this post was submitted on 28 Nov 2023
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Give me a solid car with an electric motor, but all old-school buttons and knobs in the cabin instead of a touchscreen that will be out of date in 5 years and cost 10k to replace if the kids get their grimy hands on it.
My ideal electric car is basically an 85 GTI with an electric motor, but they’re all SUVs
Yeah, I'm disappointed that the evs that are actually so simple are micro cars with an in-town-only top speed and they're only available in Europe.
Closest thing in the US is a Nissan Leaf with a battery upgrade.
And let me rent an extra battery pack for long trips. I only need 40 miles day-to-day, but I gotta go 300 for Christmas.
PHEV is the answer! Give us options, doesn't have to be one of the other; Chevy Volt had it for a bit, but it must not have been profitable because now I can't find a PHEV that gets more than 30 miles on a full charge!
I don't want to buy the oversized battery, and I don't really want to buy the on-board generator/charger of PHEV. I only want to own as much vehicle, and incur the manufacturing carbon debt, to meet 95-98% of my needs. Make it easy to rent, borrow, or share the extra capacity for the last 2%, and the world will be a lot less wasteful. I can see renting a trailer with enough generator to replace a series hybrid. I can see renting surplus battery. And those rental services can be a revenue stream to replace dealerships lost service centers.
Clearly, though, I'm a minority of consumers, and no manufacturer actually wants to cater to me and my twelve friends.
Your use case is very reasonable, and a lot of people want it. But it's a big challenge from a technical/engineering standpoint. You know how a replacement battery pack for an EV costs like $8k and has a range of 300 miles? Your rental battery would cost at least that much, plus whatever costs are involved to make it portable, and integrate it's usage into your existing EV. Then the rental places would need to have massive charging capabilities for when people stop in to swap their empty rental battery for a full one, since it still only has a range of 300 miles (4-5 hours of freeway driving)
I actually think there will be improvements on the fast charging front. You can already see this idea in other places. Many heavy duty trucks have 2 fuel tanks. You can fill them with 2 standard pumps running simultaneously, effectively giving you double the refueling speed. Some phones have dual batteries for the same reason.
The honest answer for right now, which will likely cause an emotional response, is to just rent a different car for these rare needs. Or plan around chargers en route, which will likely be a frustrating experience.
The savings you'll get day-to-day will more than cover your rental fees.
You're right. I got my current (smallish) car with the explanation that I could just rent a truck when I want to haul hobby materials, but the practical inconvenience of that rental has meant that I just don't, and consequently haven't done any big hobby projects in years. When I imagine renting an EV booster battery, I imagine it being easy, convenient, and reasonably priced, unlike literally everything else in the automotive market.
And there is different emotional content in using your own vehicle vs any alternative.
You know there are absolutely zero controls on privacy for Tesla telemetry data. It’s wild to me that a car that is really quite a bit simpler than an ICE car is required to be perpetually online. That said, I saw there’s a company trying to offer electric retrofits for ICE vehicles, primarily classic cars, but that’s likely to be closest to what you want.
You got a link or company name? That sounds very interesting for classic cars.
Zero Labs. They’ve got a few models for sale but are really looking to raise capital.
https://www.zerolabs.com/
Looks like they're only doing it to huge cars like Land Rovers and Ford Broncos, which is unfortunate.
Well it would be wild if it was true. Car drives just fine without an internet connection.
Another wild claim, what is it based on I wonder?
This made the rounds recently. Tesla is bad (just like all car companies), but not quite that bad. They do have stated controls.
https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/articles/its-official-cars-are-the-worst-product-category-we-have-ever-reviewed-for-privacy/
I was expressing personal opinion, which is influenced by some known facts. Tesla employees shared videos recorded from cars on their company instant messaging system, which suggests lax controls (lawsuit too). They even passed around images of Elon Musk’s garage.
https://www.reuters.com/technology/tesla-workers-shared-sensitive-images-recorded-by-customer-cars-2023-04-06/
Elon Musk also personally canceled the Model X order of a buyer who criticized him. That level of pettiness suggests contempt for Tesla buyers and owners. Is the personal data for an active Tesla owner who criticizes him off-limits?
https://www.cnbc.com/2016/02/03/elon-musk-personally-cancels-rude-customers-tesla-order.html
Disgruntled ex employes say a lot of stuff. No proof though ;)
Also Elon bad, yeah no shit all people with that level of money are generally assholes. But a company should be able to chose who it does business with no?
I just had my screen replaced because the L in LCD started oozing all over. It was $2200 which didn't include the radio that cost an extra $500. So, not 10k, but not cheap either. On the plus side, outside of New tires, that's the only thing I've done to the car in 8 years.