North American car companies are doing the LAMF thing. They have spent the last 4 decades stifling innovation in EV or fuel efficient cars to appease the gas lobby and create monster sized vehicles that they can convince a gullible consumer are necessary. If they had spent even 25% of their R&D on what comes after fossil fuels, they would be able to compete with China now. Same as Africa skipped the whole phone lines thing and went strait to cellular, China is now skipping ahead to the next generation not wasting time on producing past generations stuff. Wind and solar power, batteries are the same. Do I feel sorry for industries that pegged themselves to gas when consumers asked for different? Not it the least. They reaped what they sowed, or failed to sow.
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what these car companies fail to understand is, at this point, many potential buyers want CHEAP cars that have features you find at luxury prices. unfortunately, all these car companies have split their business into two different brands: economical (Honda) and luxury (Acura).
I believe if this was not the case, it would be much easier to have r&d begin to compete with china, as they are able to put these high end features into affordable cars (as the xiaomi su7 has already proven).
these car manufacturers have coasted on their success with no true innovation for too long. I personally hope Honda can make it through, but I just don't see it... I would have loved to own an Acura ZDX if it wasn't for the insanely high price (which I believe they discontinued as of last year...?)
I want a car that doesnt guzzle gas, blows hot and cold and is relatively easy to maintain.
Every other "luxury" feature like touch screens, heated seats, backup cams, I don't necessarily need. I do like having a backup camera though. My 2015 Toyota Camry does everything I need it to, aside from the stupid touchscreen and the obnoxious way it plays whatever was last playing when my phone connects. Thankfully it still has physical buttons and dials for things.
Heated seats are pretty nice for long distance driving. But fuck adding it to the infotainment system.
And back up cameras are mandatory now, so it's no longer a luxury feature.
I'll go one farther, and say I actively do not want those luxury features. I like maintaining my cars, and the addition of all these systems makes it that much more complicated.
All I am looking for is reliability! The only fancy feature I'd add would be a beeping backup sensor. But no camera. Heck, I'm fine with manual door locks and no AC.
I would have purchased an electric vehicle long before now if I could get one without a touchscreen. But alas, I am stuck in thee land of mega trucks known as the US.
I do get that. Less things in the car means less things that can break which yea, I'm all for to a point. I just can't take heat, I need the ac man.
And I would love to have an electric car if I drove less than 100 miles a day, if chargers were more common, if all chargers used the same common charger port and connector, and if I had a house go charge if at. Also if swaping batteries wasnt a nightmare. That should be the easiest thing to do on an electric car aside from maintaining motors or swapping other common components.
Make a dumb EV and you immediately get a lot of clients.
An EV doesn't need internet access, doesn't need mics and cameras inside, doesn't need a touchpad or a big screen.
Just give me a damn conversion kit... I love my current car and like none of the modern ones, with useless features and annoying stuff like the mandatory lane assist, but I'd gladly stop polluting if I could.
No car needs that shit, but how else can they justify $60000?
The byd has its own robot vacuum cleaner that cleans up between drives.....
The problem is tracking you provides them revenue since they can sell the data, so they make more money with a vehicle that tracks you vs one that doesn't. A non-tracking vehicle is less competitive if it has to be sold for the same or less money than one that tracks you.
Selling vehicles gets you more money than not. Build a car that people can afford and want to drive will earn you money. Tracking you is worth nothing if you don't buy it in the first place.
The problem is all the manufacturers have decided to track you, theres little to no alternative. I dont know if its proper collusion or convergent shittiness but thats whats happening
Someone on here turned me on to removing the sim from my electric. Gonna take 15 minutes when I remember to do it when I have time.
Now do it with the new ones that have eSim
Just find the antenna and clip it.
This is what Slate Auto is doing with their truck.
I just Bezos wasn't invested in the company. I'd hate to give that fucker any more money if I can help it.
That's why the Slate is the only EV I am even remotely interested in at this point. I hope it actually comes out and doesn't suck.
It looks like it is. Slate has been doing lots of irl photo ops recently
so has Aptera... stans have been true believing since 2009, and now a bill is going to make them illegal.
Unfortunately with the US EV incentives gone the Slate is way overpriced for what it is. 150 mile range and manual crank windows and no radio or speakers at all on the base model for $28K. I can understand wanting a low tech vehicle but I think they might have gone a step too far.
I want them to survive so bad.
I don't need my vehicle to be a third place. I don't want a molded dash with an entertainment center that will be obsolete when it's new and unable to be modified because they abandoned the DIN standard so you could only buy factory replacements. I just want a thing that can do ~50+ miles a day and recharge that overnight. Which Slate could do with just a regular 120v outlet.
Who knows if they'll actually make it to market or if it'll be $40k+ by the time it does, but even without the EV incentive $28k puts it among cheapest new cars in the US. I'm just severely unenthusiastic about any other newer cars on the market if my current one dies.
I don't disagree. I think the issue Slate is facing is inflation and tariffs. I believe their president mentioned something about it. Even Mtsubishi pulled their Mirage off production, which I really liked.
I do wish it had a higher range for the base model. 150mi is fine commuting, but sucks for road trips. I love the barebones truck concept.
Don't get me wrong, I really love the idea as well and really hope for Slate to succeed and make the v2 even better. All previous EV pickups were targeting the full-size truck crowd, but I think a compact EV truck makes wayyy more sense!
Right! I think it's a good entry level for first time buyers into the EV market
It doesn't have to be a "dumb" car. Just don't route everything through a stupid touchpad. I know it costs more to install buttons but I don't want to have to hunt and peck through dropdown menus to turn on the radio or air conditioning. And I definitely don't want a subscription service, that will be canceled eventually, to access remote start.
Its worse than that. The whole car usually runs through that computer, so when it goes out the whole car goes out and is expensive to replace.
I need a golf cart that can go 80+mph and passes us safety standards.
Agreed. Where's the modern equivalent to my 95 honda civic? Zero smart features and it was the cheapest AND best car I've ever owned.
Renault Twingo EV. <$20,000. Not with US tariffs.
But Americans don't buy small cars.
Geez, that looks nice. And the green is really a pretty color.
I wish we got small cars again. I'm going to be really sad when I have to give up my MR2 spyder. Fortunately, with an average of 1 to 2 mile a day, I think it'll hang on a while.
I want a new metro hatchback. If a 3 cyclinder could make it go and get 55mpgh then an electric engine would zoomzoomzoom.
The sad truth is that 99.99% of customers (citation needed) don't give a shit about getting tracked or having stupid "smart" features