Electric cars

AdrianC wrote: »

...and trucks outsell cars 2:1. Ford shift over 800,000 F150s

I wonder how much if that is necessity and how much is image? Some Americans buy pick-ups because they need to carry significant amounts of stuff about- small tradespersons often use them the way European equivalents would use a small van. Some buy them as a cultural thing of "I'm a man who does manly things like hunting and home improvements and taking stuff to the dump and I need a V8 truck!" when it only gets used for any of that once a year or only ever to a third of it's capacity. So would they buy electric versions? I guess for the practical purchasers it's the same as a van maker over here - the questions are about payload, cost to run and so on and if you have a charge point. Range might be a bigger factor though - many American cities are much more sprawling than ours, a 50 mile each way daily commute is not that unusual so e.g. a self-employed plumber may do a lot more miles per day. In a rural area - even more so but as here - it could work out very effective with a solar panel set up and then charge overnight.

As for the image guys - if you made something that looked tough enough and had the performance you could get away with a relatively poor payload. Or go for a smaller but sporty image - if you built a pick-up body on a Tesla 3 platform would that work? (I presume Tesla have thought of this)

Arklight wrote: »

Open Pick up trucks aren!!!8217;t any more useful for a small business there than here. You can!!!8217;t lock tools in them safely or protect anything from the elements. If someone in an SME is driving a company pick up its probably the boss.

Lockable tool chests in the back, tarpaulins. At least that's what my Texas joiner/carpenter pal does. Another pal of mine used to drive a company Ford Ranger to deliver car parts from wholesaler to garages and then go home in his Chevy Silverado. You're right - a panel van would be better for many so maybe it's an overlap with the image thing.

Might be a city/country thing as well. City-based commuters want reliable, economical and comfortable until they get rich enough to go for prestige brands. Small town America (of which there's still an awful lot) will have a different driving profile.

NBLondon wrote: »

I wonder how much if that is necessity and how much is image? Some Americans buy pick-ups because they need to carry significant amounts of stuff about- small tradespersons often use them the way European equivalents would use a small van. Some buy them as a cultural thing of "I'm a man who does manly things like hunting and home improvements and taking stuff to the dump and I need a V8 truck!" when it only gets used for any of that once a year or only ever to a third of it's capacity. So would they buy electric versions?

ISTR reading that, in the USA, pick-up trucks are in a different classification to cars & so have to conform to lower thus be built to lower standards (safety, emissions, fuel economy etc) and are thus cheaper

AdrianC wrote: »

Is there any reality which will impinge upon your rampant astroturfing for St Elon?

You OK hun? You get so upset whenever some Tesla info is posted, calm down.

[BTW please be more careful, I understand your need to attack anyone that thinks the Tesla cars are half decent, and your claims that such folk are 'fanboi's', but the claim of astroturfing suggests paid commentary, and I will of course report you if you continue along such a route, be it directed at me or others on here. M.]

And you reckon that in the year from this month on, they can actually make a big dent in the US car market? Tesla has 0.7% of the car market this year to date...

The top selling car last year was the Toyota Camry. From the article I posted you can see they are selling about 26,000 per month. Sales obviously will be down a tick due to the new arrival in the market.

So could Tesla sell 300k M3's in the US over the next year, well that would be all of their 6,000 per week production which they aim to hit in August, so assuming they ramp higher, then possibly, maybe, perhaps, especially if the competition sell a little less.

So, perhaps you need to calm down and have a think before you post nonsense.

Ford shift over 800,000 F150s - to get close to that, Tesla would be looking at nearly a quarter of the total car market, a 35x increase from now...

I think you are quoting Ford F series sales, not F150's which are about 500k pa. Again perhaps you should think before posting nonsense, and yes I do think the M3 could get close to that, even half that would be impressive, but it is a much harder target, and possibly one that will be better beaten by Tesla's proposed pickup which if it is even close to the suggested specs will eat Ford's lunch.

No reality and the I-Pace prove YOU wrong. JLR have done what you claim is impossible.

An old established ICE manufacturer who have, in the space of a few years (nowhere near the decade you guess at) designed, engineered and produced (admittedly via a third party but that is due to capacity constraints in the UK) a fully fledged Tesla worrying EV. With a newly designed, from the ground up EV/hybrid platform, for all their new models, due soon, once space is made at Solihull.

To quote Dr. Wolfgang Ziebart (Jaguars Technical Design Director) with regards the I-Pace "from a clean sheet of paper to a customer car in four years" (Tesla have taken 15 years to reach where they are now )

You really need to review what you write, stop contradicting yourself, stop banging on about GM (because it fits your narrative) and changing the point to fit your Tesla centric view. :rotfl: