One of the side effects of “electrification” – as the term for the top-down-decreeing that all cars sold after such-and-such a date will be electric cars – will be homogenized cars.
Subaru has just given us a preview.
The company doesn’t yet have an electric car in its model lineup, probably because of the huge cost involved in designing and building one of its own – in view of the low returns on that “investment.” Put aside the EV leg-humping of the corporate press, which is paid to leg hump things – Face Diapers, “vaccines” and electric cars being three of these – and look at the facts.
EVs total less than 2 percent of all new car sales, most of those sales in very affluent and very temperate areas – such as Southern and Northern California. Their sales potential is limited not so much by their range – and recharge times – as by their price, which averages close to $40,000 on the lower end. Not counting what it costs to re-wire your house so you can recharge faster than overnight.
Which is a price too high for most car buyers, including the ones who might want an electric car.
I want a private airplane, too.
Subaru is one of those car companies particularly poorly positioned for an “electrified” future because Subaru’s specialty – the reason for Subaru – is affordable small cars.
Not luxury-priced cars.
You can buy – for the present – models like the ’21 Impreza sedan for about $19k. Which is about half the price of an electric car that only goes about half as far that takes five time-plus to get going again – and probably won’t last even half as long before it needs a major “repair” (the replacement of its inevitably wilting battery pack).
Subaru needs a $40,000 electric car in its showrooms like Italy needs Pizza Hut.
But Subaru must have an electric car in its showrooms – because of the top-down decreeing by the regulatory apparat that every car company selling new cars must sell electric cars. Well, they must offer them for sale.
Eventually – by around 2030 – they must offer nothing other than electric cars.
This will be the electrocution of car companies like Subaru.
The new Solterra – “Subaru’s” first electric car, with an estimated base price of $40,000 – is a preview of this green mile walking. The car is slated for the 2023 model year and an introduction sometimes next year.
“Subaru” is in air fingers quotes because the Solterra – oleaginously named to conjure happy idiot images of sun and earth, dancing with dandelions in an electrified future free of care and “climate change” – isn’t.
The thing is a Toyota – functionally – with a Subaru skin job.
So why bother with Subaru?
The people in charge ought to ask themselves that. Do they think that Subaru can survive when there is nothing more to Subaru than different shapes – and not much different shapes at that, given the top-down decreeing of how cars shall be shaped (in order to “comply” with the various “safety” standards decreed – which is why most new cars look like the same cars).
When they are the same under the skin – which is what electrification entails – there will be as much reason for Subaru as for Pizza Hut in Italy.
Subaru is the only car company besides Porsche that still builds – for the present – horizontally opposed (boxer) engines. Its boxer-powered cars are the only affordable such cars. Porsches being something else. The boxer engine is what gives Subarus their identify as well as unique selling points vs. other cars. The engine is mounted low and sits flat, which improves a Subaru’s balance and handling. It also makes a very distinctive Subaru sound.
This will be lost when electrified “Subarus” whirr – like all other electric cars.
What will Subaru sell, then?
It has already largely lost what it once almost uniquely had – which was a lineup of cars with standard all-wheel-drive, a feature that Subaru pioneered decades ago – along with Audi – and which for many years it alone offered affordably (Audis being luxury cars and thus not-affordable cars).
Today, almost every car offers AWD – so that sell is gone. The last two – for Subaru – are the still-special boxer engine and the affordability of its cars.
Electrification will do to both what the chair did to Ted Bundy – without the justice. Either as regards Subaru – or us. The people who have bought Subarus up to now because that’s what we wanted.
Not re-skinned (and $40,000 to start) Toyotas.
Speaking of which.
Even Toyota – which is not a small company, like Subaru – is re-skinning other car company’s cars. Because it can no longer justify the cost of designing and building a new engine – including the cost of “complying” with the very costly regulatory regimes – when they know they only have a few years, at most, to recover those costs before engines are de facto (and then de jure) outlawed.
That is the reason why the “Toyota” Supra (my review can be found here) is a re-skinned BMW Z4.
It has a BMW engine, which BMW already spent what it took to get it through the costly regulatory regime and legal for sale. It costs Toyota less to re-skin a BMW than to design and build a Toyota-powered Supra, which would only be allowed on the market for a handful of years before it is outlawed in new car showrooms – as in California by 2030 and as everywhere, soon after.
The Biden Thing has already decreed that by 2030 at least half of all new cars in all new car showrooms must be electric cars. It is inevitable, if these things continue to hold sway, that within a few years at most after that, no new cars will be allowed for sale that are not electric cars.
It doesn’t matter – to the Biden Thing and the other things – whether they’re wanted. Or affordable. Indeed, that is exactly what’s wanted by these things (i.e, cars that aren’t wanted and aren’t affordable, the object being to get people to stop wanting – and stop driving – period).
In the interval, the handful of cars that aren’t electric will become so expensive – in part because so few – that they will become just as unaffordable as electric cars, the de facto part of the pincer movement – with de jure (the laws) closing off the pocket.
Subaru has already “committed” – in the manner of a man heading to the chair’s “commitment” – to be 40 percent electrocuted by the evil date certain of 2030 and “100 percent” by 2035.
Which will probably be the other date on Subaru’s tombstone.
. . .
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For another look at the future these ghostly looking Waymo cars (theyre white and spooky looking with all the exterior sensors) are roaming all over downtown Phoenix. Supposedly driverless who the hell would get in one is beyond me. Btw Eric the plane you pictured reminds me of the V-tail Bonanza – famously nicknamed the “doctor killer”. Count yourself lucky you didnt learn to fly. Some Jeff Bezsos Blue Origins passenger just died in a training flight.
“The Biden Thing has already decreed that by 2030 at least half of all new cars in all new car showrooms must be electric cars.”
Decrees, executive orders, signing statements, mandates, are the commands of dictators.
Tenth Amendment: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor
prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
“How did the federal government get speed limits to 55 for years or force every state to make 21 the age for drinking?”
Unconstitutionally.
Rules passed within the limits of the Constitution are known as Amendments – there are 27 of them. If no Amendment, the actions are unconstitutional, as in the ethanol mandate.
Electing a dictator every four years will stay the current course to total slavery.
It is telling though, that most of these car companies are still on the sidelines when it comes to electric. They have a few models in the works, but as minimal as possible?
Is it because they can’t afford it?
Is it because they hope this nonsense will pass, and we can get back to “normal”?
I think some of the smaller companies, they just can’t justify the “investment”. They see the 1-2% thing happening and they know they can’t do that.
The battery problem. It’s all the battery problem. No one has a scalable solution. Until someone has a way to match energy density of gasoline the mass adoption of electrics isn’t gonna happen.
Hydrogen fuel cells probably could scale in time, but is hard to work with and requires a fair bit of electricity to produce without a lot of excess carbon dioxide from the natural gas feedstock. If we had a lot of excess electricity production just sitting out there it could be done, but at this point the only thing that will scale to the necessary levels is nuclear, and that’s too scary.
Hell, H2 is pretty “scary” too thanks to the Hindenburg film. What everyone forgets is that most of the people who died on the Hindenberg were the ones who jumped out when the fire started. Everyone else looked up, saw the “mushroom cloud” from the quickly rising H2 and went for a hell of a ride to the ground as the remaining gas bags discharged. And it’s not like we had 100 years of working with inflammable gasses to figure out how to avoid explosions.
My guess is that electric motors to drive the wheels are the future of automobiles, just as they have been for railroad locomotives for many years. The main reason I see is power and torque from zero RPM, unlike IC engines, which always have a power curve.
If that is correct, then the relevant question becomes, where does the electricity come from? Leaving out the possibilities of a) very long extension cords, b) overhead cables with pantographs or c) electrified third rails, the onboard energy storage must involve some type of chemical storage technology and chemical to electrical conversion. (I assert, without proof, that there will never be a nuclear powered automobile)
Batteries are one way to do this (yes, folks, batteries are electrochemistry), but certainly not the only way. Elon Musk may ridicule fuel cells all he likes, but it is worth remarking that the U.S. national laboratories (funded by Fed Gov, a.k.a. our tax dollars) have significant ongoing programs to investigate and improve a) cost of producing “green” hydrogen (not from steam reforming of petroleum) and b) improved methods of storing hydrogen fuel in motor vehicles.
It may be that *neither* of these approaches will win out, in the long run. Possibly, a technology which has not yet been invented will rule the industry at some time in the future. Who knows? The future is unknown, and those who attempt to predict it, even well qualified “experts” in any given field, are very often proven wrong.
But it still doesn’t answer the question, Why?
ICE works well and is affordable and actually doesn’t pollute all that much anymore. There is no compelling reason to make a change outside of the government forcing it down our throats.
I am most definitely *NOT* in favor of government forcing anything down our throats.
>doesn’t pollute all that much anymore
Hardly at all, in fact, as Eric never tires of telling us. 🙂
Provided, of course, you reject the “greenie” nonsense of CO2 being a pollutant, which I, as a CO2 emitting organism, certainly do. Otherwise, we evil CO2 emitters would have the “moral” duty to off ourselves, ASAP, and “stop polluting the planet.” Not interested, here.
>Why?
As I said, better low end performance.
But, as you implied, simpler is generally cheaper, so, if the market is allowed to operate, I see this potentially happening on a longer time scale, rather than being force fed to us by government edict.
Industry, left to its own devices, is certainly not going on any “crusade,” nor should they. You don’t stay in business by losing money, nor can you count on earning a profit by being more “woke” than your competitors, except in some niche market where the customers are all ecofreaks, which certainly does not describe the automotive market, where tradition plays a big part.
Case in point: Chevy stuck with front engine, rear drive, *big* V8 for the Corvette for a very long time, because it worked, for their expected market. I wouldn’t expect to see electric wheel motors in a Corvette next year, or even in the next 10 years, but I would not rule it out for the long run. Let the market decide…
Hi Turtle,
The car you’re describing is a Chevy Volt, which Eric has written about here. A buddy of mine owns one and I was hoping to buy it of him one day……till he got t-boned by some idiot blasting through a red light (fortunately he wasn’t hurt badly). Unfortunately the PTB can’t allow the Volt because it isn’t range gimped like a regular EV, plus you don’t need to depend on the creaky electrical grid to keep it charged.
Basically proof that the real reason for the EV push is to restrict us serfs to a tightly controlled area.
You’re right about the Volt, Mike. Perfect blend of gas and electric. My buddy also had one. He was thinking about getting something newer, so I told him whatever he does, I want that car when he’s done with it. Well, being the old farts that we are, he up and died. Not wanting to seem like a vulture, I figured I’d wait a couple months to ask his wife about the car. Some neighbor of hers wasn’t as courteous and she sold it to him a few weeks earlier. Oh well. And boy, if only they had gone with the original concept design on the Volt, that was one gorgeous car.
Hi, Mike,
I was intrigued by Eric’s recent review of a French(?) electric which sells in Europe very cheap, cheap enough to be a second, or commuter car in he U.S .market, but can’t be sold here because it does not meet U.S. crash test standards. I could see that car as a viable alternative to the Smart for 2, for example.
Once again, FedGov interfering with the free market. In today’s world, I think we can, and will, see different solutions for different problems, if only the Fed will let the market operate. Fat chance of that happening would be my guess. Unfortunately.
> reason for the EV push is to restrict us serfs to a tightly controlled area.
Busybodies who wish to restrict our entire lives, not just our mobility. See also, “master planned” communities which will never be allowed to grow or change, forever.
Just great for people who crave “master planned” (by others) lives. Not for me, thank you, and very likely not for anyone who reads EP Autos.
Buck the Fozos.
Why? Power over us.
People without cheap energy are much easier to manage.
The engineers were never supposed to get the ICE this good. The powers that be didn’t count on that. So now they have to be much more forceful and turn up the alarmist fear dials to 200 on a scale of 1-10.
You say a lot with very little Brent. You condense the “why” into something so short, sweet, and easy to understand. They want us slaves or they want us dead.
Another shoe drops in the plot against drivers:
‘The Texas Public Utilities Comission granted Tesla Energy Ventures, a Tesla subsidiary, a retail electric provider certificate. That allows it to buy wholesale power, sell power to consumers, and pay for transmission and distribution.
“I can’t emphasize enough, I think long term, Tesla Energy will be of roughly the same size as Tesla Automotive,” Elon Musk said on a conference call in 2020. “So I mean the energy business collectively is bigger than the automotive business. So it’s like how big is the energy sector? Bigger than automotive.”
‘Musk reiterated his interest in the power grid earlier this year, saying he thinks “large battery storage at the utility level” is needed.’
https://tinyurl.com/22979eba
So there you have it, straight from the source: Tesla’s going to sell you an EV, then sell you the power to run it … at a painfully escalating price.
Antitrust, you object? Sorry, no … because investor-owned electric utilities are state-chartered monopolies, they are generally exempt from federal regulation of their anticompetitive conduct — the perfect scam for Elon, in other words.
Caveat emptor.
Standard oil 2.0
The problem is still the same, you can have all the “storage” in the world, where is that power coming from. Batteries DO NOT make power. It merely stores it, and not that well to be honest.
What if Musk is a genius that is selling cars to sell electricity?
Nah.
In that case, he would likely sell the cars for much less, to get people hooked.
The old razor blade trick (sell razors cheap, make money on the blades).
“Even Toyota – which is not a small company, like Subaru – is re-skinning other car company’s cars. Because it can no longer justify the cost of designing and building a new engine – including the cost of “complying” with the very costly regulatory regimes.”
So how is it that Nissan is willing and able to bring out an almost all new 2023 Z Car?
Car company projects run for many years, and often reuse platforms that they’ve developed to last a very long time. Nissan’s been working on this for probably 7-8 years already, and they probably decided that it’s worth finishing given the desirable car.
The death of cool cars isn’t an all-at-once thing, it’ll happen bit by bit, and a bunch of cool new cars will still come out, but the trend is inevitable.
I work with automotive tech, and our lead time for products is several years. Everything has to be nailed down and R&D must be done before the companies spend billions of dollars building tooling and start bending metal. It’s an incredibly capital intensive industry, so they’re only going to be willing to spend this cost if they can recoup it.
It costs hundreds of millions to do the R&D for a car, and approaching a billion bucks to make all the dies, robots, and supply chains needed to produce a high volume car. They recoup this by making the incremental cost of building each car very low. When car sales are low volume, this simply isn’t worth it, and different manufacturing models emerge. Lotus, for example, has mastered the art of building maybe 10,000 cars per year cost effectively, at a price that’s only a fraction of what Ferrari or Lamborghini do. These cars are all built partially by automation, partially by human hands where it doesn’t make sense to build tooling. I expect a lot more cars built this way in the future.
Hi Mike,
The new Z still uses the Nissan V6, which has amortized much of its R&D and regulatory compliance costs, is how. Bodies are easier than engines!
Toyota had their Camry V-6, which you have said is an excellent engine. They could have cranked up the power on that, and popped it into a body of their own design.
But they didn’t.
That’s when I began to lose respect for Toyota. They seem well along the road to becoming a Japanese General Motors.
First they lost the fire in their bellies. Next they will jettison their superb reputation for building cars that are both reliable and affordable.
Hi Mike,
Yes, but it was a V6. The Supra has a tradition of in-line sixes. Toyota would have had to design a new one and then get it through the gantlet of regs. And such an engine would have limited applicability – as well as a short viable life, given the political-regulatory situation.
That’s why they bought one from BMW.
‘The Biden Thing has already decreed that by 2030 at least half of all new cars in all new car showrooms must be electric cars.’ — eric
Such heavy-handed market rigging by The Biden Thing has produced bizarre results — upstart Rivian, not even in regular production yet, is now the largest US auto company by market value. No, I’m not making this up [graphic]:
https://tinyurl.com/4d2jzsjk
And as the graphic shows, Tesla is bigger than all the major European, North American and Asian auto makers combined.
How distorted is that?
Vile Thing
You make my heart sting
You ruin everything
Vile Thing
— to the tune of Wild Thing
Stock values are usually a proxy for anticipated future profit/earnings/market share. Since they pretty much have a guarantee from Uncle they’ll be selling cars, they get a pretty hefty premium. Actually delivering a product is another story, but there’s lots of excuses in the quiver for that.
I going to do (2) things: get a back up natural gas electrical generator for my house and keep my daughters 94 Toyota corolla. Power outages will become common place coming to state near you. As electric cars are mandated the demand for non-electrics will increase. Save those reliable cars for day they are needed. Prices are going up on used and demand for new electrics will go down. Even if the sheeple dutifully buy these golf carts the sales will be way down from current to keep the auto companies solvent.
The big manufacturers will lose sales and turn to Transportation as a Service (TAS) and ram the electrics at the proletariat that way. Big cities may outlaw gas powered cars. We all may be moving to red states to avoid the covidcon and motor laws coming soon. A mass migration on the scale of India when it split into Hindu and Muslim.
Heres an idea for you. If your electric needs are generally low and slow install a higher amp (or second) alternator in the corolla and use the engine to charge some deep cycle or lithium batteries. This will allow you to feed 110 into the house via an inverter or run lights and 12v gadgets direct from the batteries. No more hauling gas cans. No more screeeeeaming genny just to run a few things. One fewer engine to maintain. Quiet. You could even get faaaaaancy and toss a remote start in the ol Toy so you can fire the car generator up when the batteries are low or you need to run a high amp load.
I’ve used this method of topping up my RV batteries from my truck with jumper cables when boondocking. Way better than running a generator.
‘Big cities may outlaw gas powered cars. We all may be moving to red states.’ — Hans Gruber
Fully concur.
Kalifornia is the strange case. It has a deeply established car culture, dating back to the hot rod builders of the 1950s and 1960s. On any weekend, in any coastal county of California from San Diego up to Marin, you can find a vintage car show.
Cars last forever in Cali and you can work on them in an open garage year-round.
Today’s version of hot-rodding is retrofitting vintage vehicles with batteries and electric motors. Some will be satisfied with that. But many either can’t afford it, or disapprove on aesthetic grounds of mangling and vandalizing classic cars.
A long-entrenched car culture, unique to California, will not be stamped out without popular resistance.
And as Hans Gruber says, some will have to pick up sticks and leave to protect what they value.
>Today’s version of hot-rodding is retrofitting vintage vehicles with batteries and electric motors.
Well, maybe part of it. Personally, I have not seen any, but maybe they exist.
Another “school” involves restoring and modifying vehicles older than 1975, for which smog check is not required.
The California version of Cubanos, if you like.
No smog check, no air bags, no seat belts, just better style and maintainability. My flathead fords are economical, especially with overdrive. Though California’s tyrannical dicktasters have ruled that it requires smog equipment on the newest thing in the vehicle (engine or body) thus ensuring that more efficient modern engines are not favored by car guys.
Yep.
AFAIK, you can also build a frame from scratch and fit an earlier than 1975 engine and still be exempt. So, for example, kit car Cobra replicas are, I believe, exempt, provided you use a <'75 block to build the engine.
Unfortunately, as you noted, you cannot put a '74 engine in '76 chassis to avoid smog check. Bummer.
Buck the Fozos.
Car makers just one of a plethora of businesses being destroyed to “control the climate”. as if such a thing were even POSSIBLE. They could destroy us and eliminate all CO2 emission, and it would STILL change. Just as likely to continue warming, since we are technically still in an ice age, but also could get really, really cold, for the same reason. The climate “experts” barely understand anything about climate. For all they actually know, we should be burning tires to limit cooling. Which of course means climate has damn little to do with it, other than to pacify Greta.
How dare you!!!
Yoo haff stolen my drems…
With your fairytales of eternal economic growth!
There are only two things that can STOP an economy from growing. Government interference, and natural disaster. Although the former could be classified as part of the latter.
We are in the beginning of mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money!
Hi Greta,
But . . . how dare you?
It’s a shame. In an alternative universe we’d be headed to a new golden era of coachworks builders. 3D printing is still evolving and getting better all the time. “Desktop” CNC mills are almost affordable even for hobbyists. Imagine going into a showroom, sitting down with a designer who offers you a menu list of accessories and drivetrains, from 3 bangers and electrics for your commuter car, to your high performance plug-in hybrid V8 with a 30A generator for towing the Airstream. Don’t need a bed for that camper hauler? No problem. In fact, we’ll just shorten it up like a miniature semi, install a trailer stability package and extra fuel tank. Basic daily driver that converts to a track day racer on Saturday? Sure, let them design you an adaptive suspension that will keep your nose out of the curbs and keep it on the ground at the flip of a switch. Always dreamed of owning a 1972 boat tail Riviera but don’t want to keep an antique? Let’s modernize the construction and use materials that won’t rust. It will be ready next month. Oh, yes it will be expensive, but cars last 10+ years now, imagine if they weren’t designing to a price point and constantly cutting corners? You might just keep it for a lifetime or two.
But that isn’t something that a bureaucrat would ever consider. A “credential hire” with an accounting degree and MBA would never think about what might be possible outside of an extremely narrow range. That thinking might be something you want when it comes to making sure payroll gets in the account or that the big institutional shareholders are placated, but when they take over the industry is pretty much doomed to solving for one or at best two goals that have nothing to do with emotional reaction to the product. Think Apple under Jobs vs Apple under Cook (or Sculley).
LOL my Mac shows Sculley as a misspelled word…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Sculley
In an alternate universe, where government had zero jurisdiction over business, including taxes, we would likely have colonies on Mars, and be mining asteroids, private business all. How nice THAT would be for the environment.
In an alternate universe we would find a way to settle our differences without burning the whole house to the ground. No need for un-civil war. We could hash it out as men, dueling with pistols, or swords. Maybe settling it in the horseshoe pits.
Why leftists cant abide the principle of ‘you do your thing, I’ll do mine’ is the 64000 $ question.
Exactly the sort of world we should be seeing, RK. That we are not is infinitely disappointing.
But, perhaps the decentralized revolution can truly begin, and maybe even cars won’t be built at some central location, but EVERYWHERE, and in an uncontrollable manner. Your car dealer might be merely an assembler, who orders a vehicle in a piecemeal fashion from tens or hundreds of different small scale manufacturers, and assembles them into the finished product.
The New Industrial Revolution.
There are lots of custom builders out there who can take a body-on-frame vehicle and turn it into art. It isn’t easy and the feedstocks are getting more and more rare, but it can be done. And there’s Jay Leno’s 3D printer, churning out replacement parts for vehicles long forgotten. But that’s for the rarified air of the millionaire’s club, not for the rabble and riff-raff.
When there’s one computer in the world, it is a priceless curiosity owned by the king. When they are so plentiful as to be disposable even in third world countries, they lose exclusivity but gain untold function and value.
Given that American fascism seems to be here to stay, there isn’t much individuals can do.
We can refuse to comply (ala corona) en mass and throw a wrench in their plans, but we don’t have the money to buy the govt.
For my own little piece of the world, I tell as many “lefties” as possible that EV mandates hurt poor people the most. That’s all I have now. Rationality and freedom mean nothing to them.
The argument that intentionally making something more expensive to discourage its use harms the poor is always countered with “well, we need to provide a subsidy then.” Where’s the subsidy going to come from? Well, the rich of course, or better yet, just print it up. They all claim to be looking at the big picture, but ignore that intentionally introducing inefficiency is actually quite wasteful, especially without a way to compare price.
I’m sympathetic towards the EV manufacturers. They have a very difficult task if they want to dethrone internal combustion. But they’re also not given an opportunity to produce a product that would utilize the many advantages of EVs: short hops, less maintenance and lower total cost of ownership. Of course that’s because they have to fit into what the NHTSA says the definition of a vehicle is, not what the public might call a car. And multiple vehicles are often problematic. Licensing, insuring and even parking (in the case of draconian HOA rules) can be a real issue for a car that is only used sporadically.
I’m in complete agreement, RK, as regards what EVs could be.
If they weren’t forced to be what non-EVs can be. What they are. That being long-distance-capable and so versatile. EVs could be designed to focus on their strengths – short range trips at speeds under 70. Such a design brief would allow far smaller, far lighter batteries, which would allow far smaller, far lighter motors. The whole thing could probably be made to weigh less than a typical IC car. It could also be made to cost less, which would make an economic case for EVs.
Right now, there isn’t one – excepting the “case” for zero (a the tailpipe) emissions (relative to near zero for a modern IC car) and virtue signaling.
Oh, yes. EVs are quick, too.
Well, so are Corvettes. Maybe speedy cars ought to be subsidized, too?
The mandate is for perfection. Fairy dust unicorns and crystal balls abound.
The Arcimoto is close to what you describe. Technically a motorcycle to keep regulations from turning it into a porker. Not 40k expensive but still economy car expensive. Just fast enough for hops on the highway but ideally suited for cities and back roads. It still needs a gas generator I’d say. 100 miles is NOT enough for a country bumpkin to make rounds in the city and get back home.
The Aptera is also promising but even further away from large scale production. My feelings is that one’ll definitely get shelved by Elon n co being that it’s what an ideal electric car should be.
RK,
I expect that too, but considering that the poor may only have a few thousand dollars to buy a used beater today, how much subsidy would be needed to get an EV down to an affordable level?
The left is steeped in envy and I expect many will become jealous of the amount of subsidy that would be provided to the poor.
They live in a world devoid of logic, so a cycle of emotion can be used against them.
I have seen it in a couple of them who think EV is the savior, until I ask them questions about costs to their wallet vs those under poverty level they will have to subsidize. (They get so angry when they understand they pay for those of lesser means. To go on, the left seems to hate the poor and minorities, but that’s a tangent)
For extra fun, tell them the electricity will have to come from nuclear plants.
Ugh! Don’t get me started on nuclear!
The problem is when you challenge the accepted narrative the leftists decide it’s an “overcoming objections” sales call and begin rattling off their canned responses. “Well, what about X?” “Oh, X isn’t anything to worry about, we’ll just counter X with Y.” “Where’s the money going to come from for Y?” “Oh, we’ll just tax R of course.” “Who’s R?” “You, silly! But it’s such a small amount you won’t even notice!” Sometimes a bad idea is a bad idea. If there were clear advantages to EVs (other than virtue signaling) they’d be everywhere and no one would be challenging anyone.
EV subsidies will take care of a few select cases that will be given the spotlight come reelection time. The rest of the poor(er) slobs who don’t fit the narrow requirements for a subsidy will have to turn to ride sharing or leasing, AKA “you’ll own nothing and be happy.”
Anyone remember back in the 80s when Gallagher joked why the official car of the US ski team was a Subaru?
FJB.
I work for Subaru of New England, these cars are crap. They sound horrible, constant silent recalls, Engine and transmission problems. These new Subarus are not well made like the old ones that lasted 20+ years. I would never buy one, I encourage others not to either.
Indeed, they have become notorious for head gasket failure.
“They fixed the head gasket issues on the 2005+ models!”
“They fixed the head gasket issues on the 2010+ models!”
“They fixed the head gasket issues on the 2015+ models!”
It’s like the CVTs. Every new generation they pay some shills to go to forums and comment threads to just start posting these platitudes as if they are somehow true facts.
“1 quart of oil every 200 miles is in the normal range of consumption”.
My sister just traded in her soobie for a honda. Apparently it started consuming a lot of oil with about 80k on the clock. Car was practically new. Garbage!
My main question about these cars is why do they sell at all? After generations of vehicles plagued by head gasket failures and weak CVT’s the word should be out that they’re unreliable. Everyones got all wheel drive now so why are the redcoat new englandahs so hooked on these things? Does it have something to do with the northeast vortex of evil? Who knows!?!? I’m glad I never see them in the deep south. So many jacked up trucks, donks and classics to marvel at in dixie.
Hi Dip,
I’m in the rural South; lots of Soobies here – chiefly because they’re better than most on poor/unpaved roads and while they do suck gas and burn oil more than most, they are generally very reliable… if you avoid the turbo and (lately) the CVT automatics…
This is where we’ll have to disagree my friend. I’ll never consider a car that needs its engine cradle dropped every 100k for blown head gaskets reliable. I can’t trust a car company that keeps a design flaw like that around for decades. It’s especially galling when other japanese companies build engines that run half a million miles without ever being opened up.
Perhaps it is just about rough road handling. God knows the roads in the northeast quarter are terrible.
Hi Stephen,
I see old Brats fairly often here in SW Va. They were rust-prone but the little SOBs were – are – tough little bastards and still esteemed for that reason. I agree with you regarding the newer stuff. The turbo’d models with CVTs in particular.
Oh, the Irony.
The auto of the Environmentalist Left is going to force their hand. Ante up, bull dykes…your ride to the woods just got expensive…should it survive at all.
I’m going to miss reading all the Obama/Biden/Clinton/Save the Lesbian Whales bumper stickers festooned on the rear ends of Foresters.
You forgot “Coexist”.
Something will *have* to give, and way before 2030.
Touché’, Roscoe, touché’
The carpet patrol got tossed aside by the commies long ago for more fruitful victim classes to exploit. This should be a lesson to everyone if the reds want to fight on your side against the white patriarchy. You’ll be sweet-talked, fucked and dumped.
Reminds me of when the whole boys in the girls bathroom false debate got started. An iphone tard waahmon clutched her pearls and thought I was awful for thinking chixwithdix in the ladies room was a bad idea. “They feeeeeel like they’re women” she said. I told her she’ll feel different when some huge dude walks into her bathroom and starts pissing all over her toilet seat.
On the flip side, many scary ass lesbos. The real ones aren’t what they show in the movies boys!
Hi Dip,
In re: “he real ones aren’t what they show in the movies boys!”
Yup. There is one at my gym. It is burlier than me. “She” is all tatted up and probably 275 pounds. I can still bench more than “she” can, though!
The reality is not only physically unattractive to a man, but in fact a dangerous personality full of irrationality, aggression, and hate.
Like everything else, the media portray dykes as sexy, smart, and somehow superior.
They chose to appeal to the demographic that will kill them. Guess that’s how deals with the devil work.