why don’t you drive an EV?

I drove manual exclusively from age 17 to age 47 and living in the NYC metro era with all the stop and go traffic pretty much cured me of ever wanting another manual. When my car was totaled in 2019, the replacement wasn't even available in manual. It does have paddle shifters, which I have used maybe once or twice as a lark.

It used to be a manual was really helpful in the snow, but nowadays an automatic with modern traction control is far superior imo.

We also still have a 10 yo manual mini cooper that is fun to drive if we're somewhere where there aren't a billion cars.

the automatics are way too abrupt and more like start/stop as opposed to a consistent smooth crawl, though

― sarahell, Sunday, October 3, 2021 1:10 PM (six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

automatic with —manual mode— best of both worlds, pretty common these days, tho i think ive owned three cars with it and barely ever used it, pretty much only when i didnt want to be breaking all the way down a mountain

would also like to say the guy in the rivian video is extremely weird and unsettling

My car has manual mode where you shift using little steering wheel paddles. I find it very weird and confusing and don't really get why you'd use it.

that rivian looks cool. i agree that having the headlights round would be better, but i wonder if the oval shape serves a function. having that bar of light at the front would definitely help with visibility, i'd imagine

i do question how well electric trucks would do in rural america. things might be different in the states, where you get a lot of temperate-ish weather and lots of safe land mass, relatively speaking. but it seems like these trucks would be popular on a california highway more than anything

i think electric trucks are pretty useless in canada, where the weather outside the few major cities we have is constantly trying to kill us. i looked up the range in cold weather and there's no information on it. it would do well in spring and summer in bc, but vehicle cost and insurance being so ridiculously expensive in this province, it would probably be more of a luxury item for city people

a friend has an electric motorcycle and, a few years ago, he was running low on battery power but needed to get to work soon. since he's been riding it for a long time, he thought he could make it. well, the temperature dropped when he got on a bridge (windchill and rain) and the motorcycle died on him

they're cool, but batteries are extremely unreliable in anything but temperate weather. once that's improved, i think electric vehicles would do well outside cities

https://i.imgur.com/eKSOwsg.png
hey guys whats up

they're cool, but batteries are extremely unreliable in anything but temperate weather. once that's improved, i think electric vehicles would do well outside cities

― Punster McPunisher, Sunday, October 3, 2021 1:43 PM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

almost all new cars sold in norway are electric due to a government mandate they mustve figured something out or at least i hope so lol

those rivians are totally sick and maybe in a few iterations/price reductions i will get one as i am a sucker/mark and v much the target demo

will stick with my 94 2dr jeep xj w manual in the meantime B)

sick

i think it's "sich"?

electric cars, not trucks do well in norway. i imagine they already do well in a lot of cities, where power and range are not that important. electric car ownership is on the rise in my city, as well

im saying its cold there

would also like to say the guy in the rivian video is extremely weird and unsettling

range or more specifically difficultly of refueling is def a huge issue with evs tho, something like 20% of ev buyers go back to a combustion vehicle for the next purchase because of it

seems like the tech on range and recharging is getting better all the time tho

plugin hybrid would really be the sweet spot were it not for the complexity and cost of having a combustion engine and all the electric stuff

if i ever become a homeowner here in the SW i will get solar panels to charge my EV, seems like the obv move

If you drive less than like 5k a year and especially if you mainly have a car for road trips or big shopping no or whatever then a hybrid is absolutely the way to go, economically, practically and environmentally.

its inelegant tho

u r

rude

honestly should really just get an electric cargo bike

they're cool, but batteries are extremely unreliable in anything but temperate weather.

Ford's EV chief is interviewed in a recentish episode of the InsideEVs podcast and he talks about how the F-150 Lightning battery management system deals with cold weather.

electric bikes are tite, if we built out infrastructure and increased subsidies so many car miles could be replaced

honestly should really just get an electric cargo bike

the one i want (urban arrow shorty) isn't sold in the US anymore --- i was on the verge of buying one up in boulder like a year ago but they're $$$ and now they're gone :(

There were zero at my daycare pickup a year ago and now there are four. Suddenly everywhere.

my dad and all his friend have e bikes and they ride around together

Porsche’s electric Taycan outsells the 911 for the first time

i saw one of those a few weeks ago, i was just walking along and it pulled up in a line of traffic. long, low, sleek and white like a shark. extremely dangerous looking. what was wild is that it made a low rumble like a high performance sports car which is a think a fake noise generated purely for effect??

Porsche’s electric Taycan outsells the 911 for the first time🕸

Oups sorry : wrong touch

I don’t know cars at all but it does look like a shark

Porsche’s electric Taycan outsells the 911 for the first time

― Elvis Telecom, Friday, October 15, 2021 10:38 PM (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

thats crazy! guess part of it may be that there arent many electric sports cars, and if your choice is between a tesla and a porche obvs the porche is going to be much better

doesnt seem like porsche fans would be would be going out of their way to get an ecar wonder who the buyers are

my realtor

electric porsche is the classic california realtor car

cayenne's ineligible for residential parking SF btw haha

Fun fact of the day: any car that can haul 6,000 pounds is ineligible for a residential parking permit in San Francisco.

This means most large vehicles can’t park for >2hrs in residential neighborhoods. Further proof F150s, Suburbans, and Cayennes don’t belong on city streets.

— Dan Federman (@TheFederman) November 15, 2021

https://diminishedvalueofgeorgia.com/6000-pound-vehicles/

the thing about the taycan is that it’s absurdly powerful. it goes 0-60 in 3 seconds. plus the novelty factor obv

i mean that’s a crazy time for something that heavy

Its a crazy time for anything tbh

the rivian does 0-60 in 3 seconds too

lol wow really? the truck?

i am extremely sketchy on the physics of all this, but afaict electric motors (which don't have gears?) can be tuned to have much higher acceleration than regular mechanical engines. you're basically limited only by structural safety of the chassis and road safety (and battery life).

and because of the current market targeted by EVs (i.e. rich middle aged men, except at the low price end) it makes commercial/marketing sense to tune your 0-60 to that sort of time.

I'm a middle aged man rich enough to buy an EV and I can't imagine giving a shit about how fast a car goes 0-60. Like literally when would I ever be going 0 to 60?

I guess one needs to accelerate rapidly on a highway on-ramp, but they're generally pretty long, and you don't start at 0, and I've driven a lot of shitty cars in my life and never felt they couldn't accelerate enough to manage the merge

Now 60-0, that's important in case there's a crash in front of you, but they never tell you how fast it can do that.

Due to inflation 420 has gone up by 69

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 15, 2021

the marketing is targeted at the 326K people who liked this tweet

I guess if you sell 326,000 cars you're doing OK

yeah caek i think we talk a little about the instant torque upthread, i just wanted to kinda counterpoint lag00n in that i don't think it's THAT weird that the taycan is selling so well - it's a beast, and it instantly stands out

if i ever bought a car again in my life - i probably won't - i would want an ioniq 5