Futurology

Definitely. I would be surprised if this car maker can compete toe to toe with Toyota on quality but they can slay when it comes to price.

They took off because they were maintainable, reliable, and cheap. All three attributes were important for them to disrupt the space.

It is now, but not when they started taking over back in the 1980's. They started off by being cars that were cheaper. Their prices rose as they started to get a positive name for themselves.

I remember Kia coming into the US market with a somewhat similar playback, but they entered back when many other makers weren't having poor quality/lifespan vehicles. Mid 90's kias were cheap as snot so they got some sales. But it didn't bode well for them as people started to notice they weren't built to last very long, and then they started to go bankrupt (Korean financial crisis) and Hyundai bought them/bailed them out. Then they still stayed cheap as snot in the US, but gradually improved in quality. As they started getting a slightly better name for themselves they'd keep upping the price and keep upping the quality. Nowadays they aren't much cheaper at all than a lot of manufacturers, but they also aren't much behind in quality, either. Had they been able to enter the US market a decade sooner, they could have really had a leg up.

If future means public subsidies, I'm all for it.

Chinese EVs are cheaper because they are prepaid by Chinese tax payers. That also includes taxes levied from our internet purchases for products made in China.

...the sci-fi writer William Gibson...

For those who dont know:

If the quote sounds very cyberpunk (techno futuristic corporate dystopia) it is because William Gibson is the father of the cyberpunk genre.

I’m an ev fan but I don’t agree that they have more longevity than ICE cars. The current battery chemistries simply don’t allow for it.

Either battery chemistries with 20 years of guaranteed performance would have to be developed, or battery replacement and refurbishment costs will need to come down to say the cost of replacing a head gasket.

This will eventually happen, but current generation of EVs are essentially a recyclable consumable compared to their ICE counterparts.

Current cars are not scrap because of the moving parts. It is rust on the body that kills them.

And that isn't connected to the Internet please

Thought i read somewhere that BYD or another manufacturer was looking to build manufacturing in Mexico to take advantage of the NAFTA agreement…. If that’s the case then it’s a question of them meeting US standards. I just remember the hilariously bad crash tests where that cars were the crumple zones.

I'm buying up vhs-c and hi8 camcorders and so many end user manuals have fucking schematics, parts lists, circuit diagrams, pcb layouts, timing charts, ...

I'm old enough to remember owning things but never really to the extent you could build a whole new one from scratch and I don't think those days are coming back, especially with the voltages involved in EVs

Can you tell me please, does a Hayne's manual exist for a 2000 Mitsubishi Pajero V60?

It's going to be a little while before we get realistic options for outdoorsy uses of BEVs. If you want the range to get there AND get back (or even just to a charger) then they're too dang heavy for offroad use. If you want to pull a camper, then the range absolutely tanks.

Airstream is trying to address this by making a $120,000 (lol) camper that has its own battery and traction motors to assist the pulling vehicle. I think its a pretty good idea but of course they're going to lock it down in patents for 20 years and prevent anyone from offering something affordable.

Maybe we'll get lucky an a revolutionary battery technology like those frequently talked about glass batteries will come out and just outperform the status quo by every metric.

Aren't there already electric SUVs that would do all of that?

Subaru is launching the hybrid Forester this year. Might be something to consider.

It would be considerably more expensive. Safety standards are much higher in Western countries. Also, they still need to build up a sales and maintenance organisation there, that takes a lot of capital. It'll be interesting to see where they land in their price points, though.

They would build them in Mexico due to the cheap labour (much like the majority of legacy automakers already do) and ship them up North and South.

Already there. They also own the former UK manufacturer Morris Garages (MG) which have made some semi popular models recently, including EVs.

MG6