why don’t you drive an EV?

in a global context this is not super weird. the EU ban comes in 2035. and the uk will actually be 5 years earlier. car companies are already preparing for this.

For sure.

(another good trend in CA that's been happening in plain sight)

California cities ban new gas stations in battle to combat climate change

whoa

Few realize how explosive the growth of EVs has been in China in the last 24 months. EVs now account for 26% of all car sales, up from just 3.5% in Q1 2020.

Below is a short 🧵 on this highly consequential revolution. (1/8)

Cc: @Noahpinion @ramez @JesseJenkins @paulg @erikbryn pic.twitter.com/t0UCBiemPo

— Science Is Strategic (@scienceisstrat1) August 30, 2022

usa: i guess well adopt evs to help the environment in like ten years
china: we will adopt evs now for business reasons

you can only tip your cap

https://jalopnik.com/doctor-plugs-surgical-equipment-into-rivian-r1t-to-perf-1849499736

appreciate the can-do spirit!

I got to drive a F-150 Lightning last week. It's technically impressive and somewhat unsettling driving something with so much mass that can move quickly - like an aircraft carrier driving like a slot car. I miss the old C-10 I had in the 80s.

It took two days at the dealer to get the Mach-E recall resolved, but afterwards over-the-air updates are coming through regularly. A user on MachEForum with a Ford FDRS account has been running VINs and checking module updates for board members and sure enough, bugs are getting fixed. Six months in, it's a great car - better than anything else I've owned.

the hybrids with big batteries approach is very reasonable, so many parts inside the car tho

Fascinating how quickly the "EVERY VEHICLE MUST BE 100% ELECTRIC ALWAYS AT ALL TIMES" orthodoxy is crumbling in favor of a far more reasonable approach: electrifying the local trips that make up most of our miles, while retaining the freedom of gas on rare road trips. https://t.co/yw4S9LWesy

— E.W. Niedermeyer (@Tweetermeyer) October 25, 2022

love to maintain my rarely-used ice engine

i think probably what will happen is that as more people get evs theyll realize that they just almost never drive too far and that on the occasion they do the charging isnt that bad since they do it so infrequently

150 mile range is prob fine for most people

all this is of course dependent on companies producing evs that cost less than 100k at some point

but people choose evs like they vote for tax policy, i.e. on the basis they will one day be affected by the extreme upper tail.

they do now but what im theorizing is that with more experience theyll be willing to trade range for lower cost

if car companies ever build lower cost evs

i hope so.

in the meantime i am v sympathetic to the idea that we would meet our climate goals quicker if people switched to hybrids.

yeah seems like it would be a good idea, at least as a stopgap

ignoring them feels a bit like getting rid of nuclear power tbh

dont get me started!

saw a polestar out today pretty cool kinda generic looking but did make me go wait whats that, has very little branding logo on the front is body colored basically cant see it then i figured it out by the slightly more visible logo on the back but thats all theres no text anywhere

they’re cool cars. unfortunately i don’t see them ever making anything i could afford. i think i’ve said before that the interior is a weird shape, like stepping in and out of a bathtub. because they share the same chassis as volvo ICE cars there’s still a quite intrusive ridge down the middle of the interior that ordinarily would house the driveshaft. in this case polestar has filled it up with pieces of battery. theoretically you don’t need it there at all but people are used to that shape i guess so they don’t mind or maybe even notice.

kinda weird volvo decided they needed to make their own tesla, volvo already makes luxury electric cars, wonder if itll last

was considering a volvo polestar t8, since the electric-only mode has enough range to get me to work and back daily, and covers all of my weekly drives as well. then i found out last year’s allotment for the entire usa was like a couple cars each at five dealerships total

this is likely a good thing. i understand there are some next-gen samsung batteries on the way, plus they’re about to get all the lithium out of the salton sea, so probably better to lease something sensible (like an hybrid accord) in the short term

i would much prefer something with a low wheelbase (and an extra pillar, why do americans hate wagons) but the rav4 prime is surprisingly nice. alas it is also one million dollars

rav4 primes also hard af to find iirc

ii don’t mind paying one million dollars for a volvo, it is expected, but for a japanese car seems odd, like those late land cruisers that cost more than rovers

land cruiser at least those ones were pretty lux, and run about three times as far as land rovers

they are hard to find at msrp, that’s for sure. the few i’ve seen hVe been marked up $5-10k, like subaru foresters and mazda 3s

cars cost so much now its bad

yeah plus you can drive up the side of the devils tower in it, idk maybe i am just suck with 1980s ideas about japanese cars and how they should be priced

xp thanks obama

so many xposts, the one about markup was in reference to rav4 prime, the driving up devil’s tower was in ref to land cruiser, although same could be said of my dad’s old 84 4runner with the dashboard inclinometer and locking hubs

I want one of those v60 wagon hybrids

those are nice wish they still made a smaller wagon tho

those are a billion dollars, yall have expensive taste

gold toilets and chandeliers

i drive a honda civic 2011 at the lowest trim level that i inherited from my grandfather nine years ago, when he died. i think a free car is the best car! i’m just talking about cool shit i almost certainly won’t ever buy

i’m just talking about cool shit i almost certainly won’t ever buy

― the late great, Wednesday, November 2, 2022 9:03 PM (four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

me thinking abt moving to a city with trains

i find the “engine” noise of EV’s very unsettling— like an incoming UFO in a movie or like suddenly my neighborhood walk has an overdubbed weirdly atonal score

that’s the other thing, there is a trolley stop literally at my job, like the stairs from the platform terminate where i park. i just need to motivate myself to ride the damn thing / reorganize my life

let someone else drive! it’s the best

prius sports car, wild

INTRODUCING the all-new Toyota Prius!

🔥 Significant design upgrades!
🔥 2-litre 4 cyl. with 220hp!
🔥 Available as a PHEV only!
🔥 Travel for 39 miles on EV power alone!

It's recognisable the world over, but can this new design match the popularity of the previous gen? pic.twitter.com/mIMgOT3Ro3

— carwow (@carwowuk) November 16, 2022

bring back the wagon

always bring back the wagon for everything, but tbh was never a prius fan such a tin can, new one looks a lil more planted

my prius prime is the best car i’ve ever driven, glad to see them pivot towards phevs on a bigger scale since all their other models are hybrids now anyway. boosting the EV range from 25 to 39 is p neat, wondering how much extra it’s gonna cost now tho

my dad had one of the earlier ones i did not like that car, that was a long time ago tho

pretty lame that the subaru impreza hatch (not an actual wagon) and acura tsx sport wagon are discontinued

would be great if honda made a civic or accord version of the acura tsx wagon

this seems correct to me: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/americans-dont-station-wagons-heres-205959537.html

This leaves the wagons with perhaps the most narrowcasted demographic in the entire auto industry, made up of practical unwed hipsters, young childless couples, and car writers, who have always been BIG on the wagon thing because they lack other more obscure choices, such as updated El Caminos or a Subaru Baja

oh noooo rumbled

I have kids and all I want is a wagon