Comment on Are Cars Just Becoming Giant Smartphones on Wheels?
grue@lemmy.world 9 hours agoExcept the Maverick isn’t an EV. It’s a hybrid, at best.
Comment on Are Cars Just Becoming Giant Smartphones on Wheels?
grue@lemmy.world 9 hours agoExcept the Maverick isn’t an EV. It’s a hybrid, at best.
CallMeAnAI@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
And? It comes with everything you’d expect from a ‘normal’ vehicle before you load up on your slate for several thousand dollars. You also get towing up to 8500lbs.
What’s the value proposition here? I only see this being successful in area where you MUST own an EV and even then it’s a hard sell without the tax credits.
grue@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
The value proposition is that an EV is a Hell of a lot cheaper and simpler to maintain in the long run (I say as the owner of a mid-1990s small pickup truck, among other vehicles). Your emphasis on towing capacity and purchase price is subjective preference, not objective superiority.
For my subjective preference in particular, it may well be the first modern EV (“modern” meaning not some NiMH fleet sales only compliance car from the '90s) that I can actually stand to own, because “everything you’d expect from a ‘normal’ vehicle” includes spyware that makes it a deal-breaker for me. Having it stripped down is a feature that makes it worth more to me, not less!
GamingChairModel@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
The eyebrow raiser in the Slate’s base configuration is that it doesn’t come with any audio systems: no radio antenna/tuner, no speakers. It remains to be seen how upgradeable the base configuration is for audio, how involved of a task it will be to install speakers in the dash or doors, installing antennas (especially for AM, which are tricky for interference from EV systems), etc.
I’d imagine that most people would choose to spend few thousand on that audio upgrade up to the bare minimum expectations one would have for a new vehicle, so that cuts into the affordability of the package.
CallMeAnAI@lemmy.world 7 hours ago
I don’t think a $1000 delta in maintenance costs over the first 5 years is a big a driver for the general public as you think it is. You’re not the target audience very few purchasing decisions are based on privacy.
It was a decent idea when the EV credit applied. But I’d be happy to betb a few hundred dollars the average new car buyer with that purchasing power and who is actually shopping for a vehicle will see the value. Especially not in the US where it’s sold. Gas is cheap.
bluGill@fedia.io 6 hours ago
As an owner of one (PHEV) I'm saving nearly $200/month in fuel. That is much more bigger than maintenance. I hope this lasts as long as the last one but the transmission isn't known to be good (the "better" transmission on the last one was failing) Only time will tell, but so long as I need to drive I the question is how much I spend in a lifetime and electric has proven it to me.