $2B manufacturing plant in North Carolina, this is their top of the line SUV product, the VF9 (they have a number of products across a wide price/performance range.

 

[DT]

Chevy Corvette AWD hybrid coming next year, electric version to follow​

GM President Mark Reuss confirmed, shared hybrid video​

Chevy Corvette AWD hybrid coming next year, electric version to follow

GM President Mark Reuss drops a bunch of Corvette news with a trailer. Hybrid, all-wheel-drive Corvette arrives next year, EV after.

www.autoblog.com

 

[quagmire]

Hopefully that reduces demand for the Z06 so when it comes time, I can grab one.

 

[DT]

We are off tomorrow, on another adventure, Universal for an extra long weekend, taking the BEV, and just wanted to suggest again, this superb planning software (which I've used for this destination a number of times):

ABRP

ABetterRouteplanner is the world's most popular consumer EV routeplanner - both for beginner and experienced EV drivers. And of course for anyone curious about EVs.

abetterrouteplanner.com

That's the big route, stop, cost, manager, it's excellent, uses real data from actual vehicles, the free plan is pretty awesome, haven't felt the need to go paid plan so far.

And this app is stellar to sort of "fill in the gaps" on ABRP, this is more localized, with social network type features, sharing charger experiences, photos, clarifying prices, access, etc.:

PlugShare - EV Charging Station Map - Find a place to charge

Find EV charging stations with PlugShare, the most complete map of electric vehicle charging stations in the world!Charging tips reviews and photos from the EV community.

www.plugshare.com

 

[SuperMatt]

I saw an Ioniq5 on the road today. Reminds me more of a station wagon than an SUV. Later I also saw a Jaguar I-Pace in a parking lot. That’s a pretty nice looking car, but it isn’t any more impressive than the Ford Mustang EV, at least at first glance.

 

[Apple fanboy]

We are off tomorrow, on another adventure, Universal for an extra long weekend, taking the BEV, and just wanted to suggest again, this superb planning software (which I've used for this destination a number of times):

ABRP

ABetterRouteplanner is the world's most popular consumer EV routeplanner - both for beginner and experienced EV drivers. And of course for anyone curious about EVs.

abetterrouteplanner.com

That's the big route, stop, cost, manager, it's excellent, uses real data from actual vehicles, the free plan is pretty awesome, haven't felt the need to go paid plan so far.

And this app is stellar to sort of "fill in the gaps" on ABRP, this is more localized, with social network type features, sharing charger experiences, photos, clarifying prices, access, etc.:

PlugShare - EV Charging Station Map - Find a place to charge

Find EV charging stations with PlugShare, the most complete map of electric vehicle charging stations in the world!Charging tips reviews and photos from the EV community.

www.plugshare.com

I’ve checked on all of these and ABRP looks great a long with Zap-Map. If only the car would arrive. Latest era 22/07/22.

 

[DT]

I saw an Ioniq5 on the road today. Reminds me more of a station wagon than an SUV. Later I also saw a Jaguar I-Pace in a parking lot. That’s a pretty nice looking car, but it isn’t any more impressive than the Ford Mustang EV, at least at first glance.

Heck, I haven't seen one out in the wild yet, or an EV6 (the "sister" car), though I looked at a number of them at the NYC, even sat in one - plus several were zipping around the inside track, which is a super cool thing that EVs can do vs. having to use an outdoor track.

I guess I'd almost call it a hatchback[?] It's not very SUV-ish, I guess in current parlance it's kind of a crossover. I really liked the mix of overall size, height, it's roomy while not being a rolling behemoth. Interior is pretty cool, a couple of odd design choices - I love that companies are following the lighter interior color trend, see my photo below

Hahaha, this couple had been sitting in this one for a while, so I finally just jumped in the back seat and yelled, "HEY! WHERE ARE WE GOING!?!?!", scared the hell out of them

 

[Apple fanboy]

I saw an Ioniq5 on the road today. Reminds me more of a station wagon than an SUV. Later I also saw a Jaguar I-Pace in a parking lot. That’s a pretty nice looking car, but it isn’t any more impressive than the Ford Mustang EV, at least at first glance.

My colleague has an i-Pace. Very nice car, especially the interior.

 

[SuperMatt]

My colleague has an i-Pace. Very nice car, especially the interior.

Good point - I didn’t take the time to inspect the interior...

 

[DT]

Good point - I didn’t take the time to inspect the interior...

It's fine, it's got some displays, a bunch of buttons, a scatter-shot of design language (some wasted space for the sake of being "design-y"). The Mach-E has a better interior in terms of general functional design, it just needs a landscape orientation on the display (that also kills the Explorer, I cross shopped an Explorer ST for a few weeks).

 

[Citysnaps]

Heck, I haven't seen one out in the wild yet, or an EV6 (the "sister" car), though I looked at a number of them at the NYC, even sat in one - plus several were zipping around the inside track, which is a super cool thing that EVs can do vs. having to use an outdoor track.

I guess I'd almost call it a hatchback[?] It's not very SUV-ish, I guess in current parlance it's kind of a crossover. I really liked the mix of overall size, height, it's roomy while not being a rolling behemoth. Interior is pretty cool, a couple of odd design choices - I love that companies are following the lighter interior color trend, see my photo below

Hahaha, this couple had been sitting in this one for a while, so I finally just jumped in the back seat and yelled, "HEY! WHERE ARE WE GOING!?!?!", scared the hell out of them


View attachment 13608

We're still thinking about one. Trouble is they're scarce right now. And if there's one available count on $5K+ of ADM. I can wait.

"Hahaha, this couple had been sitting in this one for a while, so I finally just jumped in the back seat and yelled, "HEY! WHERE ARE WE GOING!?!?!", scared the hell out of them"

I do a pretty good (20 years ago) Bobcat Goldthwait. I think that would also work.

 

[DT]

I hear ya, I just can't do ADM on anything. It's not even the price in itself, it's just the idea of paying an extra fee, on something like a car, or a video game console, or concert ticket, it conflicts with something in my DNA.

 

[Citysnaps]

I hear ya, I just can't do ADM on anything. It's not even the price in itself, it's just the idea of paying an extra fee, on something like a car, or a video game console, or concert ticket, it conflicts with something in my DNA.

Same here. No way I'll do it. Even if the end result is a good price. I don't even want to do business with a dealer who's pulled that nonsense in the past when the price eventually comes down to MSRP in the future.