Electric Vehicles

plastic engine oil pans.

I had to do a double-take. Holy crap you're not kidding. Considering that it's a feature of metal pans to deform (instead of cracking or breaking) when colliding with something, switching to a brittle material is just asinine. WTF, Ford?

“Manufacturing is the heart and soul of our country

Fucking what?

"Protect us from Chinese cars", fuck these dipshits. Have they ever considered protecting us from crushing poverty or environmental collapse? "OH MUH GOD ITS A CHINA CAR!! TAKE COVER!!!"

ban connected cars

Does that mean that unconnected Chinese cars are OK? Talk about a win-win... just pull the SIM / antenna.

Mexico in pretty warm

Sheinbaum seems to be doing a pretty good job

Top speed of 31mph, and with a camper on top, it will be even a bit slower than that. 77 miles of range also isn't a lot for something you want to go camping in. If your campground is more than 38 miles from the nearest charger, you're just shit out of luck -- not to mention that your camper on top will also significantly reduce range...

It's plenty for most cities in the world.

I know in the US everyone's driving at 120mph through tight city streets while shooting children, but the rest of the world isn't like that.

My best guess is it will be part of their public transport system. As an example, in Mexico City they have small vans that run up and down a hill but spend most of their time at the base of the hill waiting to go back up. They could charge for a bit while they wait at the bottom.

That's more than enough speed in an urban area. Safety is more important than speed.

50 is higher than most people can drive in a city because of traffic.

It goes 50 kph, which is the speed limit in many cities. It's clearly aimed at people who need a city car and won't be taking it on the freeway.

Mexico (at least up north where I e been) has little neighborhoods like in the US, but they all have their own stores and stuff. Like a mini suburb in a subdivision.

31 mph would be plenty.

They also have a robust "microbus" economy. These are basically private individuals running little routes in the neighborhood and between them, to some of the bigger shops.

This vehicle could be well suited for this and the micros are as ancient as they are ubiquitous. It's a good little chunk of traffic. Of that's what they're targeting, then it strikes me as clever. Bunch of folks mostly running errands.

It'll be neat to see how it does.

Probably a categorisation thing to make them more accessible. In Europe there's a class of vehicle called Motor Quadricycle which are subject to very relaxed taxes and regulation compared to cars but have to meet very strict regulations about size, speed, capacity, etc. In France they call them San Permits because you literally don't need a driver's license to drive one of you were born before 1990, and anyone else aged 14+ only need to have had a minimal training session (those numbers might be a bit odd but you get the idea). A lot of people who simply couldn't get a license to drive a car can still get one of these - for better or worse.

Why can’t it have a real top speed like every other actual car?

They skimped out on safety and crumple zones in order to make it lighter and cheaper, but that makes it extremely unsafe at high speeds.

Because then it would not cost $8500.