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I'm not sure if I like it yet or not, but, news today on the Nissan Leaf: NYT quote:Nissan Leaf Electric Car Priced at $32,780  I dunno. It's a little bug-eyed, not the most attractive car. But it's cool to see purchaseable, production electric cars from major manufacturers, and the tax rebates makes it reasonably affordable.
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Mar 30, 2010 22:07
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 12:14 |
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Weinertron posted:Does it drive and feel like an econobox? If so, then this $25,000 car costs $10,000 more than a comparable new economy car, and assuming 30mpg and $3/gal that $10,000 can buy enough gas to go 100,000 miles. Yeah, I'm not going to buy one. Not this one, anyway. Prices for electric cars will drop when volume blah blah you get the idea. Maybe in 15 years I can buy something with the looks and performance of a Tesla Roadster, but with better battery life and shorter charge-time, for $30k. Anything that brings that day closer is a good thing.
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Mar 30, 2010 23:13
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Good lord. Its headlights have crawled back onto the hood. And its fog lights have become headlights. And... it's spawned new little foglights where they're supposed to be, too! The rest of the design is okay I guess, not horrible, but the headlight thing is just hosed up.
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Apr 1, 2010 08:52
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el topo posted:That's Chrysler innovating. They're shipping that "Man Van" out with a new scent they've perfected, it's called "middle aged desperation". So, it smells just like a porsche, then?  In all seriousness, though, I think it's a good marketing idea. Lots of married men with big families should buy a minivan, but insist on an SUV instead, entirely for image reasons. A minivan with more 'aggressive' styling might get a few of those customers for Dodge. It absolutely should not supplant many other desperately needed improvements at Dodge, of course, but it must be a pretty low-cost low-effort thing to do, and if it garners a couple percentage points more of the minivan market, it's worth it.
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Jun 25, 2010 19:29
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So, Tesla Motors had their IPO today, and it was Wildly Successful, raising $226 Million with shares starting at $17. The market immediately bid them up to over $22, on a day when the overall US market was down hard. This matters because it indicates that a lot of investors still think Tesla has a good shot, despite GM and Nissan both releasing all-electric cars this year which will have vastly higher production numbers (and might actually be profitable to sell for those companies). With $226M, Tesla should have enough cash to operate at their current rates of loss for at least a couple more years, too, which is critical since they need to get the Model S out in 2012 to meet the terms of its government loan. Toyota is among those investing, and it seems that NUMMI is going to re-open as a Tesla/Toyota partnership factory (which will be a very nice shot in the arm to Fremont, CA, although financially it's not the smartest place to build cars). Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 20:03 on Jun 29, 2010 |
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Jun 29, 2010 20:00
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I learned how to drive when I was about 18, but I was living in San Francisco, where parking is scarce, cars are expensive, gas is expensive, and (most of all) insurance for an under-25 male is incredibly, ridiculously expensive. And MUNI is (or was, at the time) pretty reasonable. So I didn't get my license until I was 25, and only after I started having to commute all the way out to Hayward. I did the MUNI to BART to a shuttle to work thing for a few months but it was taking nearly 2 hours each way. Driving brought it down to less than an hour, and (including a bridge toll, gas, and maintenance on the car) cost the same.
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Nov 8, 2010 22:40
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 12:14 |
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It's possible someone might buy an electric car not out of an attempt to make the most economic choice vis-a-vis gas consumption versus the cost of electricity vs. the extra price of the car over a fuel-efficient non-electric car in the same category and with similar reliability and etc. etc., but because they view it as a direction in automotive technology that they want to support or promote, or because they want to "reduce America's dependence on Foreign Oil," or because they think electric cars are Super Cool. I don't know if a full-electric Smart makes sense in that respect, but it's a factor one shouldn't totally ignore. It's OK to like cars for reasons outside their practicality and cost effectiveness. AI wouldn't be here if it wasn't.
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Oct 16, 2012 05:33
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