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A comment on Mercedes Readies First Tesla Rival in $12B Attack. Parent comment

Re:Mercedes Readies First Tesla Rival in $12B Attack by w8vY7ER on Tuesday September 04, 2018 @02:12PM (#17911411)
Just out of curiosity, what have you seen from GM in their EV program to date that gives you that impression? I look at their efforts and see the absolute minimum and a complete lack of compelling vision or differentiating features.
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Re:Mercedes Readies First Tesla Rival in $12B Attack by freehunter on Tuesday September 04, 2018 @02:49PM (#17911722)
I don't drive a GM or a Tesla or any electric car and I have no skin in the game, but it seems to me that GM's differentiating feature is that you can walk into a dealership and buy one right now, today, and drive it away the same day. I see far more Volts/Bolts than I do Teslas. The difference between the Bolt and the Model 3 is that you can buy the Bolt right now.

If anything it seems to be Ford and Chrysler doing the bare minimum. They offer EV versions of their cars, but they're not common and not pushed very heavily. At least GM has an all-electric model that stands on its own and isn't just an EV variant of another model (it's not "the Chevy Bolt EV", it's just "the Chevy Bolt" because there is no "Chevy Bolt ICE".) GM's electric offering was built from the ground up to be an electric car, and has won tons of awards for actually being a good car.

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Re:Mercedes Readies First Tesla Rival in $12B Attack by xedeon on Tuesday September 04, 2018 @03:57PM (#17912275)
You can walk into a dealership and buy a Chevy Bolt right now because there is plenty of surplus inventory. People are just not buying them for many reasons.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2ogGZXmepY

>GM's electric offering was built from the ground up to be an electric car, and has won tons of awards for actually being a good car.

The Bolt actually used many of the Chevy Sonic hardware/parts so I would hardly call it being built from the ground up. I mean, they look pretty much the same. It's like the Tesla roadster 1.0 which used Lotus parts.

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Re:Mercedes Readies First Tesla Rival in $12B Attack by freehunter on Tuesday September 04, 2018 @08:40PM (#17914165)
>The Bolt actually used many of the Chevy Sonic hardware/parts so I would hardly call it being built from the ground up

According to GM, the Bolt shares no components of the Sonic.

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/2017-chevrolet-bolt-ev-pho...

>all-new chassis called BEV II, which isn’t related to the Gamma platform on the Sonic hatchback. Despite the Bolt’s compact footprint, it’s longer than the Sonic by 5.0 inches, wider by 1.2 inches, higher by 3.1 inches, and has a 3.0-inch-longer wheelbase

https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1106137_chevy-bolt-ev-n...

>GM says the Chevy Bolt EV does not share any elements of those vehicles' small-car architecture, which was developed by its Korean small-car team.

>"There are no Bolt EV parts tied to the G2 architecture"

Sounds pretty "ground up" to me.

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Re:Mercedes Readies First Tesla Rival in $12B Attack by J_cst on Tuesday September 04, 2018 @05:48PM (#17913108)
I've watched the video you just linked, and the review of the bolt is pretty good actually. Not sure why you linked it as if it was a bad report. Basically it says the bolt is a good car which lacks the "cool" factor due to its brand. Perhaps i misinterpreted your comment? Thanks (genuine question).
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