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The degree to which you see the car world through a pinhole, with blinkers and rose-colored lenses, is truly one of the most entertaining things on C-D. Keep it up.
And with 600 shares you can enjoy my pain or joy in the future. At least I'm not all talk
No argument, and while this thread is nominally about GM's effort, there are five or six other behemoth makers who are at the same point.
Tesla has had to scratch and scrape and proceed slowly and put its product together, soup to nuts, one small and overwhelming effort at a time. And fundamentally, there's nothing truly new or innovative about EVs - no proprietary element, no big breakthrough in tech, no wizard-level insight or magic. It's just a matter of someone deciding to put enough effort in to get the vague concept to a market-ready and -appealing state. Tesla was first, yes. But there is absolutely nothing stopping any of the large, extremely wealthy and centuries-experienced companies from turning onto the same road and blowing Tesla's doors off without even noticing they're there.
I remember reading something on the northstar engine. In some cases the casting was so porous it leaked oil. How the F do you make a engine with casting so porous it leaks oil. Not to mention the issues with everything else. My mom bought a Deville. Nice car. At first. Then the problems started. It was a absolute pile of crap. Always in the shop for something. She finally got rid of it. I got her a Hyundai Sonata in 2007. It’s been a incredibly reliable car.
I remember when the long awaited Canyon/Colorado came out. Lots of hoopla. Now..they been around a few years and troubles are showing. These are two year old trucks. They may be teething problems so who knows.
If these companies could just turn on the same road that’s fine. They can turn all they want. Just because they can/may/will build a electric car it doesn’t necessarily mean they will shed the mentality and the bean counter mindset they have.
And most important regardless of what they do
It doesn’t mean people are gonna come flocking to the dealerships to buy the crap cars that they will be selling. Domestic brands lost a lot of customers over the years due to crap product, no customer support, low resale, unreliable vehicles etc. . There are people who flat out will not buy a domestic brand. They won’t even give it a chance. Yeah they got better but only because they had to. The imports were kicking the snot out of them.
Last edited by Electrician4you; 03-22-2019 at 09:12 PM..
Personally, I wouldn't buy a twenty dollar bill from GM if they were selling them for ten dollars each.
But to Zep's point, there not being enough battery material available to keep up with future electric car demand is why trying to convert the nation's fleet to pure BEV's is currently a dumb idea. You could build 3 PHEV's with the same amount of batteries as is in one BEV and they would still have a 50 mile range, and using gasoline range extender engines, still electrify maybe 90% of the total miles driven. And, you wouldn't need a second car for long trips, or worry about winter weather degrading battery performance or reduced cabin heat. Much better bang for the buck, until that time when battery technology gets much better than it is right now, and then it makes sense to build pure BEV's. But there needs to be a buffer between where we're at now and where we'll be at in twenty years with respect to fleet electrification.
Zep, if you truly have 600 shares of Tesla stock, unless you are already wealthy enough to take a big hit on them, my advice is to not "put all your eggs in one basket". Elon has pumped up that stock far beyond its real current value, IMHO. Hope you got in very early and are currently living on profits.
I remember reading something on the northstar engine. In some cases the casting was so porous it leaked oil. How the F do you make a engine with casting so porous it leaks oil. Not to mention the issues with everything else. My mom bought a Deville. Nice car. At first. Then the problems started. It was a absolute pile of crap. Always in the shop for something. She finally got rid of it. I got her a Hyundai Sonata in 2007. It’s been a incredibly reliable car.
I remember when the long awaited Canyon/Colorado came out. Lots of hoopla. Now..they been around a few years and troubles are showing. These are two year old trucks. They may be teething problems so who knows.
If these companies could just turn on the same road that’s fine. They can turn all they want. Just because they can/may/will build a electric car it doesn’t necessarily mean they will shed the mentality and the bean counter mindset they have.
And most important regardless of what they do
It doesn’t mean people are gonna come flocking to the dealerships to buy the crap cars that they will be selling. Domestic brands lost a lot of customers over the years due to crap product, no customer support, low resale, unreliable vehicles etc. . There are people who flat out will not buy a domestic brand. They won’t even give it a chance. Yeah they got better but only because they had to. The imports were kicking the snot out of them.
That’s why the us automakers are giving up sedans no other automakers can keep up with their pickups though the F150 is the best selling full size pickup in the world.
Global Pick-up sales by Brand
The global leader within the Pick-up segment is Ford with 1.35 million units sold in the 2018 (+0.8%), ahead of the Toyota with 998.120 (+10.3%) and Chevrolet with 899.809 (-0.5%).
In fourth place Ram with 647.582 sales (+3.5%), followed by Isuzu growing 15.3% with 335.674 units and GMC with 315.659 (-3.6%).
If they get paid by the government to do it, it makes financial sense for the company. It may not make the company a dime in sales or be a viable commercial product, but who cares.
If they get paid by the government to do it, it makes financial sense for the company. It may not make the company a dime in sales or be a viable commercial product, but who cares.
The government doesn't pay makers a dime to build EVs or any other alternative-fuel cars, some development and bootstrap programs aside. There is and has been a tax credit for buying certain types of zero-emission vehicles, but it's capped in certain ways and Tesla's just ran out.
There's nothing fundamentally wrong with government supports to nudge makers and buyers into a necessary new market. If anything, the US programs have been pretty weak, really another sop to a class wealthy enough to buy the cars without the credits rather than bringing the cost down to a new level of buyer.
PEV still has significant limitations. For example, cold weather remains a big problem. Since I drive to the ski slopes every morning during the winter, and frequently in zub-zero weather, it just doesn't make that much sense for me.
Sigh... another flop to come? Some manufacturers just should not be making certain vehicles.
Wonder how many of these phrases were uttered when manufacturers were trying to put combustion engines in carriages...
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