Battery based electric vehicles of today and tomorrow.

[Gale Hawkins]

Audi SkySphere concept is a shape-shifting electric luxury roadster

I bet you this is an expensive concept car.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Dave Lee is a knowledgeable Tesla investor.

 

[Torvy]

I don't hope GM or Ford go out of business, but would would be fine if either did. The concept of the government bailing out a private business on that scale is scary. If GM had been allowed to fail, it would have boosted others to take their place. Maybe Ford or CjDR, or a new company could have risen from the ashes.

The demand for vehicles wasn't low, just the demand for inferior ones.

 

[Agvg]

Here in Norway we are getting quite a few Chinese EV brands, MG are the moste sold if you count Volvo polestar as Swedish brand.

It's a tough market, and the Chinese have a steep learning curve when they meet real competition.

Last month Ford EV was the top seller in the market, pure gas and diesel vehicles are almost out of the car market.

 

[Grumpycat]

Even without EVs, Hyundai and Kia are taking their customers.

Ford is not even trying in those market segments. Only Ford car remaining is the Mustang.

I looked at all small SUVs in 2016. Very unimpressed by the Escape and whatever the next model up. Under the hood looked like an unplanned disaster. Didn't like Kia, Hyundai, Toyota, Mazda, or Honda either. Bought Subaru Outback.

Started looking at half-ton trucks in late 2018. F-150 had everything beat. Bought 2018 F-150 XLT 4x4 SCAB with 2.7EB. Quite happy.

 

[Grumpycat]

China is turning out to appear weaker than I expected in EV exports. While their internal status is never fully known I gather that Delta is hitting them much harder than they have had to deal with covid-19 before.

You give China too much credit. Just as Elon Musk thought he could hire never-done-anything-before intellectuals to build a "state of the art automobile factory", China they too can wish it to happen.

China has made many attempts at the motorcycle/ATV/SxS market the past 10 years. Often exports something to the USA that appears to be half the price of the good Japanese stuff (much of which is built in the USA), or vs Polaris. In spite of appearances, and components bolt-interchangeable with the known good stuff, the Chinese products are not holding up. And it gets worse trying to buy replacement parts that can't be subbed with USA parts.

 

[Grumpycat]

Note that its only for people who in the first 5 years or 60k miles had:

• Car owners with three or more service visits for transmission hardware replacements
• Car owners with three or more software updates
• Car owners who did not have a documented service visit and were turned away by a Ford dealer after complaining about a transmission problem. This part provides $20 to those owners — if they submit a form under penalty of perjury.

Anyone else is out of luck.

Aaron Z

The Ford DCT is exactly the kind of thing Ford should be developing. I know 2 Focus DCT owners. Both have had the clutch replaced at least once. Contrary to expectations the harder one drives the car the longer the clutch lasts. Driven easy the computer slips the clutch more for soft shifts.

The DCT isn't really defective, its just a wear item which is consumed quicker than anyone would like.

 

[Frankenkubota]

I just hope that when the tractors go battery powered, they set aside some battery power for a sound recording of a Diesel engine so we can at least still have the noise of a diesel while tractoring.

considering your name.........

i recently commented that i bumped into Formula E racing on tv. looks to me like F1.

Electric race cars, i swear i heard ice sounds but....my hearing plays games with me all the time.

 

[Frankenkubota]

They did that to get around tariffs in place at the time. The two jump seats allowed Subaru to call it a passenger car.

i remember when porsche put a "parcel shelf" of about 6 inches in the rear area so they could call it a car with a back seat.....i was told it was for insurance purposes.

 

[MossRoad]

A few years ago we went to an indoor go-kart track with electric go-karts. It was me, my kid, my friend, and his kid. That's it. The place was empty. After several laps, all of a sudden my car and the other dad's car took off like lightning. We looked over at the guy controlling the track and he gave us the thumbs-up.... he'd taken the limiters off remotely. It was weird accelerating so fast and only hearing a little whine from the drivetrain. No engine noise. Really fun.