On 15 Mar 2023 at 17:27, Lawrence Rhodes via EV wrote: > You may not like Elon Musk ...
Uh, yeah, but you knew that. :-\ But while that might affect what *I* do, I still consider Tesla a valuable part of the EV scene and appreciate their pushing the segment forward. That said ... > but his mission to clean up the Earth is working despite his negative > image. You're welcome to see it that way; but sorry, I don't buy it. If Musk really means the talk about "mission" (and I don't believe for a second that any environmental "mission" is more important to him than his own wealth), he needs to quit making like Scrooge McDuck and start offering EVs that people below the upper middle class can afford. A lot of us with well under 6-figure incomes are still saying, "So where's OUR Tesla?" Even if Tesla had actually offered a Model 3 for the $35k that he promised (which he apparently sort of did, for something like a month or two), $35k would STILL be more money than a heck of a lot of us can afford for a car. Bully for Tesla if the 3 or Y is #1 or #2 or whatever in European EV sales. Do you know what was the fastest selling vehicle in Europe in Janiuary? The Dacia Sandero, a plain vanilla supermini (B-segment) hatch. The reason is that it's cheap. You get a lot for your money. Normal working people can afford it. Like Hyundai 40+ years ago, Dacia (a Renault division based in Romania) builds cars based on older designs and long-since amortized parts. That keeps their costs low. And what do you know, rather than *raising* their prices like Tesla did as their costs fell (only to oops-discount them when their sales here fell), Dacia sells their cars at affordable prices. How about that? Right now I'm driving a rented Dacia Spring EV. I'll write more on it later, but for now I have to say that for an EV that costs about half what a heavily discounted Tesla 3 costs, it's a bloody decent city car. OK, range is limited. The car estimates around 180km on a full charge, and I believe it, though I haven't pushed it that far to be sure. Fast charging is limited to 35kw, though that's not really all that slow for a battery with 25kw of usable capacity. But as I said, it's a city car. It's not meant for long distance travel. Though it *can* be used that way if you're willing to make a few extra stops. It's not luxurious. The seats are plain vinyl-covered foam slabs. It has halogen headlights. It's small (actually an asset on these narrow medieval alleyways). It doesn't attempt to drive itself. It doesn't stand up, unlock itself, and whistle La Marseillaise at you when you walk up to it. But gets you (well, me) where you (well, I) want to go. And normal working folk can afford an EV that costs about 16k euros after the French direct subsidy. When Musk delivers an EV in that price range, or even something close to it, we'll talk about his commitment to putting people in EVs. Until then, as far as I'm concerned, he's just blowing (toxic) smoke. David Roden, EVDL moderator & general lackey To reach me, don't reply to this message; I won't get it. Use my offlist address here : http://evdl.org/help/index.html#supt = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = If I have not seen as far as others, it is because giants were standing on my shoulders. -- Hal Abelson = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = _______________________________________________ Address messages to [email protected] No other addresses in TO and CC fields HELP: http://www.evdl.org/help/
