Battery Electric Vehicle News / Enjoying the Transportation Revolution

Martyn1981

Grumpy_chap said:

These were very basic questions.  It is just, as we are meant to be returning to the office in April, the time is approaching where going for a new car will start to make sense.  I do want to assess the extent to which an EV will fit the bill.  I am entirely satisfied that a TM3LR would suffice, except for cost to entry.  I need to understand the options for lower cost to entry without too great a compromise on flexibility in use.  If the sales contacts are useless, ICE sales will be maintained.  My ideal would be a vehicle that can do return trips from Heathrow to Cheltenham or Dover without needing a recharge.

It would be tight in extreme cold (-10C) possibly 20 miles shy, but the standard range TM3 might suit you now that they've upped the batt/range. In warmer weather you should be OK even at motorway speeds.

Given those routes, you'll have easy access to superchargers, so a 5min charge if batt below 30% at a 250kW charger would add 60 miles even at extreme cold, and most of the year you'd probably be able to avoid the need.

For a larger, perhaps more practical car, there's the Ioniq 5 (the Tron car), but that has a tiny bit less range, but like the TM3, a nice saving on the TM3LR.

Grumpy_chap

Thanks @Martyn1981 - it is good to have thoughts.  At this stage I'm not immediately off to buy, but with return to work looming, this type of range would cover even the most extreme journey.  As a Contractor, I need to keep a higher level of flexibility than many.  The good thing about Tesla is the Supercharge network and a toilet break or cuppa would give certainly adequate boost in terms of range.

QrizB

Grumpy_chap said:

Either, the young lady presenting as AVA via the webchat was so taken by my character from such a limited introduction she just had to get my number, or the training given is wholly inadequate.

I suspect it is the latter.

I suspect there was no young lady at all, and that AVA was a chatbot.

orrery

QrizB said:

Grumpy_chap said:

Either, the young lady presenting as AVA via the webchat was so taken by my character from such a limited introduction she just had to get my number, or the training given is wholly inadequate.

I suspect it is the latter.

I suspect there was no young lady at all, and that AVA was a chatbot.

I've even heard some nonsense from an "EV Specialist" at a dealer who was insisting that an EV6 could charge at up to 220kW on a type 2.

JKenH

Musk On Affordable Electric Truck: Extremely Hard For Tesla, Near Impossible For Others

He hasn't specified a certain price level and there is no pricing available for the Tesla Cybertruck, but we can safely assume that Tesla would like to be below vehicles like the GMC Hummer EV Pickup (Edition 1 starts at about $110,000).

https://insideevs.com/news/571205/affordable-truck-extremely-hard-tesla/

I find it frustrating that websites like this just follow the Tesla line and ignore what is actually going on in the real world. Conveniently the article makes no mention of the Ford F-150 which is priced from around £40k.

Grumpy_chap

QrizB said:

I suspect there was no young lady at all, and that AVA was a chatbot.

Clearly a chatbot with insufficient training

ABrass

JKenH said:

Musk On Affordable Electric Truck: Extremely Hard For Tesla, Near Impossible For Others

He hasn't specified a certain price level and there is no pricing available for the Tesla Cybertruck, but we can safely assume that Tesla would like to be below vehicles like the GMC Hummer EV Pickup (Edition 1 starts at about $110,000).

https://insideevs.com/news/571205/affordable-truck-extremely-hard-tesla/

I find it frustrating that websites like this just follow the Tesla line and ignore what is actually going on in the real world. Conveniently the article makes no mention of the Ford F-150 which is priced from around £40k.

The Hummer is ahead of both of those because it's in production and for sale now. Unlike the Lightning or the Cybertruck.

I seem to remember estimates of 2024 for the $40,000 pro model lightning, but can't find a source. It has potential to be the same as the $35,000 Model 3.

Martyn1981

ABrass said:

JKenH said:

Musk On Affordable Electric Truck: Extremely Hard For Tesla, Near Impossible For Others

He hasn't specified a certain price level and there is no pricing available for the Tesla Cybertruck, but we can safely assume that Tesla would like to be below vehicles like the GMC Hummer EV Pickup (Edition 1 starts at about $110,000).

https://insideevs.com/news/571205/affordable-truck-extremely-hard-tesla/

I find it frustrating that websites like this just follow the Tesla line and ignore what is actually going on in the real world. Conveniently the article makes no mention of the Ford F-150 which is priced from around £40k.

The Hummer is ahead of both of those because it's in production and for sale now. Unlike the Lightning or the Cybertruck.

I seem to remember estimates of 2024 for the $40,000 pro model lightning, but can't find a source. It has potential to be the same as the $35,000 Model 3.

Yep, the Hummer sold one in Q4 2021, don't know if they've sold more now, but most likely.

I also seem to remember 2024 for the Lightning Pro, but I think it can be ordered now (don't know when delivery would be though). That's their base model aimed at fleet sales but anyone can buy one, I believe. The starting price for their 'normal' models is $53k for the XLT, $68k for the Lariat and $91k for the Platinum.

The $53k price may seem high, but the average retail selling price for F-150 ICEV's is about $47k, or at least was a year or so ago. So trucks ain't cheap, and Rivian has just increased their prices by about $12k - a move that went down horrifically with their reservation holders who began cancelling orders, so Rivian has reversed the price increase for those with reservations. The high cost/price of pick ups seems to reflect their poor aerodynamics and thus the enormous amount of batts they need.

I'm guessing that the base Cybertruck, single motor $40k (price at launch) won't happen. Tesla said that the vast bulk of reservations, back when they were at about 500k, were for the dual motor ($50k) and tri-motor ($70k) versions. Since then reservations have grown to somewhere between 1m and 2m, and Elon has announced the quad motor CT.

Martyn1981

Great move(s) by VWG I believe.

Volkswagen Decides On New $2.2 Billion EV Factory In Wolfsburg, Realigns Tech Department

A realignment of Volkswagen’s technical development process is part and parcel of the overall plan to make Wolfsburg an EV manufacturing hub. The company says from now on, its primary focus will be “software first” rather than “hardware first.” This may be a result of the massive difficulties the company has experienced getting its ID. branded cars into production and into the hands of customers.

According to Thomas Ulbrich, “Software is the core and driver of our transformation. The world used to be simple, a Beetle was just hardware. Our ID. models are more software than hardware.” He says the Trinity vehicles to be built in Wolfsburg will contain two to two-and-a-half times more computer code than the current ID.3.

Martyn1981

And we thought we had it bad, electricity prices are seriously high in China.


Tesla owner charged ~$600,000 at charging station because of a Supercharger bug