this post was submitted on 13 Apr 2024
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Electric Vehicles
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There's plenty of demand for EVs here, just very little demand for $40,999 starting MSRP, fuckhuge, unreliable, unrepairable, iPad-dash, "luxury" crossovers with trim packages nobody wants that every company in the US market wants to shove down our throats. Show me an EV equivalent of something like the Mirage made by a company whose track record doesn't look like a midtown Baltimore backstreet (looking at the Chevy Spark), isn't price gouged to hell by dealerships, and I'll take my ass down wherever I can pick one up
It’s interesting that you’d mention “trim packages“ here, because that’s one of the things that’s turned me off of one manufacturer.
I was seriously looking into an Ioniq 6 at one point. It’s got a look only a weirdo like me can love. However, it starts at a decent price—even if it goes up quickly from there—gets some good positive reviews, and has some decent performance. But, I like the things that I have in my current car, like a sunroof, heated seats, and a heated steering wheel. Well, in order to get those, I have to step up to 20-inch wheels, which eats into the range by almost 50 miles—or some 15%.
Can I get the premium trim line without the monster truck wheels? No. Can I get the heated seats and steering wheel (I’ll forego the sunroof) on the lower trim line with smaller wheels and more range? No. And, they’re not the only ones. For some reason, all these EV manufacturers think they have to put bigger wheels on the premium lines, and thereby kill range.
And I just don’t get it…
It's because the things you don't want wouldn't sell if they were separate items, and those are the things which justify the large incremental price. I mean only an idiot would pay extra for wheels that cut the range by 15% unless it was bundled with other things.
They think they can upsell you to buy a load of things you don't want. In this case though, that greed cost them a sale.
Case in point, I would have been drooling at an actual Mustang EV. The Mach-E is a joke.
Theyre coming for the Corvette and Chally, too, friend. Personally, I said the Mirage because that's exactly what I want out of an EV. Sportiness and EV just doesn't mesh to me and I've got a whole backyard of cars I've spent years building/restoring/modding to fit all my performance needs. What I'd love to have is an EV that actually delivers on what they were sold to us as: an economic choice. I'll take my V8s out on the weekend, but give me a new shitbox that's dirt cheap off the lot and even cheaper to run around on my daily commute and I'll be happy.
The thing is, a Volkswagen EV holds the Pikes Peak record. EVs are sporty as hell.
Compact EVs do exist, but they are hella expensive for some reason. Volkswagen makes them at least.
They're fast but it literally just comes down to the fact that they're all autos. I don't think there's any consumer EV with a proper stick
I think they tried to do something like that in some Japanese brand. That said, they are not really autos, they are direct drive, there is no transmission to speak of. It's like expecting a stick shift in a propeller plane, no point to it.
Toyota's been toying with the idea of a simulated standard transmission. You're totally right about them not really being autos either. I understand that there's really no way for a EV to have a manual transmission, but that's pretty much where the "sport" comes from, "slow car fast" and all that. Otherwise it's pretty much just a numbers game, no real skill required.
I believe the Porsche Taycan (sp?) has two gears. The second one kicks in at something silly like 80mph.
Technically, they are mostly not automatic transmissions. Mostly they are single-speed. There's no automatic shifting of gears. If you like playing with the stick for the sake of playing with the stick for fun, that's no comfort. But if you were trying to outdo automatic transmissions at anticipating the right gear for what comes next, well, that's not an issue in an EV, the answer is always "already in the right gear for what comes next".
The one thing I'd say is if you were a fan of cornering, the weight of an EV puts it at a disadvantage, it can't quite be as nimble as a little sports car.
Of course not. EVs don’t need a transmission, plus it helps make up for some of the weight of the battery to just not have one.
I also loved a manual transmission, but I love a good piece of engineering more than just my interactions with it. I also loved how smoothly the CVT on my Subaru accelerated and how responsive it was. However I love even more the sheer effortless silent torque of my EV.
An electric GTI or Civic Type R would be sick. Crazy performance, but still a lot smaller and more lightweight than other stuff on the market, so charging could be faster and the price could be less insane.
Electric GTI-s exist, it's called a GTE.
I don't know how they perform, though.
Edit: I'm stupid, GTEs are PHEVs. Well, TIL.
EV GTI is exactly what I'm waiting for. VW claims 2026 so first US availability is probably 2027. My current GTI is in good shape so shouldn't be a problem to hold out 3 more years.
One reason is that for a "little car you can toss around", the battery weight is a bit of a challenge. So starting with larger form factors makes sense where: -They are more popular anyway -The weight difference isn't as noticable
Comparing a few weights:
That same weight isn't doable, but it seems like they can get close.
That’s what I get from the description of the Rivian 3x. However it’s several years away plus they didn’t announce a target price point
Maccy could have stood on its own - it seems like a decent vehicle, but wtf were they thinking abusing the Mustang name like that. It is clearly not a vehicle someone looking for a Mustang would like, nor does it add value to the Mustang name. It was just a seriously boneheaded move - did they lay off marketing and go with some engineering comment?