What will it take to make you seriously consider an EV?

Tesla QC issues and Chinese lithium batteries. What could go wrong? Now they're planning on an Indian Gigafactory. Yikes.

 

All cars have QA issues, right? It’s fun to find car forums and they’re all so pissed about their forums namesake’s car’s flaws.

Mach-E users are complaining about the software randomly locking them out of using the car.

ICE require more maintenance but it seems like they’re also a lot more serviceable compared to EVs.

 

Anybody driving the bolt? I wonder whats the total cost. Im expecting a huge nightmare mark-up price

 

It's mostly software issues. I was annoyed that my Sirius presets seemed to vanish on a whim, but I finally figured out if was only after my wife used her key for the car and all I had to do was to turn the radio off and then on again and my stations were back. Haven't had any problems with being locked out of the car which may be because I only use the key instead of the phone-as-key. (PAK seems stupid to me because you're depending on two pieces of high-tech instead of just one.)

ICE are arguably more serviceable right now, but the EV infrastructure is getting built out quickly.

 

My experience is the opposite. While I don't think that it looks as good as some of the other cars in it's class, it has been extreme reliable and the engine and battery are exceptional. If I want a car that is really luxurious I am going for a gas powered car at this point.

 

It certainly isn't perfect and there are kinks being worked out. Anyone that thinks that going from gas to EV is going to be perfect or even "wonderful" is wrong. It is going to most likely be the right decision and the cleaner decision, but it will have lots of pitfalls as well.

 

Or you can buy a German car and just pretend it's tradition to pay outrageous prices for repairs before the 4-year mark, or just grin and bear it when they tell you smoke coming out of the tailpipe of your 1-2 year old Audi is "normal". But yeah, I've come to the conclusion that Lexus/Toyota is about the only car company that's consistently reliable, yet even they have issues here and there. My issue is if there's an issue, I'd rather have it be a minor issue rather than engine/transmission/EV battery failure that could cost a fortune and make me question the car overall.

Ford just got through recalling 40,000+ Mach E's for battery issues - that's what I'd be more concerned about, I guess. Those batteries out-of-warranty for any of these EVs are expensive as hell. Teslas, Fords, etc batteries all cost around $20-$25k to replace out of warranty, the last I looked. When I looked into the Mach E, the other thing I didn't like was that, yeah, the battery warranty was for 8 years/100k (which isn't extreme nowadays), but Ford's warranty only guarantees that 70% of the charge will remain during that period. So if you get the "base" model, your 240 or whatever miles range could drop to around 170 miles of range and they wouldn't have to replace it, apparently.

 

If you want a good quality engine and a reliable vehicle, spend 1/2 of the cost on a model y or model 3. If you want something that looks cool while showing off that you're balling, get one of those cars I mentioned. I would not recommend the Model S unless you care about gimmicky features like 1.999***** second acceleration or the yoke steering wheel.

 

I can't speak on the Y or 3, I don't have a lot of experience with them. My sister has the Model S, it was given to her and there have been zero issues. I will say that the acceleration is amazing though.

 

Technically, the Mach-E recall is not the battery but the Secondary On-Board Diagnostic Control Module and Battery Energy Control Module which are kind of like switches that direct energy to the various parts of the car that need it. If it fails, the car may not start or lose power when driving. It sounds like a software patch will be available in early July. It is not a common problem and there is no direction to not drive while waiting on the software update.

Not ideal, but we are first gen here and there will be issues.

 

I decided to buy some solar panels for the house (a meager 400 kWh addition) instead of an EV this year. I’ll revisit next calendar year.

 

Time. Just more time.

 

How many panels did you get? Does it cover your entire bill?

DD

 

No, 1/3. 9 panels and 1 inverter.

 

How much did that cost?

 

15k

 

Cadillac Plans to Price Its Future Celestiq EV Around $300,000
General Motors’ luxury brand looks to jump-start electric-vehicle push with high-end sedan produced in the hundreds a year

https://www.wsj.com/articles/cadill...-around-300-000-11656072000?mod=hp_lista_pos3

excerpt:

Cadillac plans to price a future electric sedan at around $300,000, according to people familiar with the matter, testing the cachet of General Motors Co.’s GM 5.55%▲ luxury brand.

GM is set to reveal later this summer a prototype of the car, named the Celestiq. The company has said the sedan will be Cadillac’s premier offering and custom-built at its engineering center near Detroit. It hasn’t disclosed pricing.

The auto maker intends to build fewer than 500 Celestiqs annually as a way to showcase its technology and generate buzz for Cadillac, the people said. Elements will include customized wood trim in the cabin and the latest version of GM’s hands-free assisted-driving system, called Ultra Cruise, they said.

The Celestiq price tag could run well beyond $300,000 depending on added features, and the car is scheduled to go into production by late 2023, the people said.

Cadillac is among a number of premium car brands that intend to fully transition their vehicle portfolios to electric at a faster pace than the broader industry. Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, Rolls-Royce, Cadillac and GM’s Buick all have said they plan to sell EVs exclusively by 2030.

Luxury car brands are better positioned to make the switch from internal-combustion models because they have more flexibility to set higher prices to offset the high cost of the large batteries needed to power EVs, analysts say.
​

more at the link

 

Unless the electric grid becomes so reliable that hurricanes and cold snaps won't break it for weeks at a time I will never buy a full EV. I'm okay with hybrids that allow you to operate on gasoline.

I'm glad technology keeps on advancing for better sources of energy though, not for the environment, but because I want to get to Star Trek level teleportation as soon as possible so I don't have to waste so much of my life inside vehicles.

 

I'm sure the Celestiq will look wicked with a high-end interior like a luxury car should have (or look Cadillac gaudy - I hope not), but it's a halo car for Cadillac and less than 500 of them are to be made. It's got a 4-quadrant smart glass canopy that basically says "here's something you don't need but that's really neat". You can set each quadrant's transparency to a different shade of darkness. It'll probably have a pillar-to-pillar display, too. That's gonna look sweet, if true.

 

RANT TIME!

Not trying to pick on what you paid, but the solar installer industry is such a scam. They basically mark up their already inflated price by the amount of the tax credit. An inverter for that size system might be around $1000. I'm guessing it's around 4kw. 9 450w panels new should be around $250 each. Wires are maybe $500 at most. Material for mounting on a shingle roof for 9 panels is probably $250. So we are around $4000 in material and that's rounding up. Wiring 9 panels is pretty quick. Shouldn't take an electrician more than a couple hours at most to do. Mounting 9 panels is maybe a 4 hour job at most for 3 guys who know what they are doing. There might be some extra work in there that I'm missing, but point being is that it isn't much work.

I actually purchased a pallet of panels that I am planning on using for an off grid situation but I checked to see how much it would cost to get 16 435w sunpower panels mounted on my roof and wired on grid for my house. The lowest bid I got was 18k lol . These panels were only projected to save $950/year in energy cost. So that's like a 12-13 year payback period and you have to lay out all that cash up front then get the 26% back in tax credits. None of it makes sense.

Solar mounting and wiring simply isn't expensive or complexed, but we've created this very strange ecosystem in the US with pricing.

End rant....