What's the problem with electric cars?

[lizawong]

I also think that electric vehicles have a future, it's just a question of time.

Mini Militia App Lock

[The Thong]

Originally Posted by Whippy

The problem ('pparently) with Chinese offerings is that apart from good ole MG, there seems to be a distinct lack of servicing, spares or back up. Buy a cheap car off t'interweb and when it breaks, buy another. Also, the Chinese seems to have a 'unique' take on design.

MG owners (the ones I know anyway) are pleased with their motors. A friend has just bought a Hybrid HS and he’s absolutely over the moon with it. Had a problem with a botched software upgrade where the mechanic did a partial upgrade that caused all kinds of gremlins. Once that was solved the car has been faultless. I’ve heard the MG4 is having a few software based issues but I’d image that’ll be an issue that can be sorted in time. I’m keeping my ear to the ground with this one.
I’m seeing a lot of broken down Kia’s about though. We gained a Kia Dealership in Leamington and there’s been a few dead Kia’s being recovered in the area. Oh well, makes a nice change to the usual broken Land Rovers and the odd Aston Martin

TT

[Whippy]

The MG isn't a bad car, not a fan of the interior though. But reliable with a decent dealer network.

[Kev0607]

Originally Posted by Moose Test

Tesla has really achieved very little when it comes to the electrification of private motoring.

In 2023 just 7.6% of all vehicles sold in the US were EVs and that's after 7 years of 'mainstream' Telsa model sales (not to mention a decade for the likes of the Prius and Leaf) and it includes EVs of other marques too, including Toyota and Nissan. Perhaps more importantly, that's just 1.7% annual growth from 2022 and as we now know, there's likely to be contraction in 2024, at least for Tesla.

Moving the dial globally is going to take a very different strategy than they've collectively executed on so far, which seems to me to have been to created to serve a niche market supported by government subsidies and concessions which are now saturated and gone respectively.

I too think Tesla will continue to exist into the future, only either with a very different game plan or as a subsidiary of another manufacturer. The traditional manufactures will pose an existential threat once they get their own game together. On that, for each EV that Tesla didn't sell in Q1 of 2024 as compared to Q1 2023, Ford sold one that it didn't last year. The tide is turning.

There's definitely a shift in the market. I also believe Tesla will be gone in future. Elon will get tired and move on to something else. Let's face it, he doesn't need the money.

Originally Posted by The Thong

MG owners (the ones I know anyway) are pleased with their motors. A friend has just bought a Hybrid HS and he’s absolutely over the moon with it. Had a problem with a botched software upgrade where the mechanic did a partial upgrade that caused all kinds of gremlins. Once that was solved the car has been faultless. I’ve heard the MG4 is having a few software based issues but I’d image that’ll be an issue that can be sorted in time. I’m keeping my ear to the ground with this one.
I’m seeing a lot of broken down Kia’s about though. We gained a Kia Dealership in Leamington and there’s been a few dead Kia’s being recovered in the area. Oh well, makes a nice change to the usual broken Land Rovers and the odd Aston Martin

TT

7 year/80k warranty on the MG's too.

[Whippy]

It's not about the money, he's ego driven.

[Kev0607]

Tesla is losing its ego.

[Tannaton]

Originally Posted by Whippy

It's not about the money, he's ego driven.

I’d agree to a point, but he gets satisfaction from disruption, not longevity….

[abvolvo]

This is a mega long thread so sorry if I'm repeating stuff already discussed.

I very recently moved from diesel to electric (MY24 XC40 Recharge). I also moved from Mercedes to Volvo, so new to Volvo too.

I'm curious what some of the Volvo veterans (those with EVs and not) have to share about electric cars?

For me

• I hate it that I don't have the option to stop by a petrol station and fill it up with enough diesel to last me over 500 miles.
• I also hate it that there are hundreds of different companies, cards, types of chargers.
• Potential issues with faulty chargers when you most need to charge your car eg down to 2% battery!

• I love it how quiet it is
• Instant power
• It's costing me less than 3p/mile. So I can do a 100mls trip with less than £3

[Moose Test]

Originally Posted by Tannaton

he gets satisfaction from disruption, not longevity….

I agree that's how he sees himself and his legacy but I've yet to see any real world disruption that he's brought about.

Telsa was novel but it isn't the Model T nor the iPhone. SpaceX is evolutionary, not revolutionary and at the current rate will probably get bought out or mission changed before it ever gets close to Mars colonisation. I'll wager that Tesla Bot will also disappear without trace, at least as a consumer product as opposed to a glorified paint/welding/assembly robot for manufacturing plants. The likes of Boston Dynamics seem years ahead.

Jobs, Gates, Zuckerberg, Bezos, Torsvalds and before them Trammel/Sinclair/Curry and Bell Labs. They were disruptors, brining about generational behavioural, consumer and technological changes and with it the creation of new markets and the total destruction of old ones.

To my mind, Elon is certainly a successful wealth generator and a very high-profile individual who goes out of his way to seek the oxygen of publicity and controversy but currently an also-ran when it comes to real innovation and disruptive change.

Ironically, I think there's more Edison about him than Tesla.

[Andymharrison]

Originally Posted by Moose Test

To my mind, Elon is certainly a successful wealth generator and a very high-profile individual who goes out of his way to seek the oxygen of publicity and controversy but currently an also-ran when it comes to real innovation and disruptive change.

The place that he has been truly innovative and disruptive is SpaceX, but that's because he had the good sense to fund it and then leave the rest to the experts.

He's no innovator but does have an uncanny ability to get people to invest 10s of billions in his oddball schemes. Who in their right mind would have stumped up the cash to buy Twitter?