Is the Cyber Truck a Flop?

[DarkBlack]

The silicon valley folks left California during Covid, and moved to rural places with good internet access, to work remotely.

We had quite a few of them show up in Salmon, Idaho. And really muck up the local housing market. Prices nearly doubled in six months. About half of them have returned to California or moved to Boise. They had no idea of what rural life is.

Since then:

• The population of California in 2024 was 39,431,263, a 0.59% increase from 2023.
• The population of California in 2023 was 39,198,693, a 0.14% increase from 2022.
• The population of California in 2022 was 39,142,414, a 0% increase from 2021.
• The population of California in 2021 was 39,142,565, a 0.96% decline from 2020.

And over the last fifty years it has continued a pretty steady growth rate.

And back to the original question about the truck. It is too ugly to look at. "Shave it ass, and run it backward" ugly. And, I will never buy another new vehicle. I'm buying classics which a dumb ole engineer like me can figure out how to repair and maintain.

Your numbers are skewed by immigrants pouring over the border, and getting counted.

Try finding California statistics of US born citizens of California , excluding recent boarder additions.
You probably won’t find it, for obvious reasons

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

What's next then? I still think solid state batteries will keep EVs going.

I'm not a prophet, but ice sales still far exceed evs. What's next? Antigravity vehicles maybe.
When all major roads have imbedded coil induction charge on the go, then evs would only need small battery packs and short range for secondary roads and would make more sense. Ev cars in big cities make sense because of less smog/pollution concentration.

 

[CK732]

There not enough charging stations around to make buying these. What do you do if you live in a cold State.

 

[JasperFrank]

It makes a great deal more sense if the cars were designed around a standard form factor battery that was easily exchangeable.

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

The EV premise was environmental which it fails in many ways.

 

[ericm979]

The EV premise was environmental which it fails in many ways.

No matter where the electricity is generated, it's cheaper and cleaner to make a lot of it in a power plant than in thousands of individual vehicles. Even when you factor in the larger amount of minerals like copper that go into an EV. And especially when you think of the tons of fuel that an ICE vehicle needs over its lifetime, and how dirty that is to drill for, pump, refine and transport.

On top of that, solar and wind are becoming a large part of the electricity generation, and they're far cleaner than burning fossil fuels to make electricity.

EVs are significantly cheaper to run. There's little maintenance. The batteries last a long time.

There's a lot of FUD being put out by the oil industry. But if you do research on unbiased sources, the above is what you find.

All that said we don't have an EV. My wife would like a small one that's not an SUV. There's not many and there aren't any that she likes. I'm just not all that interested in owning one yet. So it's not like I'm a fanboy defending my purchase.

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

No matter where the electricity is generated, it's cheaper and cleaner to make a lot of it in a power plant than in thousands of individual vehicles. Even when you factor in the larger amount of minerals like copper that go into an EV. And especially when you think of the tons of fuel that an ICE vehicle needs over its lifetime, and how dirty that is to drill for, pump, refine and transport.

On top of that, solar and wind are becoming a large part of the electricity generation, and they're far cleaner than burning fossil fuels to make electricity.

EVs are significantly cheaper to run. There's little maintenance. The batteries last a long time.

There's a lot of FUD being put out by the oil industry. But if you do research on unbiased sources, the above is what you find.

All that said we don't have an EV. My wife would like a small one that's not an SUV. There's not many and there aren't any that she likes. I'm just not all that interested in owning one yet. So it's not like I'm a fanboy defending my purchase.

You have to factor in all the Battery manufacturing, lithium, etc., same with solar and wind turbines and environmental impact.
It's not simple, and switching every ice motorized thing to battery is going to lower Earth's temperature by how much? And factor in China, India and other countries pollution.
It's still in the novelty stage and not a fit for most.

 

[hayden]

I think EVs are a fad, similar to 78s, LPs, reel to reel, 8 track, CDs, memory stick.
"Today's new and improved is tomorrow's junk" is what I've always said...but I'm no prophet.

I think it's just as wrong to say they are a fad as to say all vehicles should be EVs. They are a great fit in many cases, and those cases are arguably where car density is the highest. But they are not a fit at all in other cases. The world isn't black and white. In fact, it isn't even shades of gray. It's full living color.

 

[tradosaurus]

15 million sold and tens of thousand remain… Model T was revolutionary replacing the models that replaced the horse and buggy…

EV's are as much a fad as the Model T.

EV's are here to stay. Learn it. Live it. Love it!

 

[ning]

Your numbers are skewed by immigrants pouring over the border, and getting counted.

Try finding California statistics of US born citizens of California , excluding recent boarder additions.
You probably won’t find it, for obvious reasons

Ok, so we're moving goalposts now.