Do they even have a viable option today? (I’m unaware how the Lexus electrification is going.)
Now, you have the choice of a Mercedes-Benz EQB or EQS, a Rivian R1S (as you chose) or a Kia EV9 with Lucid, Hyundai and VW all with products about to enter the market.
https://pressroom.toyota.com/toyota-motor-north-america-repo...
Those are mostly hybrids, but reportedly, U.S. sales of gas-electric hybrid vehicles surge and electric-vehicle sales cool
https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/us-aut...
But a better match to culture is likely Jeep Wrangler 4xe. Incredible offroading performance, reasonable towing capacity, large size / in-your-face advertising to some extent. And electrified, so that your daily commute is efficient and environmentally friendly.
Etc. etc. There's a lot of competition these days. People who buy Toyota / Honda are people who care #1 about reliability and simplicity.
But "Tesla Buyers" are more excited about niche features or feeling like their car can do something other cars cannot do (even if they never actually use that feature). And honestly, vehicles like Jeep Wrangler 4xe are best suited for that mindset.
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Or the new Dodge Charger EV. Now that Stellantis is making their EV push, I think Stellantis has better branding for what the stereotypical Tesla Buyer is going for... without the awfulness associated with Elon.
When I finally was able to test drive a standard 2023 Prius, I decided its cargo space was way too small for what I was looking for. When test driving a Rav4 (not Prime) I decided its visibility (for me, maybe this is highly personal) was absolutely terrible compared to the Model Y. Model Y prices were VERY competitive compared to Rav4 Primes anyway, so that's what I went with. I've been very happy with it.
I suppose they are out of fashion right now but honestly that is the form factor that I would be most interested in. I could use it for both home projects but also with the longer body it would have have a fairly decent range so wouldn't be bad for the family road trips. I don't like the idea of having to stop every 2 or 3 hours, 4 would be more ideal.
Honestly, passenger van / road trip vehicle makes the most sense in PHEV form factor out of all other styles IMO.
You should seriously look up the drivetrain of hybrids.
The planetary gearset is a single set of gears that functions as the alternator/generator, the starter/EV motor, the transmission, and the engine driveshaft.
Its not "different" or "new" components. Its a singular design that accomplishes what 3x different parts of the car used to do seperately. There's a reason why Toyota Hybrids are $23k, its a lot cheaper and more efficient to do it this way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jofycaXByTc
You needed the starter anyway. When its beefed up to a full-size EV motor that can drive the car, its more powerful and more durable.
You needed the alternator anyway. When its beefed up to a full-sized generator, its more powerful and more durable.
When the ICE engine operates at its ideal RPM (rather than directly connected to the road), it can be made cheaper, more reliable, smaller, more efficiently than when its the only thing moving the car.
Hybrids are superior to ICE, and Prius shows how to do it with more reliability. Now yes, Chrysler is terrible with reliability, but that's nothing to do with Hybrids and everything to do with Chrysler.
Moving an off-road vehicle of over two tons to transport (usually) one person to work seems neither efficient nor environmentally friendly. The vehicle being electric doesn’t change that, as the electricity has to be generated somewhere.
But switching them to a Jeep Wrangler 4xe is much easier. They seem more amendable to that idea, because they want an offroading vehicle so much. I do think its a bit of a "cosplay" situation because they only do offroading one or two times per year, but ... yeah.
Anyway, getting +5 MPG and electrifying the overall drive of a Jeep will save a ton of fuel. If I can't convince them to drive efficiently with a Corolla, I'm still happy to convince them to get a more environmentally friendly decision here.
I'm not gonna get another Tesla, but not because I dislike the brand, rather because one buys so few cars in one's life that it's more interesting to get something else.
Maybe Elon can get conservatives to buy EVs to "own the libs." Godspeed on that, but so far it doesn't seem to be working.
I think tesla has the most features of any EV. They started off with a clean slate and have done quite well. Their EVs have had the best Coefficient of Drag, have had state-of-the-art batteries, and some amazing motors as far as efficiency and/or power.
Unfortunately, they started cheaping out. No dashboard on the model 3 and too many functions on the touchscreen, like defrost.
They've done this sort of thing with every iteration, and now the latest cars have no gearshift lever/stalk (car guesses which direction you want), there are no stalks for turn signal, wipers, flashing headlights, etc.
the newest steering wheel moved many of these functions to touch areas on the wheel itself horn wipers. And the buttons move with the wheel, so you need to take that into account when you aren't going straight. what if you're on a curve and need to access wipers?
The touchscreen is a mess. First, the moving touchscreen is incredibly hard to touch in a moving vehicle and there is nowhere to rest your hand while you attempt it. For example, turning on the defrost or fog lights.
I sort of wish the NHTSA extended the rules requiring a dedicated emergency flasher button to more of these critical functions a good driver needs to access directly.
The FAA and the military take this stuff seriously for aircraft. They investigate accidents, and if a confusing control is the cause, they follow up and make changes. If only the millions of drivers of cars had someone to get their back.
Tesla's QC problem is serious and still affects all EVs made in the US -- the batteries in these EVs have little to do with it.
First, my experience 2 years ago was the A/C compressor was so loud that during summer with cooling running at maximum, you couldn’t hold a conversation in the cabin because of the noise. Tesla investigated and eventually said “looks fine to us, there isn’t designed to be any additional noise abatement on the firewall between the front and the passenger space”. We had issues with our Falcon Wing doors, and we eventually sold the vehicle after a year.
Now, our friends Model X, that’s had ~6 non-trivial maintenance problems in six months, including the Falcon Wing doors failing three times, and they’re in the process of trying to get a refund through Lemon Laws.
Other acquaintances who own Teslas also have service issues on their Model X, the Cybertruck looks like an even worse mess, so I concluded over a span of multiple years, quality still isn’t a strong suit of Tesla, thus I’m not shocked to see there’s limited brand loyaly, and with increasingly viable competition, demand is falling?
I now have a Rivian R1S and we are incredibly happy with that vehicle, having put about 6000 miles on it. Mercedes EQS also seems like a reasonable choice in 2024, depending on what you want.