Good Find! Now to the anecdote-stream:
As you know (Cody) I'm all-electric for the first N miles and loving
it... three PHEVs. (2 Gen1 Volts, a Gen1 CMax). I seem to remember that
DaveW has a deposit down on the Slate which might only be a year out now?
I grew up in a VW double-cab pickup and have owned another handful of
aircooled's made before 1970 over the decades and have a fondness for
that unique rattle/clatter the underpowered engine offers up and the
ultra-simplicity of the design/construction. I was pleasantly
surprised in the mid 90s to take a short vacation in the Yucatan and the
"rental car of choice" was a classic Bug, still being manufactured sold
throughout parts of Central (and South?) America 20 years after they had
left the US.
During the mid-70s gas crisis, I lived on the MX border and quite a few
people bought the early VW diesel pickups and filled up with $.05/gal
diesel (PetroMX was (?is?) government run and cheap diesel was treated
as necessary for economic stability). US Gasoline hit $1/gal just as I
bought my first car (gas guzzling 64 T-bird with a bashed in
drivers-door). I still see a few of those little Rabbit-framed diesel
pickups on the road now and then.
In my never ending quest for (faux/aspirational) self-reliance on the
back of other people's discards I tripped over a Gen1 BMW i3 EV (the
little carbon-fiber job with suicide-styled tiny back doors) at the Los
Alamos "Lemon Lot". It looked like someone's toy, probably garaged
continuously and carefully cleaned regularly... no door dings, no rock
chips, nothing. The seller claimed 50-60 mile remaining range and
offered with an anecdote about "stopping at Tesuque Casino on the way
home for a hamburger and a quick-top-up, making Santa Fe fully
round-trippable from LA.
It has been out there on the lot for 2 weeks now, it is priced at
dealer-trade-in. I'm guessing that in spite of a town full of people
whose longest commute is probably 10 miles each way, such a vehicle
isn't good/versatile/??? enough for anyone? My stable is already full
or it would have joined my herd already. Had it had the RE (range
extending 600cc motorcycle engine - PHEV mode) I almost for sure would
have anyway. And as you suggest, the market for anything less than
"above average" in most qualities is weak in the US. All three of my
PHEVs were someone else's "end of life" sheddings which *have* required
a minor bit of patience and attention but truly *minor* compared to the
attention I had to give my vehicles for the first couple of decades of
my driving life. Points, Plugs, Timing, Valves anyone?
Since I have ICE engines under the hood ready to kick in if my
expectations exceed my (battery) resources, I'm a little
range-spoiled... but still acutely aware of when/where I'm going to need
to kick the ICE in to leave my "silent running" EV mode available for
stop/go traffic and/or the ultra efficient "long downhill runs" such as
returning from Santa Fe. The 15 miles/2000ft slow drop from the top of
Opera HIll means that even a few kWh of reserve power will get me home
for "free". Id' not be quite so happy if I didn't have the ICE
available under adverse conditions, bad judgement. We've driven each of
these cross-country as well with little/no time on a charger.
I helped my elderDotter move from Portland to Davis CA (thank you RFK
Jr) in April which included her Bolt EUV. She had only taken it out of
town once (normally commuting about 60 miles daily) so wasn't that
confident in it's range at highway speeds. I was hauling a modestly
heavy trailer with a full-sized but underpowered (for the load) pickup
in the caravan through several mountain passes so got ahead and stayed
ahead of them on every leg pretty effectively. She had planned an
overnight 2/3 of the way at a place with good L2 charging so was able to
make the last leg with no stops. Her son, their golden-doodle and
niece enjoyed the oldSkool road trip of driving <60mph with the windows
down that last leg... probably knocked 5 miles of range over windows-up
AC but it was "an experience". I don't think they knew you could
drive that slow or with windows down on the freeway!
I don't spend much time at a gas pump these days so was shocked at the
total bill at the gas pump... over $100 at each (of 3) stops.
When we got the first Volt (nearly a decade ago now!) we would top up in
the city garage next to the violet crown while watching a movie,
otherwise the ICE would kick in on the way home. I now know to force it
before heading up opera hill in and again out of SFe and just that
little bit (.07 gal is the minimum it will burn in one go) can get us
all the way home for "near free". Mary drives them like conventional
cars and ignores the extra dashboard diagnostics without any trouble...
only needing to add the extra step of plugging in when she gets home.
At $.11/kWh the 10-12kWh "tankfull" is a bargain compared to petrol
(esp. today). My newer Volt (2013 vs 2011 w 100 vs 250k miles) round
trips everywhere I regularly go except Santa Fe with kWh to spare when I
get home... LA calls for 7kWh up and gives back 2kWh on the return,
netting about 1/2 my range. Espanola and Pojoaque runs are near-flat
so pretty under-demanding. I'm still charging off the spinning turbines
of Abiqui dam (until it goes empty) but at least the Coal Burners near
the 4 corners are not belching for me like they used to. I still
haven't pulled the trigger on the pallet of used PVs I keep talking
about. What a hypocrite! Now that my (new) Volt has a trailer hitch
(first owner did a good job, though it's only rated for about 3k lbs)
I'm back to ideating a road-trip to collect. I already moved a modest
load of concrete blocks (carefully) with it.
I doubt I'll live long enough to add an Olinia to my experiences, but
who knows... it might be the vehicle of choice in the Mad Max
Apocalypse we are racing toward? Do we know anyone attending DJT's
"Thunderdome on the Ellipse" event next week?
On 6/9/26 7:41 am, cody dooderson wrote:
What do you all think of the electric car that the Mexican government
plans to build? It will supposedly cost under 10k. It looks very
utilitarian; probably too practical for the American consumer.
https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/sheinbaum-olinia-mexico-ev/
_ Cody Smith _
[email protected]
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