Electric Vehicles: General topics

DT

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This is the video I watched that told me about it.
Yes! Perfect, that's totally explained the process. Thanks!

My main question answered: you select the location + stall identifier from the app.
 

DT

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I was perusing another site, and I had to chuckle at the carefully designed anti-EV scenarios people fabricate, hahahaha ...

We're headed down the Keys in a few weeks, ~390 miles, we will stop one time for about 25 minutes after driving for 3 hours. Grab a bite to eat, hit the road, arrive at our condo. We head down to Orlando quite a bit, you know for a "long weekend trip", we don't stop, we could make the 260 miles on a single charge, but the resorts all have free charging, and I prefer lots of buffer, so why not plug in while in the car is just sitting in a parking garage (and get 130 miles of free juice :D)

This notion of hour charging stops for 100-150 mile trips is silly. :ROFLMAO:
 

Eric

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I was perusing another site, and I had to chuckle at the carefully designed anti-EV scenarios people fabricate, hahahaha ...

We're headed down the Keys in a few weeks, ~390 miles, we will stop one time for about 25 minutes after driving for 3 hours. Grab a bite to eat, hit the road, arrive at our condo. We head down to Orlando quite a bit, you know for a "long weekend trip", we don't stop, we could make the 260 miles on a single charge, but the resorts all have free charging, and I prefer lots of buffer, so why not plug in while in the car is just sitting in a parking garage (and get 130 miles of free juice :D)

This notion of hour charging stops for 100-150 mile trips is silly. :ROFLMAO:
I'm always taking long weekend trips and have adjusted pretty well to finding my charging spots and knowing how long I need to be there, etc. I've learned that it's really not much different from getting gas, much of the time I only need to be there for 10 minutes or so (especially with preconditioning) and with the lines at a regular gas station it's almost the same.

By far the biggest benefit though is when I return home with little to no charge and can just plug in and forget about it, awesome knowing I can just get in and go with a full charge next time.
 

Apple fanboy

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I'm always taking long weekend trips and have adjusted pretty well to finding my charging spots and knowing how long I need to be there, etc. I've learned that it's really not much different from getting gas, much of the time I only need to be there for 10 minutes or so (especially with preconditioning) and with the lines at a regular gas station it's almost the same.

By far the biggest benefit though is when I return home with little to no charge and can just plug in and forget about it, awesome knowing I can just get in and go with a full charge next time.
Just returned from my first trip. Had enough range and got home with 25% battery left. It’s now on a slow charge on the drive. Should be done by the morning.
The electrician still hasn’t come back to me with a date for the fast charger.

Anyway very happy with my choice. It’s a really nice drive and better specifications than the new one I had ordered. Will post some pictures after it’s had a clean. The bugs on the motorway didn’t do the grill any favours.
 

DT

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Heck, I wouldn't straight trade my M3P for an i4 M50 right now, even configured to my spec (which would be about $10K more than the MSRP on my car).


Just not really any interest. We've owned 4 BMWs, the Tesla is something totally different. The i4 design looks like all the other ICE 3/4 series (including weirdly unnecessary ICE design elements), the interior isn't nearly as spacious - whether that's measured or perceived it's the same to me - as our TM3 (the BMW interior retained some ICE-ish-ness, it lacks that super open canopy ratio). I find the Tesla way more interesting, some mix of the car, performance, tech and company pushes my buttons more. A buddy if mine, who is the in the position to get an i4 if he desired, has the same perspective.

Then the real deal killer: the (DCFC) charging network, it's not even close (at least in the US).

I definitely would consider a BMW EV in the future, like about 2 year out - which will also be a good point to determine how the charging infrastructure has developed - it's just not what I'd want right now. :)

This video is a terrific summary of many of my thoughts in the matter (love me some Mat Watson):

 

DT

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So right at about 7 months, wow. I can't remember process (since mine took 9 days from order to driving away :D), but a VIN puts it around a week or two till delivery?
 

DT

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I knocked around this weekend on several EV sites, looked at the current offerings - which "current" still doesn't mean they're available in less than 6 months - and in the mid-range, mid-upper performance offerings, with AWD, decent amount of tech, etc., I'm still not seeing much.

Right now, in the performance mid-market sedans, there's the Model 3 LR or P, and the BMW i4 eDrive or M50.

There's up market options from Lucid, of course the Model S, Mercedes EQS, there's the same market space, but what amounts to a crossover/SAV/SUV/CUV in the Ioniq 6, Kia 6, Model Y (and the Ioniq certainly doesn't compete with the Performance Y, and not really the EV6 GT either).

I saw someone yapping about Tesla pricing, but in the market space the mid-upper model occupy, they're totally competitive, and there's not a ton of options at the moment.

(And of course, the lower to lower-mid market is still mostly vacant ...)
 

quagmire

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So right at about 7 months, wow. I can't remember process (since mine took 9 days from order to driving away :D), but a VIN puts it around a week or two till delivery?

EDD changed to May 25-29th. I suspect if that is close to being the case, we got a vehicle that was rejected or the original person couldn't take delivery for whatever reason( financial, availability to take the car, etc). Still waiting on the text to schedule delivery.

As normally VIN assignment usually happens when the car is still in Fremont which would be about 1-2 weeks for delivery.
 

AG_PhamD

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I had an an Uber driver the other day with a Tesla Model 3. He picked me up in the Copley Square area in Boston, right near the Tesla showroom at the Prudential Center in fact. He said he did not have enough battery to drive me home (about 3 miles away) and that he needed to stop at a charger:mad:. I told him I’m not going to wait for him to charge and I’ll just get another Uber, no big deal. Anyways, he figured out he did have enough power and that there’s a supercharger nearby my house.

In our conversation on the way to the destination, he told me acquired the Model 3 dual motor in some sort of Uber rent-to-own scheme. He is paying $527/week- yes, week, not month. I clarified that twice. I suppose that’s fine if the term is like 2.5 years and included insurance, but I suspect that’s not the case. I would assume the term is at least three years ($82,000 on a $56,000 car- call it $61k with taxes and fees).

His comment was after paying for the car and supercharging, he’s not “making much” at the end of the week.

It’s amazing companies, if they have the slightest regard for their employees, would even advertise this option given this seems awfully predatory. Why not just finance the car normally?
 

SuperMatt

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It’s amazing companies, if they have the slightest regard for their employees, would even advertise this option given this seems awfully predatory. Why not just finance the car normally?
This is exactly why they fought so hard to prevent their drivers from being considered employees by the state. Independent contractor? Sorry, worker protection laws don’t apply.
 

DT

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Why not just finance the car normally?

Possibly credit issues, no money for downpayment, etc. I'm sure this "financing" he described is just wrapped up into the employment contract vs. any kind of traditional model that requires credit checks and whatnot. I bet there's all sorts of contingencies in place where they basically get the car back, and he's paid tons of equity.

There's a company doing long-ish term rentals, that are shorter than most lease type options, and they're charging around that rate. I'd have to check what the daily/weekly cost is through Hertz or whoever, to compare.
 

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Fun commute to work and back. Still have 64% battery left so I’ll not charge tonight. Will charge it after my next trip to the office.
For fun I put it in sports mode briefly. That’s some fun right there!
 

AG_PhamD

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Possibly credit issues, no money for downpayment, etc. I'm sure this "financing" he described is just wrapped up into the employment contract vs. any kind of traditional model that requires credit checks and whatnot. I bet there's all sorts of contingencies in place where they basically get the car back, and he's paid tons of equity.

There's a company doing long-ish term rentals, that are shorter than most lease type options, and they're charging around that rate. I'd have to check what the daily/weekly cost is through Hertz or whoever, to compare.

I mean yes- credit, downpayment issues would be the obvious barrier to traditional financing and I would assume there are contingencies. But rather than essentially paying an astronomical interest rate, maybe a $60,000 car isn’t the best choice. The crazy thing is this case was the guy said he also had another car.
 

AG_PhamD

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This is super fun, and pretty big news!


  • Volkswagen Group plans to electrify iconic U.S.-brand Scout
  • Independent company to be founded to design, engineer, and manufacture pick-up and rugged SUV (R-SUV) for the U.S. market
  • Start of production planned for 2026
  • Herbert Diess, CEO: “Electrification provides a historic opportunity to now enter the highly attractive pick-up and R-SUV segment as a Group, underscoring our ambition to become a relevant player in the U.S. market.”

We had a Scout in the 70s, icon red with white top, it had manually locking front hubs, so if you didn't do it in advance, you were out in the mud :D

I didn't even realize that VW owned the brand/name of Scout, but here's the history:



Several weeks ago, we were at Universal, and I was walking back from the __secret__chargers__ and I saw this one on a trailer, it was fully restored, looked showroom mint:

View attachment 13917

My grandfather evidently had multiple scouts before I was born. They’re such cool cars.

I was curious how VW ended up with the scout name until I looked it up. I had mistakenly been under the impression International Trucks (previously International Harvester) was owned by Mercedes- making it all the more baffling. But the Traton ownership makes sense now.
 
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