OT: Electric vehicles

Knight Shift

Heisman
May 19, 2011
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My cost calculation for the cost of purchase came out more favorably, factoring in the federal tax credit and no state sales tax. As for my cost of driving, I estimate we are saving about $2,000-4,000/year on fuel (that's factoring in our cost of electric), but that will increase, as our solar panels just went live and our cost to charge up the F150 Lightning will be virtually nothing. Love the clowns like Brother Skinny that mock EVs and throw stones. I have said and will say again, they have to do better on the non-Tesla charging network, and they need to do that very quickly.

Also, not sure what the viable solution is for the people who live in apartments, condos, or don't have a place to put a charger in front of their home (if they do not have a garage). There are solutions, such as in condo and apartment complexes, having "garages" with solar powered chargers. One of our clients has this outside one of their research centers. But who will pay for that? Can the landlord install and then get money for use of the charging stations?
 
Oct 19, 2010
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I guarantee you whoever created this graphic didn't adjust for every single year over the last 100. They also failed to account for the increasing number of car sales, over time.

Tesla started selling into an economy that was buying nearly 3 million new cars per year. Ford started selling into an economy that was buying about 1000 cars per year.

Like I said - stupid graphic. You might just as well have used a Sharpie.

Your argument doesn't hold water. Car sales have been going down in the USA for many years.

So many anti-EV/anti-Tesla types here quick to criticize without thinking this chart through. Tesla is a market changer - a true disruptor. I look forward to more knee-jerk criticisms and ill-informed tl;dr diatribes.

 

mildone_rivals

Heisman
Dec 19, 2011
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Your argument doesn't hold water. Car sales have been going down in the USA for many years.

So many anti-EV/anti-Tesla types here quick to criticize without thinking this chart through. Tesla is a market changer - a true disruptor. I look forward to more knee-jerk criticisms and ill-informed tl;dr diatribes.

Either you’re being disingenuous or else…
hall of fame game missed the point GIF
 

mildone_rivals

Heisman
Dec 19, 2011
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Once again, the data are in constant dollars.
How do you know? The tweet has text on it that says inflation-adjusted numbers. But even if we chose to believe the numbers are both accurate representations of revenue for all the companies and properly adjusted for inflation, that still doesn’t account for other factors that make the “comparison” meaningless.

You post disinformation and now you’re compounding the error by doubling down on it as if being emphatically wrong is gonna fix being wrong.
 
Oct 19, 2010
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How do you know? The tweet has text on it that says inflation-adjusted numbers. But even if we chose to believe the numbers are both accurate representations of revenue for all the companies and properly adjusted for inflation, that still doesn’t account for other factors that make the “comparison” meaningless.

You post disinformation and now you’re compounding the error by doubling down on it as if being emphatically wrong is gonna fix being wrong.

Your arguments leave much to be desired. Say you don't trust the data - fine. I'm otherwise not engaging in endless speculation.
 

Jtung230

Heisman
Jun 30, 2005
19,049
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@jtung230

This is pretty much in line with my calculations

Monthly Cost of Ford Lightning Charging:

I don’t drive enough to get that kind of savings. I just hit 3500 miles after 8 months. i’m just glad I don’t have to go to the gas station or do an annual servicing. I will add that the Lighting is very unique. It is the one EV that’s priced in-line when compared to the ICE version. My ID4 is about 25% more expensive than a comparable car (MX-5). It wouldn’t make sense if I didn’t get the federal tax credit.
 
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mildone_rivals

Heisman
Dec 19, 2011
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Your arguments leave much to be desired. Say you don't trust the data - fine. I'm otherwise not engaging in endless speculation.
The trustworthiness of the data is actually irrelevant. I shouldn't have brought it up because it deflects from the central and obvious point several of us have tried to get you to comprehend.

The chart is missing critically important data entirely - the absence of which renders the chart mostly meaningless. Comparing time to revenue N from however many decades ago to today without adjusting for stuff like population and numbers of people driving makes the comparative numbers meaningless.

That's not speculation. It's fact.
 

Jtung230

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Jun 30, 2005
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Another observation when I’m on the road in my Lighting. A lot guys want to race me. Had to disappoint them because I usually have kids the car. But a quick google should tell them if they can take me or not. I don’t get the need to actual race. These are automatic cars and the only thing I need to do is floor it. There is no art to it anymore. It doesn’t even have a launch option.
 

mildone_rivals

Heisman
Dec 19, 2011
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Another observation when I’m on the road in my Lighting. A lot guys want to race me. Had to disappoint them because I usually have kids the car. But a quick google should tell them if they can take me or not. I don’t get the need to actual race. These are automatic cars and the only thing I need to do is floor it. There is no art to it anymore. It doesn’t even have a launch option.
I think it's amazing and brilliant technical accomplishment that a huge pickup truck like the Lightning can get to 60 in around 4s, or that a Model S Plaid can do it in about 2s. I worry about putting that much acceleration into the hands of so many people. But it's still amazing and brilliant.

Having said that, I agree about the stoplight race thing when it's all automatics and/or EVs. Not much fun, IMO. It's a comparison of cars where human involvement is limited to initial reaction time and then keeping the car pointed in the right direction. Pretty much identical to playing a video game except it's obviously way more exciting to feel the G forces when doing it live.

For me, it's more involving when the cars are manuals and require coordination to shift quickly, potentially with just the right clutch slippage, and at the right times in each gear to maximize torque and grip. No automatic, no computer, no launch control. Then the driver matters a ton and a slower car can beat a faster car, making the event much more exciting. Still not wildly exciting, to me at least, just going in a straight line. But at least there's a human competitive element.

Part of what I really like about F1 racing is that there is no ABS or traction control. So it looks easy on TV. But in reality, it's very hard to avoid locking the brakes into turns or getting slippage out of turns, both of which lead to uncompetitively slow lap times. With ABS and traction control, you just stomp on the brakes at the right time and stomp on the gas at the right time and the computer does all the work of modulating driver inputs to make the car fast. Plop an untrained driver into an F1 car and they wouldn't be able to complete a single lap. They'd spin constantly.

It's the difficulty and the human element that makes such stuff exciting. I mean, carried to extremes, who would want to watch a bunch of robots race each other around a race-course? Would be pretty boring, IMO.
 

Jtung230

Heisman
Jun 30, 2005
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I've seen a bunch of them around recently. Nice looking rides. I think they are better shaped/proportioned compared to the sedan versions, which are a little bubbly/cartoony to me.
Agreed. Same reason I’m not a fan of the model Y design. I get the news to be aerodynamic for range but it just seems like a lazy approach.
 

mildone_rivals

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Dec 19, 2011
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I wonder how all the price cuts will affect used-car sales. Normally, it would have a big impact. But in today's whacky used car market, it seems less clear what will happen.

The price cuts might be great for Tesla in terms of immediate revenue, but if it's achieved on the backs of lowered income for some Tesla employees (as mentioned in the article) and customers who discover the value of their cars suddenly drop through no fault of theirs - that might lead to brand loyalty problems.

OTOH, Tesla enjoys a fierce core of support among it's customer base. I'm a little curious to see how it plays out. Strikes me as a situation with a higher than usual degree of uncertainty.
 

mildone_rivals

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Dec 19, 2011
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Saw a MB EQS or EQE suv today. Beautiful suv.

I've seen a bunch of them around recently. Nice looking rides. I think they are better shaped/proportioned compared to the sedan versions, which are a little bubbly/cartoony to me.

Agreed. Same reason I’m not a fan of the model Y design. I get the news to be aerodynamic for range but it just seems like a lazy approach.

I took a closer look at the photos just now.

Overall, shape-wise, it's pleasant enough and I like the interior on the driver-side. However, in these photos at least, the overall feel I'm coming away with is cheap. It looks like an overuse of plastic and there's just something about the exterior that strikes me as an abundance of corner-cutting, perhaps to increase margins.

The backseats definitely give off a we're saving money in production vibe. And the passenger side dashboard looks a bit cheesy and antique to me - like wallpaper. Seems anachronistic in a new-age high-tech automobile.

And range for a small SUV (aka cross-over) seems pretty poor, IMO.

Ultimately, I feel like the vehicle looks kind of pedestrian for a Mercedes that starts at that price-point.
 

Jtung230

Heisman
Jun 30, 2005
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I took a closer look at the photos just now.

Overall, shape-wise, it's pleasant enough and I like the interior on the driver-side. However, in these photos at least, the overall feel I'm coming away with is cheap. It looks like an overuse of plastic and there's just something about the exterior that strikes me as an abundance of corner-cutting, perhaps to increase margins.

The backseats definitely give off a we're saving money in production vibe. And the passenger side dashboard looks a bit cheesy and antique to me - like wallpaper. Seems anachronistic in a new-age high-tech automobile.

And range for a small SUV (aka cross-over) seems pretty poor, IMO.

Ultimately, I feel like the vehicle looks kind of pedestrian for a Mercedes that starts at that price-point.
Interior finish doesn’t seem cheap to me.
 

RUevolution36

All-American
Sep 18, 2006
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Interior finish doesn’t seem cheap to me.
i can kinda understand where @mildone is coming from. but...imo, it's the design that makes it look "cheap". in the attempt to make things futuristic and "clean", automakers have been eliminating lines and creases and hard corners from their designs. also going for a monotone and sticking to one particular texture (glassy, gloss look as an example), it can come off as cheap for folks who are used to the multi-textured, multi-faceted looks of luxury vehicles of yore.
 

RU4Real

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Jul 25, 2001
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mildone_rivals

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Dec 19, 2011
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i can kinda understand where @mildone is coming from. but...imo, it's the design that makes it look "cheap". in the attempt to make things futuristic and "clean", automakers have been eliminating lines and creases and hard corners from their designs. also going for a monotone and sticking to one particular texture (glassy, gloss look as an example), it can come off as cheap for folks who are used to the multi-textured, multi-faceted looks of luxury vehicles of yore.
Could definitely just be an aesthetic design choice. It is hard for me to pin down why I’m getting a perception of cost-cutting, so yeah, maybe it’s just choice of style. It just seems, to me, that the body panels were designed to be inexpensive to produce versus either aerodynamic or stylish.

Insofar as the interior, I guess the backseat just looks like my old Suburban’s leather seating, just smaller. Hard to explain. And I guess I’d need to check one out in person to really get a better sense of the material quality.

The electronics and tech doesn’t seem cheap at all.
 

mildone_rivals

Heisman
Dec 19, 2011
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Perhaps the Maybach version would be more up to his Royal Highness' standards 🤴🧎‍♂️

Just intro'ed today. One for the @RUTGERS95 s among us.

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a43552495/2024-mercedes-maybach-eqs680-suv-revealed/
I much prefer High Lord Muckity-Muck to Royal Highness, thanks. But I’ll answer to either. 🤣

I actually dislike pretty much all the Maybachs I’ve seen. It’s like they take a perfectly nice car and beat it with the ugly stick. They look comfy, though.

I’m the same way with fashion. Uber expensive fashion always looks hideously ugly to me. I’d make pretty poor royalty with my fashion and design sense. 😀
 
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fsg2_rivals

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Apr 3, 2018
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I thought that's what the argument was about, what..? 7 years ago?
Might have spiraled into that. I just remember dude saying Maybach and maybe Maserati are the only brands that really impress ...soaking panties since '02, effectively.

Might have been f-n around, but he's still forever nicknamed Maybach and referenced on the rare occasion the shameless brand comes up.
 

RU4Real

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Jul 25, 2001
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Might have spiraled into that. I just remember dude saying Maybach and maybe Maserati are the only brands that really impress ...soaking panties since '02, effectively.

Might have been f-n around, but he's still forever nicknamed Maybach and referenced on the rare occasion the shameless brand comes up.

It's been so long that I forgot the details of the discussion.

The only thing I associate with Maybach, ever, is the car that Jack Nicholson had in "Witches of Eastwick" - which I had always assumed was a Maybach but which I've just learned was a Mercedes Benz 600 Grosser and actually belonged to Jack Nicholson.

I guess that makes them, to me, completely inconspicuous.
 
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mildone_rivals

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Dec 19, 2011
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So here's another cross-over type EV SUV that I think, somehow, looks less "cheap" looking than I found the Merc EQE to be.


(And a better article, insofar as photos...)

Not a fan of the no back window, but perhaps it's not so bad. But the exterior design seems way nicer and the interior, from the limited view we're given in the article, seems appropriately appointed. Again, no way to really know what the quality of materials is without sitting in one for a bit.

The Merc's dashboard technology is nicer, though, IMO.
 
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