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

Lotsa queers in here

 

Theion's tech won't be used for cars initially, so I doubt it'll come from them anytime soon, but there are tons of companies researching solid state batteries - especially those based on lithium-sulfur tech. Some are start-ups, universities, or university-based spin-offs, but they're all going after the tech. I think the ones I looked at were probably 2-5 years away from being put into cars, though. And that doesn't include how long it will take for car manufacturers to put their complete faith in them, but we'll see (especially with the lithium, cobalt, etc. political/environmental issues).

If they get the range to be good and then, on top of it, make them affordable, I'm down.

 

I have a PHEV. 100% the way to go in my opinion. Not only do you not worry about range anxiety, you'll actually discover how little you'll even need the gas tank. Especially with working from home, I more or less never use gas unless I'm taking a road trip.

As for your question about running the engine, it totally depends on the PHEV you are driving. Some PHEVs are designed to maximize EV uptime at any cost. I drive a Chevrolet Volt and it was explicitly designed to never kick on the gas motor while you have a charge unless its freezing outside (we're talking less than 25 degrees or so). The reason for this is that at a temperature that low, it becomes too taxing on the electric heating system so the engine kicks on to supplement heat (both to the car and to the battery) But that's the only time the engine would ever run.

However, some PHEVs have other reasons to turn on the gas. For example, some of them have maximum speeds in EV only mode so if you pass a certain speed, the engine might kick on. Others have even more restrictive parameters around heating the car. You really need to research each car you are looking at to figure out what the conditions for turning on the engine are. But in general, air conditioning will never trigger the gas engine to operate. EVs have little issue with cooling. It's heating that EVs struggle with but in Texas that's less of an issue. I live in Canada so its a fact of life that my car's efficiency just collapses every winter because the cold weather reduces battery capacity and forces the motor to run to heat the car.

 

https://www.theverge.com/2022/4/22/23037654/tesla-crash-private-jet-reddit-video-smart-summon

 

Thank you for you insights. PHEV definitely seems like the way to go for me. Now it's just waiting on the right one to be available in Texas without a sky high mark up.

 

I agree with you about PHEV's and intend to get one sometime over the next several months. Honda is coming out with a new model CRV (finally!) later this year, redesigned, larger, and with the styling inside and out more European. It's supposed to have Honda's first PHEV as the top hybrid. Perfect for Austin and the absurd traffic we have now, and for going somewhere with a 75 pound Labradoodle. The new Civic "touring" has a 12 speaker Bose sound system designed for the car, a Honda first. I'm expecting something similar in their best CRV's for 2023. About time Honda did that sort of thing.

 

I'll say it....I'm super intrigued by Canoo.


Are they going to actually put cars out next year? The SUV/van and the truck both intrigue me.


So ugly I think they're.....cool.


Not sure if you could buy them outright, but it seems so.

 

I owned their stock back when it was a SPAC (?), and I thought the whole modular concept was pretty cool. The vehicles are pretty much hideous, but... what was uglier at the time was I could swear it was a subscription service or something. Like you couldn't buy the vehicle. And that's a no-go for me if it's still that way.

 

I think their stock is still a potential slight moonshot.

And yes, you are right. They initially were saying it would be a subscription service. Which is...weird. I'm not sure if they've walked that back or not.


Their plans are ambitious, and they say they'll deliver like 3,000-6,000 cars in FY2022.


Many people doubt their capital, and don't know if it will actually happen though, it seems.


It's very interesting, to say the least.

 

the canoo's interior is phenomenal. Countless parties and fun travels with this.

 

About to order an i4 for my wife. Lease is up on her 330i in October and the timing should be close to right. She doesn't leave The Woodlands a majority of days and it just makes too much sense to not have to use gas. We'll use my truck for longer trips (currently a 2012 F-150 which will likely be upgraded to the F-150 hybrid this year) and the rare occasion we need room for all 3 kids. We test drove the iX the other day and I was incredibly impressed.

 

Hopefully they can exceed the Rav4 PHEV range. They did it with the Clarity so Honda does have some experience with a longer range PHEV but I think they really need to aim high on this one.

 

It looks great for a short ride around town but uncomfortable for anything long distance.

 

Yeah, upon further research, it looks like they're expecting the pickup to cost between $35,000-$50,000 not including options, and the last I'm reading, it's supposed to be available sometime around 2023. So I'm guessing you can just buy it outright now. The range on it is around 200+ miles, which would suck for me.

The company itself went through a lot of chaos in terms of leadership with CEOs and CFOs leaving. They originally were supposed to be teaming up with Hyundai for the vehicles and were catering toward fleet sales, but somewhere kind of shifted to consumers, I guess. So weird. This is one reasons I'm wary of jumping into vehicles of these start-up companies until they've proven themselves. You end up paying thousands for a vehicle that may or not be supported a couple of years down the road where the company may not even exist. And it's not like you can easily sell the vehicle after that, either.

 

The competition is here!

 

Hearing the waitlist is now years. I'm intrigued but not enough to be on a waitlist until 2025. They have 200,000 reservations and only capacity to make 150,000 between now and through 2024.

 

Saw this from GM earlier today ... interesting. They're going with the hybrid initially and then fully electric.

Corvette EV Officially Confirmed, Hybrid Coming in 2023
The electric Corvette will use GM's Ultium batteries and could be called E-Ray. It will come after a hybrid that's rumored to have 1000 hp.