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I’ve wrote this before and I’ll write it again. Conversion kits need to become mainstream. It’s like my old Jeep can have pretty much any engine. Someone converted theirs with using parts from a junk yard Tesla.
as battery tech improves and electric motors become more powerful and ubiquitous it’ll happen. there’s a small market of people converting classic cars to ev. one day I’d like to convert my old honda element. I don’t need 300 miles range, give me 80 and it’ll be fine for grabbing lumber or taking junk to the dump.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53ZV1GMrf50
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqcHIQmWgIs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d53aNHMMai0
and a host of companies trying to cater to the market -
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/T4WWHvZODz4
dig around and there’s a lot more. there’s a lot of rolling stock that can be swapped eventually, it would be stupid to condemn all that metal to scrap.
Go get a used Chevy Bolt or Nissan Leaf. Tesla ain’t the only EV in the US.
Isn’t there Renault 4/5 or Kia EV 2 in USA? They seem perfect
No renaults at all, and no kia ev2 here. Affordable cars are pretty much completely gone from our market.
Oh damn, and with Chinese brands not allowed, its pretty much waiting for Japanese brands for you all
My EV only cost 1.5K
I’m probably gonna get an Ioniq 6 or 5 in a year or two, those are very affordable and have actual buttons and switches.
I don’t honestly think the US has the technical ability anymore. The US doesn’t really make much and hasn’t since the seventies. That’s a long time. How much of a Ford is actually made in the US? Shoot, how much is designed in the US?
Best they could do would be buy the parts, maybe make the frame, paint it and assemble. Don’t make batteries, don’t make screens, or chips, or leds or much of nothing.
No, we need more rail. Enough with cars.
We can’t afford that either, look at California.
Yeah Americans are shit at doing hsr
And dedicated bike lanes.
I’d take more Heavy rail, light rail, bike lanes, better city layouts, AND cheap electric cars.
Elon is releasing the cheapest ev in the US.
What are you talking about?
They also fill it all sorts of unnecessary shit while forgoing basic safety features such as, idk, being able to open the door in the event of power failure.
Cheapest in USA is still expensive compared to what you get outside the USA, with similar safety standards, but different tradeoffs on luxury, features and range
I agree with that
There won’t be flying cars until Autonomous Vehicles have a perfect self driving score.
Joe Average Potata-brain can’t drive as it is. Now they want to add the extra chaos of multiple tons of debris falling from the sky after minor crash bends one of the stabilizer ports out of alignment?
I walked past a Tesla showroom recently and they had one car on the floor that they still sell, one that they haven’t sold in decades, a frame to a car that’s out of production, and a robot they still don’t produce. They used to have more cars out then they stopped producing them. The stock is still high somehow.
The original roadster is still so cool to me. I wish a small relatively light ev sports car was sold in the US. I don’t want a barge with 800 HP I’d much rather have something nimble with a quarter of the power.
There was very little original with the roadtser. The chassis is just a Lotus Elise that they stuffed an EV drivetrain into.
And there are some small ones. The Kia EV3 is 201hp and under 30k.
Yeah I know and that’s exactly why it was good, because the elise already had an incredible sports car chassis.
The EV3 seems like a fine commuter but is certainly not a sports car in weight, shape, chassis, or suspension. It’s just another compact crossover, seemingly a good one, but not really what I’m talking about. In the US the closest thing is probably the Mini Cooper SE, but it’s still heavier and less powerful than the original roadster.
Imagine if Mazda made an mx-5 EV or Toyota made an 86 EV.
No shit. I feel like this company has enough money they could produce a $10k Electric car that is basically sold at cost.
Tesla refuses to even develop a compact 20k car they could sell at a profit. Instead the new developments focus on wankpanzers and sports cars with party tricks.
I think it’s because they know they can’t compete with quality or specs at the low end. They’d much rather get customers with gimmicks and “controversial” aesthetics. Chinese cars would eat anything they could build for that price for breakfast but even legacy brands like Hyundai and VW have been able to make good EVs far cheaper than Tesla.
Well, if Hyundai, Kia, VW, Renault and others can compete on reasonably priced compact cars, Tesla should be able to do so too. They do not only produce in the US after all. If they can’t that would be just an admission that their future is that of a niche highend producer. But for that, they are a bit too cheap on the inside.
Why would any company sell anything at cost? The point of a company is to make money
Then sell it for 20k it would still be one of the cheapest on the market. That seems like a pretty braindead leap in logic. The “at cost” comparison is just to show how cheap the baseline should be.
The point of society is to live on.
And I said “basically at.” As in, make SOME money, just not excess money.
If we’re talking about “society” then the way forward is to get rid of cars almost entirely and have extremely robust public transport. Not make new cars.
public transit will never work for 100% of people
Public transit is never going to work until people stop being allowed to make it not work.
I was checking out used 2023 EVs recently, and some models were in the low 20 kUSD range. Accounting for inflation, that’s less than I paid when I bought my used ICE car (17 kUSD) in 2014. The main detractor for me is that level 3 chargers degrade the batteries, and as a renter, I don’t have a place to charge at home. But if you own a home and can charge an EV there, there’s really no reason to buy an ICE car these days if you just want a commuter vehicle.
If you’re willing to spend 20k+ on a car, then sure. Meanwhile, you can get a reliable and economic ICE car that you can drive 100,000+ miles for under 5k.
I live in the US and I would love to buy an electric vespa-style scooter that can do 45 mph. They are virtually non-existent here (there is something called the Aventura-X which costs $5000). Even if I could get one, there are no places around that could service it. And it’s not like I live in rural South Dakota or anything - I live in a Philly suburb.
My understanding is the level 3 battery degradation is overstated, and even with heavy use, the battery will stay in pretty good shape.
-an EV owner
Agreed. From what I’ve looked up, it’s going outside of 20ish-80ish% charge frequently that’s degrading the batteries quickly. Or fully charging and then leaving out in the hot sun.
