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Ola posted:Is the biggest reason to avoid peak prices? Several cars have charge timers built in, but I don't know how well they work, if it's just "push button, start charging at 9 PM." I'd probably go for it, I'm guessing you can monitor and trigger it externally as well, which means you can obsessively check that charging started via an app the first month or so. It’s between timing to avoid peak pricing, also the ability to see how many kWh we’ve used charging and the cost of the unit. I originally was also looking for something to disable charging while we’re on vacation or otherwise away for a weekend, then I realized that any EVSE can do that by walking to the basement and tripping the circuit breaker.  The Leaf does have charge timing functions as does the Bolt, and I believe both tell you kWh usage. Those two are the EVs I can afford (used Leaf first, Bolt lease in a few years) so it’s honestly probably the cost and the “neat-but-I’ll-stop-caring-after-a-month” features (like you said). I’m a cheap-rear end, what can I say? 
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Oct 25, 2017 13:31
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Sagebrush posted:Sweet! I hope it looks anything like the concept at all. Honda recently told Reuters it lost its mojo somewhere along the line, and they’re trying to get it back. So it depends on which Honda gets it; if it’s the Accord team, you’re going to end up with boring, committee-approved dreck in the form of an SUV or crossover. If they let the teams behind the S2000 or NSX have a shot, then we’re going to have one hell of a cool car on our hands.
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Oct 26, 2017 01:49
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MrYenko posted:All of the above. If I end up with a new car (not a certainty, yet,) it’ll probably be the first time I’ll be in a non-zero percent loan. GMAC had a serious free-money-for-everyone phase, and I took advantage on both the Volt, and the GTO I owned before it. I still don’t know how they made a dime on either of those cars. This is why I’m 100% in for buying used EVs for the next few years, at least. It’s been one model year update and my Zero FXS got a 10% upgrade in battery capacity with the same weight as before. This also gives it an (arguably) 10% higher power output. I realize now that my FXS is pretty much worthless on the used market, but such is life when dealing with new tech. I still like it a ton and plan on throwing some meatier tires on it for fire trail fuckery down the line, and the battery will long outlast my lard-ridden rear end off-road so there’s no reason to abandon it. Just, drat we are improving fast.
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Oct 26, 2017 17:49
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Chalk me up as one of the “that truck is neat and good, surprised it’s being marketed as a long-haul machine” people. Hell, I figured UPS and the USPS would be fist-fighting over electrification tech (while FedEx tells their Also question for those of you familiar - our local dealer in GA are starting to see off-lease California compliance specials pop up, and the Chevy Spark EV is becoming more prevalent. Aside from the lackluster 3.3 kW charger and the 400 ft-lb of torque  , is there anything to know about with these machines? They seem to be priced better than the Leafs nearby, probably due to people not knowing what they are. I found a model with 9k on the odometer for less than $9k, and it seems to be the perfect commuter car.
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Nov 17, 2017 17:20
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Vitamin J posted:I realized I didn't post my EV autocross pictures and video. I have nothing more to add than “this was awesome and hilarious in a way”. It must be easier to tell if you’re at the limits of traction as you don’t have an ICE drowning out your tire squeal.  Congrats on being the first person I know to hustle a Leaf around a track!
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Dec 2, 2017 14:50
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drgitlin posted:Thanks! Yeah, it’s decent enough, and the ProPilot Assist would make commuting a lot easier than it would be in a Bolt. Although if the commute was short enough I’d find it hard not to get a used i3. The only problem I have with i3s is that used models all seem to hang around the $15k mark all day, which is “buy a used Leaf with the same mileage and fill that mo’ fo’s hatch with drat fine liquor” territory. New they’re slightly more expensive in a lease than the stripped down Bolt, which gives you, you know, almost twice the range. I love the interior and body on the i3, I just find it hard as hell to justify on the used market. Still though, Bolt leases now are hovering around my current car payment and I intend to start paying it down some over time to be sure I don’t eat copious amounts of poo on the trade-in.
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Dec 8, 2017 22:45
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FilthyImp posted:The rumor mill says it'll be a software update to change the timing of the airbag. Maybe they'll toss in a nag-screen about seatbelts until the driver clicks in as well. The most bizarre thing about this is that it’s a recall for someone failing to obey a very basic law, “commmon sense” be damned (because we in the US don’t have common sense). If I contacted a lawyer to sue Kia for not putting V-rates tires on a 2003 Kia Rio because I blew the tires out and wrecked the car doing 129 mph on a US highway, they’d tell me to gently caress off. Why does a car need to be recalled for someone breaking the law? Sometimes I can’t help but wonder if car companies in Asia and Europe sit down and do a cost/benefit analysis on car sales in the US and whether it’s worth putting up with the overly-litigious US populace. I hate big corporations as much as anyone else, but this is the kinda poo poo which ensures we only get boring-as-hell crossover garbage shipped to us now and forever.
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Dec 11, 2017 16:58
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Subjunctive posted:I don't think it's the law in New Hampshire, from scanning the wiki page. Holy hell, you’re right.  What the gently caress, NH?So I stand corrected, then. I guess we do have to make safety measures for the dumbest of our population, neato! Edit: No helmet laws for motorcyclists either, loving lol. “Live Free funeral home DJ fucked around with this message at 17:08 on Dec 11, 2017 |
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Dec 11, 2017 17:05
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BMW has indicated they’re making an all-electric 3 series at some point in the future, and I’m holding out hope that it’ll be easy for them to bring a wagon to the US as there’s pretty much zero emissions testing required to meet DOT specs. That said, I have no idea if the DOT would want to crash a bunch of the cars as well or if they’d be okay with the sedan 3 crash tests. If they want unique crash test figures, it would pretty much shoot it dead. I’m honestly surprised the wagon 3 is available in the US, as they only seem to make car magazines and weird car-loving people happy. We will be in crossover hell for a very long time, until a new generation of kids get old enough to think that crossovers are their parents’ cars, and that they need something “cooler” or whatever the term will be.
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Dec 14, 2017 13:01
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Three Olives posted:Really? It's just the loving worst, it has to be up there with doing dishes and cleaning the bathroom for activities that people do on a regular basis but hate doing with a burning passion. My partner likes mowing the lawn, he honest to god enjoys mowing the lawn, he says it is therapeutic, has anyone in the history of earth said they like getting gas? Getting gas in PA sucked rear end, but at least in GA it’s an excuse for a beer run.  Kidding aside, I don’t miss the “poo poo, I’m running late to work and forgot about having less than a quarter in the tank” moments I had with the bike. Plug it in and forget about it until tomorrow has served me well. Looking forward to doing that with a car sooner than later.
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Feb 2, 2018 22:27
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FilthyImp posted:The Bolt will do the same under the eco setting, iirc. Drop the Bolt into “L” and grab hold of the steering wheel regen button, and it will stop relatively quickly. That said, the steering wheel regen button does kinda have this annoying half-second delay which I couldn’t get used to on the test drive, and it’s not as easy to vary as the pedal. I liked it for what it’s worth, but still haven’t driven the “best” according to the car mags which is the i3, nor the car I can never afford, the Model S.
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Feb 6, 2018 23:19
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Alpenglow posted:Is the Bolt regen in "L" plus the wheel button stronger than just the wheel button in D? I didn't try much in L, but was super impressed by the deceleration just with the button in D. Kinda figured it was maximum since it was basically a reasonably smooth driver's natural maximum stopping force. It wasn’t too significant, and the with the button engaged it may have been the same overall deceleration between L and D. It could be that I just “felt” like it was stronger due to the initial hit from L mode. My butt dyno is pretty drat inaccurate, so I could be remembering it wrong.
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Feb 7, 2018 12:52
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Speaking of banal, I’m seeing a ton of 2017 Chevy Bolts in the area which are getting marked down from MSRP (but no price, just a scratched out figure and “EMAIL US”), so I emailed a dealership asking what they were looking to get on the car. Cue the usual “OH MAN WE’RE GONNA DEAL YOU SO GOOD BIG BOY” reply followed by a phone call where they want to talk trade-ins and monthly payments, not the cost of the car. I’m starting to get the idea that Chevy’s having issues moving these things because their dealerships are still acting like it’s 1988, not 2018.
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Feb 14, 2018 16:40
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eyebeem posted:If I could snag one cheap I'd consider jumping on one. My commute is just outside of realistic for a used leaf/500e or that would be a no-brainer purchase. The issue with buying a new Bolt is that you know it's only going to hold its value a LITTLE better than the low-range EVs out there right now, and it's going to be outdated in just a couple of years. That’s honestly why I’d only consider the Bolt as a lease; I don’t want to deal with the sale of a heavily depreciated asset when Chevy introduces the 2021 Bolt 2.0 with the new 375 mile 100kW battery and 303 HP. Leases are normally a lovely idea from a financial standpoint but I’ll give a big exception for EVs as the tech is improving ridiculously fast right now. It’s why I think BMW had the right idea with the i3 having “upgradeable” battery packs, as they were able to squeeze their 33kWh pack into the same chassis as the original 22kWh pack, which should give you more of a reason to buy the i3 versus lease. If BMW said that they would support the current gen i3’s chassis for 10 years and upgrade the battery pack at a reasonable cost, then yeah, buy the 90-mile version today and in 3 years when they introduce a 200 mile version, just pay the money and get an upgrade to 200 miles. ... the problem is that the battery is still a huge chunk of the overall cost of the vehicle, so that plan sucks and nobody will take advantage of it due to cost alone.  So, lease away for now.
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Feb 14, 2018 17:21
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Girlfriend snagged an used i3 over the weekend and I’m in absolutely in love with the car (her too, *coughs*). We had a fun shakedown drive about 60-something miles out of the city and got to experience the smooth, almost eerily quiet cabin at highway speeds, the “oh poo poo” feeling of draining more than half your battery driving in one direction (and continuing onwards), the glory of Georgia Power’s well-kept CCS/Chademo QCs and watching your car gain miles back in minutes, and the righteous indignation felt when two dickheads in ICE cars block chargers (I’m a sadbrain used to drivers being lovely, but she was pissssssssed). All in all, love the i3, excellent car would buy again. That’s my story, thanks for reading! CAT INTERCEPTOR posted:Sure, lets get rid of all the subsidies on oil and normal ICE cars then as well. Remove all the tax breaks as well. Take away any possibility of Govt bailouts as well. It loving amazes me that so many people are blissfully ignorant of the sheer amount of money our governments throw at oil companies. ExxonMobil gets loving billions in government assistance and I’m praying for a bill to pass that’ll give me a thousand-dollar pittance on the purchase of my Zero. 
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Feb 19, 2018 16:03
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bawfuls posted:LOL good job VW sales person! If there’s one thing that car salespeople can do well, it’s gently caress the sale sideways. We almost walked out of the dealer on the used i3 because their F&I rear end in a top hat kept telling my girlfriend that “electric motors are far more complex than engines and really unreliable” while trying to sell the extended warranty and maintenance program. I asked why we’d need oil changes on an electric car and that shut the rear end in a top hat up for a while. Also I still like the Bolt, though the rumors of the 200 mile i3 have piqued my interest. If I don’t just piss away a shitload of my money on fixing a shithole of a house I’d probably be driving a Bolt now. It’s honestly a good (if ugly) car.
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Mar 8, 2018 16:22
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Thwomp posted:Normally, I'd chalk this up to the dealer not wanting to sell a car that probably has razor thin margins (or perhaps is a loss-leader type deal for GM). Yeah it was 100% that they were pushing a very profitable after-market warranty. The F&I guy was full of poo poo from the moment he walked us into the office. I should write a quick letter to the GM telling them how good their saleswoman was and that their F&I guy is a piece of poo poo.
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Mar 8, 2018 21:54
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Eh, I'm willing to forgive the production issues and honestly put myself down on the list for a Model 3. The challenge is that the only other EVs I'll ever be able to afford with a 200+ mile range is the Chevy Bolt, and after my experiences with Chevy dealerships and the news about GM and other makes now pressing the Trump administration to relax fuel efficiency rules I got the feeling they're not taking the Bolt seriously and think they'll kill it off the day Tesla dies (or sooner than that), and write this whole thing off as a fad. GM and Ford, being American companies, will put off taking anything seriously until the day comes where gasoline stops being so cheap and the Japanese, Koreans and Europeans start ripping them into pieces sales-wise. Today's profits mean more than longevity in the US markets held hostage by hosed-up short-term shareholders, and I've got the feeling their accountants realize that bribing a few politicians with millions to have them write truck-friendly emissions laws is a better ROI than actually doing real R&D and preparing for the future. Edit: bawfuls posted:That supercharger network also needs to be significantly built out to handle the increased demand from Model 3s. There are already wait times at lots of the superchargers just from S and X owners. Yeah this is gonna be the problem with adoption where people don't want to install chargers in their houses, or apartment complexes installing chargers in general, and everyone relies on quick-charging technology. It's going to take an embarrassingly long amount of time to break people out of that habit. If I had more than two dimes to rub together I'd be figuring out a cheap, effective way to install shitloads of chargers in apartment complexes and start getting that poo poo out there pronto. funeral home DJ fucked around with this message at 02:49 on Mar 27, 2018 |
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Mar 27, 2018 02:43
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lelandjs posted:A company get popular, their grasp extends their reach and make some mistakes. Opportunists leap on excuses to poo poo on them so the stock price dives to they can pick up shares for cheap. Yeah this is pretty much exactly what I’m seeing as well. Lots of talk about the company failing and bad poo poo abounds reminds me of the loving hubbub around the HomePod from Apple, where you had tech rags falling over themselves to poo poo on it and link it directly to Apple’s future. Once the HomePod came out and nothing major changed, the HomePod was forgotten and now it’s the iPhone X sales plunging and oh my god, Apple is gonna die, sell sell sell. We’ve been here before with the Model X delays, then the doors on the Model X having failures, blah blah blah. Funny how nobody gives a poo poo about that anymore! RZA Encryption posted:Could/does tesla make a CCS to supercharger adapter so a Tesla can take advantage of any future CCS charging network? Teslas can use CHAdeMO with an adapter that looks just as hilariously stupid as you’d imagine.. IIRC CHAdeMO is much better at adapting to a wide range of battery voltages than CCS, which may be why they choose to use that instead of CCS. However, as Zero Motorcycles found out with their 110-ish volt battery packs, a shitload of cheap CHAdeMO units out there were built to CCS standards meaning they couldn’t drop below 200v for charging, and the bikes that were supposed to be compatible weren’t, so Zero dropped the option. I’m still bitter about that.
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Mar 29, 2018 13:28
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Yeah I don’t know who here is cross-shopping a Model 3 and a Bolt because Tesla has said many times before that the 3 is aimed at the BMW 3 and Audi 4 cars.  Unless someone is shopping the bottom-trim Model 3 against the Bolt.
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Mar 30, 2018 04:38
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So our buddies at Ford are preparing to mercy-kill their cars and ramp up crossover/SUV production and Jalopnik writers believe GM isn’t far behind. That’s probably why Ford is working on an electric SUV first, as they see no future with cars, and GM is forcing the “crossover” label on the Bolt despite the fact that it’s a loving hatchback. Now the real question in my mind is “do the Big 3 take crossover EVs seriously to the point where they put real R&D into them if gas prices spike like they did back in the early-to-mid 2000’s, or do they keep pumping out the same hot garbage and get caught with their pants down while the Europeans, Japanese and Koreans rip them to shreds, resulting in Bailout 2.0?” Also this makes Tesla the only American manufacturer of cars I remotely give a poo poo about, so whoopee. 
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Apr 4, 2018 19:37
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:I am watching the i-Pace launch with great interest for this reason Yeah, it pains me to think this but I can’t help but wonder if Tesla made a mistake not releasing a small SUV first. American vehicle tastes are the worst and AI members are all going to be fighting over the last hundred small sedans in the US in 10 years, like how it’s hard to find honest-to-god wagons now. Then again, maybe they’re counting on an economic collapse of the American economy after we default on our debt from the heinous tax cuts and our apparent new endless war in Syria coming up, so they’re just aiming for the new kings of the world, China.
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Apr 12, 2018 11:49
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IIRC they wanted the roadster to have a first gear for strong acceleration to get attention for having a “fast” EV but they couldn’t engineer it strong enough to handle the torque loads. I remember when they were advertising the roadster as having such strong acceleration that you couldn’t pull money off the dash if you tried, and now we have the P100D pulling >1 G from a dead start. Amazing how far things have come. Also why the hell anyone hasn’t attempted to make an affordable sporty hybrid with an electric motor assisting a high-strung turbo 4-cylinder connected to an automated sequential manual or just straight manual transmission is beyond me. The CRZ had such promise as a concept and fell completely short, and everything else with a KERS setup is North of 100 large.
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May 1, 2018 22:56
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Cancelbot posted:The Golf GTE exists in Europe, and the Audi A3 e-tron. The e-tron is cool, I just wish it could outrun its platform brethren, the GTI. If Audi would’ve had the guts to give it, say, a combined output of 275HP with like 300 ft-lb of torque it would’ve been an amazing machine and probably would sell a lot more units than they are now. Also that blue plaid is great. We get such boring dreck in the US.
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May 3, 2018 12:55
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stevewm posted:I probably would have ended up with a Bolt had they been available nationwide at the time. The Bolt's range would have suited my driving habits well. My next car will definitely be full BEV assuming there are some appealing options on the market when the time arrives. I’m struggling with this right now, as I’m at a point where I want to get a full EV, but with the odd-ball trips I take every once in a while, owning a Volt would be a godsend. We live in the Northeastern chunk of Atlanta, and the girlfriend’s family is about 2 hours away. While the Bolt would certainly make it there, we’d be looking for a CCS on the way home and it’d be getting sort of hairy at points because DC fast chargers get few and far between the further you get from the city. If the one charger you’re counting on is broken/blocked/whatever, you’re looking at a tow home or an impromptu hotel stay somewhere. The Volt, meanwhile, would make my commute to work and back twice in EV mode before I would need to recharge, and the gas motor would make the occasional trip south easy, but I’m still using gasoline. It just feels pretty hypocritical; I get on family members for owning and daily driving full-size trucks “just in case” they need to move something every few months while global climate change is loving the earth sideways, but then I’m paying for a gas motor in a car “just in case” I need to take a longer trip instead of owning a full EV and renting a car like a sane person.
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May 14, 2018 16:35
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ClassH posted:I don't understand why you wouldn't want a Volt when you would be using the electric mode 95% of the time. I mean you are hauling around an engine that you barely use, but on a full EV you would be hauling around extra battery weight that you barely use. Sounds like the Volt is perfect for you. (recommend version 2) Just wanted to say I really appreciated yours and all others’ input, and I think the Volt is in my near future. I’m waiting a month or so to see if dealers will be willing to put some cash on the hood and research any sort of supplier discounts etc we might get. It’s fun to do this with Chevy as they can actually deal instead of saying “oh this is the only car in [area], there’s the barrel, go bend over it.” I’m a lovely negotiator so I know I’ll get bent over that barrel regardless. 
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May 15, 2018 21:48
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Why is this thread rated 2, by the way? Is it the Tesla haters? Big oil/coal looking to kill the EV again?  incoherent posted:All the major vendors ignore Tesla. I forgot who was at fault (Tesla for insane standards) or the vendors (for tesla not buying enough volume). Zero Motorcycles also had (and still might have) the vendor problem with their bikes. I think they didn’t have the unit volume until 2014 or 2015 to get suspension components from Showa, and before they were using some weird off-brand suspenders that were lacking in quality. Zero is relying on J.Juan brake parts combined with what I think is Bosch ABS, and I hadn’t heard of J.Juan until I looked down at the caliper when buying my FXS. The Showa suspenders are pretty solid stuff and make the bike a hoot, and the brakes are competent (with a solid-feeling front and weirdly hard and clunky rear), but I won’t pretend I’m getting close to top-notch poo poo on a bike with the price point of more expensive racing machines. The SR, fully loaded, is about $17k and you can get a motherfucker of a BMW, KTM or Ducky at that point with really solid equipment on it.
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May 21, 2018 21:02
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Sagebrush posted:I have literally never heard of another car, among the hundreds of millions that have been sold equipped with ABS, that had to be recalled because its braking algorithm was miscalibrated. Physical problems, sure, but the software is dead simple. Is wheel speed == 0? Ok then release brakes. Not to dogpile but that literally happened to some Zero motorcycles (290-something-pound X-chassis bikes were sent with the heavier 390+ lb S-chassis ABS algorithms) in 2017, and there’s no way of telling if a company updated its algorithms when the techs plug in Susan’s Cute-Ute for an oil change. That aside I think ABS is a lot more complicated than wheel speed as it has to also mesh with the traction control systems, steering angle input and inertial readings, as I sure as poo poo don’t want ABS kicking in while I’m braking in a turn. Doesn’t change the fact it’s a dumb gently caress-up on Tesla’s part, that’s for sure.
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May 22, 2018 15:36
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movax posted:ABS calibration at fault / fix via OTA? gently caress Tesla. Hurry up and crater so the rest of the auto industry can get EVs done correctly. If they get EVs done at all. With the way that US manufacturers are dragging their feet, I have the feeling without Tesla we’d have protectionist imports on EVs coming to the US and gas-guzzling poo poo roaming the streets after GM, Ford and Exxon-Mobil
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May 22, 2018 19:51
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Can someone explain how this EV tax credit thing works for lease vehicles? I'm learning the absolute joy of working with Southeastern Chevrolet dealerships as of recent. I've never seen a company so hell-bent on not selling their own inventory like Chevrolet: - Walk into the first dealer inquiring about the Chevrolet Volt. The dealer's website listed $4k off of MSRP, so I asked about what a lease payment would be. The salesman told me that the federal EV tax credit "doesn't exist anymore" and that "we don't offer any discounts on these cars". When I prodded him about how many they sold he said "we really don't sell any of these anymore" in a tone so mopish it would make loving Eeyore call him a drag. FWIW I've also emailed their "internet salesperson" twice about the Volt on the lot and never received one email or call about it. - The second dealer seemed to want to play ball so I drove the 30 miles there to talk. When I walked in I was greeted by a salesman and his manager, and I asked them what happens with the EV tax credit, etc. when leasing a Volt. They agreed to go look up a lease. The manager sent back a sheet with 3 monthly payments written on it, all in the $550+ per month range at a lower mileage and longer term than I wanted. They didn't have the final price of the car listed on the sheet, but as best as I could tell they had no EV tax credit applied and their "$5k off MSRP" was left off as well. They told me the $550 is what everyone paid for these cars and they wanted me to sign on that payment. Now I'm a moron, but everything I've read about the Federal EV tax credit is that, if you are buying, you get a $7,500 tax credit on certain vehicles provided you paid more than $7,500 a year in taxes. Great. For leases, I read that they instead give the tax credit to the financing company, the financing company applies it like they would a down payment, and then you pay your lease based upon the sale price, less residual, less down payment (including tax credit). Is that wrong? I can't seem to get some of these dealers to even believe the tax credit exists, which if I were a Chevrolet rep I'd be threatening to yank the rights from the dealership unless they get their meat-headed salespeople into a room and explain how this poo poo works. Every bit of information I see online says "confirm with your dealer" but when your dealer keeps pushing you away from the EVs and towards the Silverado, it doesn't surprise me when you read hot takes on the internet from car rags saying EV adoption is next to zero.
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May 27, 2018 15:26
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FilthyImp posted:Leasehacker seemed to be pretty good about finding deals and dealers that were willing to offer you terms without the "come by so we can tell you the car is gone but drive this one instead" song and dance. Gonna read the hell out of that website, thanks! Yeah, I had a bad feeling they were trying to pocket my credit, and it honestly pissed me off to the point where I'm tempted to write off the Volt and go talk to a Honda dealer about the Clarity PHEV. Chevrolet really needs to develop a secret shopper program of sorts to understand how dumb their dealers are. If I dumped millions in R&D into a new type of car to find that my end sales folks are crapping on it and leading people away from it, I'd be pretty livid as a supplier. This tech is the only thing keeping them competitive with the Japanese, Korean and European makes in any sort of small-car stuff, and if gas prices in the US start to rocket upwards like they did back in 2006-2007 it'll be no fun whatsoever for them. Edit: Holy poo poo, according to the Leasehackr calculator the dealers were asking me to pay $43k before tax, title, etc. for a $40k Volt they marked down to $36k. 
funeral home DJ fucked around with this message at 16:00 on May 27, 2018 |
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May 27, 2018 15:55
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RZA Encryption posted:It'd be neat if someone really optimized a conversion kit for a car that's stupid cheap and pretty much universally available. This is a great idea but I sincerely doubt it’d happen as you’d have to rely on conversion companies for the average schmoe (and the conversion companies will charge you out the rear end). Even if you were to buy the cars up yourself and set up an assembly line of sorts for the “refurbished” cars, you’d still have to battle ignorance and a general fear of all things EV. I’ve been at my job for 2 years almost and I still have coworkers who are confused by the presence of an EV motorcycle design that’s almost been around for a decade at this point. People also are shocked to hear that the i3 in the family can keep up in traffic on the highway. I hate to say it but we’re all a bunch a cutting-edge super-nerds here when it comes to transportation, and your average driver is now just coming to understand how wagons are a good idea, they’re just doing it wrong by lifting them sky-high for some dumb reason. Goddamn what I’d do for a solid man-tran EV Setup for my R55 Mini, though. 
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May 31, 2018 21:29
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Powershift posted:it's short for arse, amirite Arse Technica sounds like a high-tech sex toy store. Come get your very own F.I.S.T.O.! Also, went to see the Clarity PHEV yesterday, decent car. The interior quality is much better than that of the Volt, it’s just a bit “Honda Boring” in its interior design, aside from the weird and wonderful little pass-through rear view window thing they have going to the back. Still much more interesting than the Accord, but I wish they’d fit the tech into the new Civic chassis instead and just kept that interior. The Volt’s got a better looking interior but still has that cheap plastic-y GM parts bin feel. The only thing about the Clarity I honestly didn’t like is that they said it’ll just kick the gas engine when accelerating with a full battery, while the Volt will keep the gas motor off until the last minute. Kinda defeats the purpose if it’s using the electric motors to augment the gas motor vs. actually behaving as a full EV.
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Jun 3, 2018 14:25
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Ola posted:The Volt has a lot of clever design features. I don't know for sure, but I think it's the best plugin hybrid out there, and if development continues to get skewed towards all electrics, it will remain so. The only thing that scares the poo poo out of me about the Volt is the depreciation. I had a Honda Fit that I sold to a dealer for way, way more than I thought it was worth because of the badge, and I have a bad feeling that a GM product won’t age as gracefully. The Volt’s build quality from a technical and mechanical standpoint is second to none from what I can tell (and what everyone here reiterates), but that doesn’t mean poo poo if the public at large believes that Chevy = poor quality. That’s what I think might be chasing people away from the Bolt, too. It’s a shame because it’s one thing GM seems to do incredibly well yet they’re not seeing a reward for anything aside from selling SUVs and trucks.
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Jun 4, 2018 01:20
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Ulf posted:If anyone (else) is interested in Zero Motorcycles, it looks like they updated their branding today. https://rideapart.com/articles/zero-electric-motorcycles-logo-update Cool, so when they slap the logo on the bikes people will have even less of an idea on who makes it. Seriously though, Zeros are so unknown that the local DMV literally has no idea it's an EV and registers the FXS as a gasoline bike. I have to repeat the name of it like 3-4 times to some folks who keep asking if it's made by Yamaha or some other Japanese brand. I had one guy refuse to believe it was a different company until I showed him the little American flag on the tail. Also which ICE bike did you get? Ironically I'd say that the FXS is the easiest bike I've ridden and is less prone in Eco mode to get me in trouble than anything I've ridden in the past. It's a hell of a commuter too, where you don't give a drat about getting stuck in traffic in lane-splitting-free states, whereas the old Duc would enter "hot oil freak-out mode" every time I got stuck behind a car. The only thing that sucks is that the range isn't exactly great for the 6.5 kWh bikes and that Zero basically abandoned the ChaDeMo charging port thing a while back in favor of just strapping larger level 2 chargers on the bike. Great for the S-chassis folks who bought their bikes in 2017-2018, but it screwed us with the X-chassis over. I wish they'd retry the DC-charging equipment because I'd love to take this thing up to some twisty roads for general assholery, but I don't feel like sitting around forever with the bullshit 700-something-watt charger slowly putting juice back into it if I take things too far.
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Jun 4, 2018 04:20
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Speaking of FCA dealers, don’t ever buy an EV off of their lots. Their F&I guy at the local dealer was trying to sell us on oil change plans for an i3. FCA dealers must have a general intelligence test to be a salesperson or manager of sorts, except the higher scores flunk out and the dumber you are the higher you go.
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Jun 6, 2018 01:46
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Ola posted:Hopefully the trade schools over here are picking up on it and including EV stuff in the car mechanic syllabus. In the big picture EV repair and maintenance will be pretty similar to ICE. Bodywork, accessories, AC, brakes, final drive, suspension, alignment, interior, glass and more. And of course, the basics: Read error code, consult manufacturer manual, replace part as instructed. I agree: the profession will always be here because we haven’t yet found a way to make cars solid-state flying machines. Also (at least in the US), Americans’ knowledge of their cars and how they work is staggeringly, hilariously bad, so you’re always going to need the person who says “Sir, it was a bad idea to strap a tow hook to your bumper fascia”. I’m not a mechanic, but I thought the lovely part of the job is generally because most dealerships are paying them their mechanics standard rates per job that are unrealistically low. You gotta love a system where good mechanics who take their time and make things right get terrible pay while the guy who hangs a transmission flusher on the lower control arms and makes wooshing noises with his mouth gets the money.
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Jun 6, 2018 11:58
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The funniest thing about those anti-EV screeds is that they always ignore the same two things: there’s 30.4 kWh of energy in a US gallon of gasoline and it actually takes electricity to make gasoline. I love explaining to folks that the i3 goes 70-something miles on what works out to be a little over a half-gallon of “gas” and that if you look at the Bolt or Model 3 they’re going 200-300 miles on the same energy as 2-3 US gallons. The Zero gets some wild MPG calculations this way that make 50cc scooters call it a tree-humping hippie.
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Jun 8, 2018 12:04
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Agronox posted:Be careful though. If you’re going off of Musk’s calculation on that, it’s complete bullshit. Musk’s “you can power an electric car on the energy needed to create a gallon of gas” is bullshit, you’re absolutely right. The fact that a gallon of gas has the same thermal energy potential as The interesting thing to me is that I understand most gas/coal power plants take time to spool down or speed up their generators and that they create a lot of unnecessary juice at night, and it’s why GA Power offers you discounted rates at night if you agree to take a huge cost increase during the most stressful hours on a plant, which is summer afternoons when people are using the A/C at home. If we’re arguably burning those fossil fuels at night because slowing down a plant is impractical why not take advantage of the emissions and “fill” your car up? This is why I just get bent when people release those “oh an EV makes emissions as bad as a car that gets X mpg” thing when the reality is that most EVs charge at night on the power that would be generated (and emissions created) if we needed it or not. Commercial transport vehicles probably will create the demand for those extra emissions, but not the Smith’s Leaf down the street.
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Jun 8, 2018 16:57
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Ola posted:That only works when there are few EVs. When most people have them, the load at night will be higher. That said, it's true that EVs are more efficient than fossils, but you can't get more energy out of a gallon of gas by converting it to electricity, because you run into the same efficiency problems before you even convert. I was trying to find some information on the relative efficiency of a steam-turbine power plant versus a standard internal combustion engine and holy poo poo are the numbers all over the place. I was under the impression that the relative size, etc of a power plant allows them to engineer in better ways to harvest the power potential of their fuels. Numbers are varying between 48% Carnot cycle efficiency and 79% depending on who’s paper you’re reading.  Yeah, if power plants are barely more efficient than a standard Otto- or Atkinson-cycle car engine then it’s six in one, half-dozen in the other at that point.
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Jun 8, 2018 18:01
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