Tag Archives: Honda

The Chevrolet Bolt, Buy or Pass.

When you read all the reviews about the Chevrolet Bolt it sounds like nothing we’ve ever seen before. An engineering marvel of the 21st century.

The Chevy Bolt is all of the following:

2017 MOTOR TREND CAR OF THE YEAR, 2017 NORTH AMERICAN CAR OF THE YEAR,

2017 GREEN CAR OF THE YEAR®, AWARDED BY GREEN CAR JOURNAL

But probably best of all as far as I am concerned it is,

2017 IIHS TOP SAFETY PICK WHEN EQUIPPED WITH OPTIONAL DRIVER CONFIDENCE II PACKAGE.

Add to that it gets an EPA estimated 238 miles of range on a full charge. Only the Tesla gets as much or more. And the base price of the cheapest Tesla S is almost twice as much as a Chevrolet Bolt.

But it’s not really some engineering marvel or some great design.

As for the design it’s a lot like the Honda Fit. The battery technology is not very special either. It’s just a bigger battery pack (60 kWh) than has been put in any car that size to date.

There are also plenty of cars on the market with backup cameras, parking sensors and traffic alerts and adaptive cruise control. Today you can order them on many cars midrange trim packages.

So why don’t I love the Bolt. Like almost everyone else who finds the marriage of automotive technology and electricity a compelling proposition?  I love that cars are electrifying. I also love that they have cameras, cross traffic alert and a myriad of other features designed to make driving safer. These are now a must on any future vehicle I buy. As is keyless entry and starting. Try doing a car that needs a key to start after doing one that doesn’t.

On the Chevy Bolt you can get all the latest safety and convenience options for a price. You just can’t get comfortable if you are slightly wider than your average 30 year old.

And just like the Tesla there is a trade off between battery technology and fit and finish. You can buy a Porsche Panamera for the same price as a Tesla. The Panamera is far nicer inside and out.

Even at the Premier trim level the Bolt seats are small. The cabin trim is basic as well. But you do get a cheap leather instead of just plastic. I’d feel far more comfortable if they chose to use IKEA to design the interior, sort of like the BMW i3.

The Bolt is a very small car. They say it feels much bigger than it really is. It doesn’t, it looks much bigger than it really is. That’s a big difference. What they really mean is that there is a fair amount of legroom for the back seat compared to your average compact car. That is true. Since the roof doesn’t slope and there is little cargo space unless the seats are folded down it does have more room than the Focus but no more than a Honda Fit. I’d probably buy the Honda Fit.

Like the Chevy Volt, I don’t need to drive this car to know I don’t like it. All I had to do is sit in it. The difference is, in the Volt I like sitting in the drivers seat. If you are a driver it is comfortable. If you ever have to be a back seat passenger and you are over 5′ 6″ you’re probably not going to like it, at all, not even for a 10 minutes drive to get lunch. My 13 year old son was 5′ 6″ last year when I wrote about the Volt 2.0, today he is 6′ 1″ (1 inch taller than I am) and he didn’t like sitting in the back seat of the Volt, back then leg room was an issue. Today he would have the same issue I did as well. You needed to put your head back in the window so the headliner didn’t hit your head.

In the Bolt both of us can sit comfortably, in the back seat. He can sit comfortably in the front seat. His 32″ waist fits fine. My 40″ waist not so much. When I first get in the car and sit down about 2 inches of my butt is hanging off the seat. Then I have to slide right till my right hip hits the side of the seat. The front seat hip room is 2. 3 inches less than the Ford Focus Electric. If you fit in a Honda Fit you will be ok with that as front hip room is almost identical.

For $15k more than the Honda it would have been nice if they had just made the car just a couple of inches wider and a couple of inches longer. Would that have added that much more if anything to the price?

They should have made the car more the size of the Mercedes B250e and less like the Honda Fit or Nissan Leaf.

The Mercedes B250e is by far the nicest Compact BEV I have driven. It’s only drawbacks are the range and it’s only sold in Compliance States.

So should you buy a Chevrolet Bolt? If you want to pay about $44k (before tax incentives with the highest trim and almost every option) for a $20k economy car that has a (according to GM) $8.7k battery pack. No, not if that is the true cost of the battery. That means you are paying a lot for an economy car. Even after the government picks up another $7.5k.

That’s probably why a lot of people are waiting for the Tesla 3 or buying hybrids like the Hyundai Sonata.  O.K., they aren’t buying hybrids, or sedans for that matter. Gas is so cheap that people are once again going down that road to getting stuck with a vehicle that in the future is going to cost them a lot for gas.

The only thing less smart is paying $20k more up front for an electric car that fits in the back of most of the SUV’s or Pickup Trucks out there.

So my recommendation is to take a pass, even though there needs to be people buying these things so that automakers not only continue to build BEV’s but also improve BEVs.

Buying this car for me would be like buying a pair of shoes that is a half size to small. They may not bother you that much at first but give it a few minutes.

Maybe the GM/Lyft partnership will buy lots of them. Although I doubt that’s going to work well. Right now when you call Uber or Lyft you usually get a pretty nice car. Some of the time you get picked up in a compact car. At least right now the odds are I will get picked up in a bigger car. Add lots of Bolts to Lyft and Uber will be my first choice. Actually that’s not fair, I have never used Lyft. I always use Uber.

If you are  like me have never used Lyft. Use the code DOGFOOD and get up to $20 off your first ride.

If you have never used Uber. Use the code Z4JRI for $20 off your first ride.

And if you still drive a car that has a Internal Combustion Engine make it more environmentally friendly by using Amsoil Synthetic Lubricants. For more information go to www.BDPSYN.com

Thanks for reading. Leave you comments below and make sure you share and like this post with your friends on Facebook and Twitter.

Cult of Tesla (Motors)

In my last post I asked if Detroit should be worried about Tesla and the Tesla 3. I said that it would mostly effect the Germans and the BMW 3 series in particular.

Since I wrote that I have personally met 2 people that have put their money down to reserve a spot for a Tesla 3.

Oddly they are very much like me. They are not luxury car buyers. They don’t spend big bucks on status. They are Toyota and Honda buyers. They drive cars till they fall apart.

What else they have in common is they make 6 figure incomes. They would strongly fit in the category of the millionaire next door. They don’t show wealth, they have it.

Another thing they have in common is they embrace technology. They are the customers that Apple loves.

These are the same people that bought the second generation iPhone and iPad. The one that had shown some usefulness although not as much as today.

Why is this important? Quite frankly, the car doesn’t have to be perfect. The biggest complaint about the iPhone is that as a phone it sucks. Reliability is actually not all that great. Mostly because the network carriers that place the calls but there are bug fixes and software updates all the time.

Well, just like we have learned to tolerate less than perfect reliability from our phones we will allow the same annoyances from our cars. That is if the car is “special”. And the Tesla if anything is special.

Just look at Consumer Reports. In their initial tests the car broke the 100 point barrier. Yet when looking at long term reliability they can no longer recommend the car. Seriously?

You can’t really expect Tesla to compete with a Honda Civic or Toyota Camry. They are basically reliable transportation, but not much fun to drive. They are not as dull as driving a Prius or Yaris but there is no joy in flooring the accelerator on an entry ramp and reaching 60 MPH in 8-10 seconds.

The Tesla can have a few bugs and even need a trip or two to the Tesla version of the Genius Bar every now and then and people will still love it. As Consumer Reports bares out with there less than stellar reliability rating after the initial wow of 100 plus.

As long as the car performs the cool things fairly well people will tolerate a few bugs.

Driving an EV that can do 0-30 faster than almost any ICE car is pretty cool but having an EV that can do 0-60 in six seconds will make that trip to work just that much more fun. Then when you get on the highway having the car do most of the driving for you, how great is that.

Tesla is attacking 3 markets here, Luxury German small sedans, Japanese midsize sedans and Apple. Yes, Apple. This is where all your customers who buy the next upgrade are about to spend their dollars very soon. If Apple wants people to buy their watch they might want to start working on apps that interface with Tesla right away.

I predict that Tesla will follow the trajectory of Apple all the way to where Apple is today.

Apple like Microsoft will write software that runs in most brands of car. Tesla will produce the cars and the software that people who just want a solution that works, most of the time.

I used to build my own computers and spend hours experimenting with the latest modems and graphics cards. Then about 2006 I gave all that up and since I went Mac I never looked back.

My next car will probably be a Bolt or eGolf. My next car after that. A Tesla S when the price hits around $40k, maybe a second generation 3 when it hits $35k with all the bells and whistles.

Just this last year I stopped doing most of my own car repairs. With any luck brakes will be off my list of repairs as well.

I am looking forward to the day that auto mechanics wear lab coats and not overalls.

Coming form a guy who sells Synthetic Motor Oils that says a lot! Amsoil, the next best thing to being oil free.

 

Tesla 3, Should Detroit be scared?

It’s been a little over a month since the Tesla 3 was unveiled and I haven’t posted anything about it till today. Odd for a blog about electric vehicles. After all, Tesla is the EV by which all other EV’s are measured.

Well, for one thing the Tesla 3 is little more than a prototype, just like the Chevy Bolt. Neither car is in production or it’s final form. All we have seen of both is a body and and some basic interior shots. Neither of these cars floats my boat, yet.

But what I find interesting about both these cars is, that while neither is in production both are setting standards for what an EV has to be to appeal to a mass market. Or at least what people think they need to be able to appeal to a mass market.

Let’s look at the supposed needs to make this car appeal to more than just a few early adopters who run out and buy the latest product Apple has to offer.

A car with a range of 200 miles. Why 200 miles. Because that’s about the average range of a gas powered vehicle. The reality though is people don’t drive 200 miles a day. They drive 200 miles between fill ups. That could be 6 hours or 6 days. For most people that’s once or twice a week. Not daily.

Right now most EV’s have a range of 70 miles. 95% of the time that’s really enough. Most people with EV’s plug in every night. Ask your average EV’r and they will tell you they love never having to stop for gas and that the 70 miles they get is more than they need most of the time. While they have a second vehicle in the family the EV gets driven the most and the second car rarely gets used. The person who drives the least drives the ICE car. Maybe once a month it goes for that drive to the long weekend vacation. Maybe.

Currently there are several EV’s like the Ford Focus, Kia Soul and VW eGolf that can do this no problem and for less than $35k. And that brings us to the next holy grail number.

Priced less than $35k. Really, that’s the number that it takes to get people to run out in masse and buy an EV? I think not. That might kill sales of the BMW 3 Series or other German Cars in it’s class but it’s not going to kill sales of the average family sedan.

The average midsize sedan sells more cars in 2 months than BMW sells 3’s in a year. And they sell on average for a lot less than $35k. The top end is $35k. Not everyone buys the most expensive trim level. Most don’t.

The Tesla 3 and the Bolt and all the rest of the EV’s out there with the only exceptions being the Tesla S and X are all compact cars. Tesla 3 will most likely have an edge here as the 3 is on a compact frame but since it was built from the ground up as an EV it will make far better use of the space available.

And now lets talk about the real elephant in the room. Tesla can’t use sales of their big SUV’s and Pick Up Trucks to subsidize the sales of the 3. They will be selling a lot of CAFE credits to the other automakers but they can’t charge $80k for an Escalade and sell a Volt for $10k less than it costs to build. And since we know that very few 3’s are going to roll of the assembly line with zero options just like very few BMW’s roll of the assembly line with zero options just like a BMW 3 the average price of a Tesla 3 will likely top $50k.

Who want’s to drive a compact car cross country? Not me. I really don’t think that many people drive their Tesla’s across the country now. A few just to prove they could and get their video on youtube but really? The Tesla 3 and the rest of the EV’s out there are only going more than 100 miles in day when the person moves from one city to another. Or like my Ford Focus that needed to get from L.A. to Phoenix because it was cheaper and readily available in California.

There is another problem that all automakers are going to have with their EV’s. I don’t care if it’s Tesla, Honda, Nissan or Apple. Not everyone like the way a car looks. To me the Leaf isn’t cute or futuristic, it’s plain ugly. I like the Mazda 6 but I don’t like the way the Mazda 3 looks. Or should I say the Tesla 3 since the same guy designed the Mazda and the Tesla.

I do like the way the Ford Focus and the VW eGolf look. I’ll wait till they have t drop their price to sell their compliance cars that starting next year will get about 110 miles of range. More than enough for 99.9% of what I need.

Will they have autopilot? Probably not. If I want all the killer new tech I might just have to wait and see if Chevy really produces the Bolt in a configuration they have said they will launch with Lyft, the other car service. Maybe the Bolt will save Lyft, or the Lyft will produce a bigger market for the Bolt. I’m not sure how that will work or who it will help.

What I do know for sure is that EV’s are here to stay this time around. Tesla has forced Detroit to take them seriously this time around. People want cars that run on electricity and they want cars that can pretty much drive themselves while we text and read email or Facebook.

While Tesla has close to 400k people on an interest list that have ponied up $1k a piece for the privilege of standing in line hoping to get one they have lit a fire under GM and probably BMW and Mercedes to get their own versions out ASAP.

I have not put $1k on the line to hold my place. I’m counting on one of the other companies to get out there and compete against Tesla that has a dealer network and service centers near my house to get the job done first.

I’m actually betting Audi or VW might beat them to the punch.

I’m not counting Tesla out though. Tesla is going to sell a lot of cars. They are going to be the Apple of the auto industry. They are going to produce a specialty product that lots of people want and can be special for quite a while. They are going to disrupt the usual way of doing business selling cars over the next 20 years. Apple might even catch up to them or buy them one day.

But right now my purchase dollars are not with Tesla. But it took me till 2006 to dump my Windows computers. Now I’m all Apple. Maybe by 2026 I’ll be all in on Tesla. Just not today.

 

Mazda MX-5 ND or Tesla X?

With the release of the new Tesla X why a I writing about the lowly gas powered Mazda MX-5 also known as the Miata?

Well, today I attended a Ride and Drive that Mazda invited me to. I’m not sure how I got on the list but since I own a 1999 Miata and a Mazda 6 as well as having  owned a 2011 Miata the odds are pretty good I’m on a mailing list somewhere.

The event was not well attended. In the 2 days and 12 hours they had about 160 people according to a couple of the employees I asked. BMW gets almost 10 times that number at their Ride and Drive events.

That could be because BMW lets people drive all their cars. The MX-5 has a small but very loyal following.

But the reason I am writing this isn’t because I think the Miata is a great car. It is. What it isn’t is an Electric Car.

Since I have owned my Ford Focus Electric car I am pretty much spoiled. EV’s are a just more fun. If what you want is instant performance and a fun driving experience you really need to go out and test drive one of the many Electric Vehicles out there.

Not a Hybrid like the Prius or Honda Accord where the electric motor is an afterthought but a car where the electric motor is the primary source of power. One where the gas motor, if it has one charges the batteries and you get all that instant torque.

There are quite a few today and many being added in the near future.

While most of us mortals can’t afford a Tesla and it’s Insane Mode along with its insane price there are many EV’s now days for less than 30k and even lest than 25k after tax breaks.

Walk in to your Chevy Dealer and try the Volt. Don’t like Chevrolet. Ford has the C-Max and Fusion Energy as well as the all electric Focus.

BMW. The i8 and i3.

While Volkswagen might not be trustworthy with their diesel technology they do have the eGolf. Maybe they will release their hybrid Golf in the States soon now that they can’t sell their diesels.

In the next few years even with cheap gas people will learn that electric cars are fun. They have lower costs to maintain and 90% of the time you will never burn gas in the Extended Range models.

If you are in the market for a new car give one a try. If you are in the market for a used car many are now hitting the used market and at ver reasonable prices.

Don’t try one because they are the environmentally responsible option. Try one because they are fun. Lots of fun. So much fun I have a Mazda for sale. Maybe two.

My next car will be a Telsa 3, That is unless there is another car make that can make an electric car I really like. Something like a Mazda 6 even a eGolf with a 200 mile range with a 35k or less price tag. At that price I wouldn’t even need a tax break. Just those HOV Plates.

 

Volt headed for the dustbin of automotive history?

“The Chevrolet Volt, meanwhile, seems headed to the dustbin of automotive history, like GM’s original EV-1 and the entire Saturn division.” At least that’s what Alex Taylor, III of Fortune Magazine says. To read the entire article Click Here.

Actually I think he has that part all wrong. While the volt is heavy and slow and pretty much everything else he says about the car, it’s not going away anytime soon as long as GM doesn’t get cold feet.

Yes they stopped making the old Volt and have reduced prices to sell what they have left. That’s what technology companies do. And the Volt is technology as much as it is car.

But where the next Volt will succeed, it will not be in beating out the Tesla, because sorry folks, it’s no Tesla. What it is, a Prius Killer. That’s right, you heard it here first. Why spend $30k for a Prius Plug In that can go a whopping (sarcasm) 11 miles on the battery before you need to plug back in. And then it gets the same gas milage as a regular Prius, about 50 MPG.

The 2015 Volt gets 38 all electric miles while the 2016 is projected to get 50 miles on a single charge. That’s enough so most people will rarely if ever put gas in it. I should know. I currently drive a Ford Focus EV and rarely do I drive more than 50 miles in a day and I hardly ever drive more than the average 80 mile range.

Sorry but Toyota better watch out. And Tesla, they aren’t even in the sub $50k market, at least not yet.

This is a place where thanks to Tesla American Car Manufactures have the potential to really shine.

Toyota is betting that Hydrogen is the next big thing. Wrong. That’s why the Prius doesn’t get better, only bigger (Prius V) and Smaller (Prius C). They gave up on the Rav 4 EV. A car loved by almost everybody that has one. I know 3 people that have them. Sadly that’s actually a lot of people to know with an electric car. Two of them cut their EV teeth with a Nissan Leaf and one still has his.

The Prius is pretty much everything Alex Taylor, III says about the Volt. Heavy, drives like a washing machine. My mother has a Prius. I like riding in the back seat a lot more than I like driving it. Maybe that’s why cabbies or at least their passengers like them. (Edit) And as one person who read my post stated. The Volt is very responsive from 0-30 MPH. Actually most EV’s are. It’s fun to beat most cars from 0 to the posted speed limit of 45 or less. Be careful though.  You would be surprised how many kids in a Camaro or Mustang don’t like that.

By the way, I said the Prius was slow and heavy, Alex Taylor, III said the Volt was slow and heavy.

Tesla will continue to build the “BMW” of electric cars, at least as long as BMW keeps building half ass EV’s like the i8 and i3. Cool but not Tesla cool. Both way to expensive for mere mortals.

The Ford Focus EV is the only real EV Ford makes and it’s just a compliance car. Try to buy one out of a Compliance State and you will come up empty. The rest of the Fords are just Hybrids and Plug Ins and no better than Toyota. They need to redesign the Focus so the batteries don’t take up all the cargo space. Maybe they should ask Tesla for some help. The battery pack, the rear view mirror (needs HomeLink) and no moonroof are my only complaints. And that’s only because when my son farts in the car I have to roll down the windows to get fresh air.

Sorry Alex, The Volt is a great car technologically and is getting better in the next model. Greater range, both gas and electric. 5 seats instead of 4 and some more advanced driving safety options as well.

And, I almost forgot the best part. The price. It’s going to have a sub 30k price tag after the tax credit. That puts it smack dab in Prius territory. If you have ever talked to a Volt owner they rarely ever use the gas engine.

Right now I own one American Car. The Focus EV. While it’s heavy it’s actually fun to drive.  If the Volt handles as well and is as nice inside as my 2015 Mazda 6 I will without a doubt consider putting the Mazda to the curb and I love the car. It is everything Car and Driver says it is. Actually it would be really nice if it could have a Tesla conversion. Elon? The Volt may just do it. Make me want to sell my Mazda.

Then the only car to get rid of is the Honda Pilot my wife drives. The 18MPG wonder. With gas prices headed back up and global warming becoming more of a reality every day Honda better hope Elon doesn’t figure out how to make a sub $50k SUV.

Americans may have finally figured it out. Nissan may be the Japanese’s best and only hope. They have sold the most EV’s of anyone. And they are actually really good as well. They are just to expensive still.

The Volt is here to stay. If not we will be stuck with Pri-i. Is that what you call more than one Prius?

Remember when the German’s bombed Pearl Harbor?

 

Boy was I wrong says the USA Today

The other day I posted about how Americans wont be fooled again, buying gas guzzling SUV’s because fuel prices are at a relative historic low, as are wages.

But instead of being proven right I read an article just days later that we are not buying hybrids or high gas milage vehicles but once again the sales of SUV’s are on the rise in the  April 22 USA Today “Earth Day or not, hybrids take a hit”.

The article states that many electric or hybrid owners are less likely to trade their current vehicles in for another hybrid but would get an SUV instead.

The article goes on to say that “For better or worse, it looks like many hybrid and EV owners are driven more by financial motives rather than a responsibility to the environment,” says edmunds.com Director of Industry Analysis.

Although the impact on the environment does have a cost though we choose not to quantify it. It’s an unaccounted for externality that makes the Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) Vehicles look cheaper than they actually are.

I question who the sample size or who these vehicle owners are.  Just a look around the streets and highways of Phoenix, Arizona (where I live) you will see lots of hybrids. And many of those are older cars from the first generation Prius as well.

From the looks of things, hybrid owners don’t replace their cars that often. In the last year, as well, I have seen many new model (2014+) hybrids on the road. My mother just bought one, a 2015 Prius V. So in my opinion, any car company that forgoes hybrids and BEV’s or PHEV’s and builds lots of SUV’s is doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past that allowed Japanese car makers to take much of the US market share that they retain to this day.

As long as car makers let fuel prices decide what they build instead of sound long term strategies the shortsighted idea of current fuel prices staying low forever will lead car makers off the cliff of bankruptcy over and over.

Efficient cars should lead fuel prices lower instead of low fuel prices leading to cars that consume more fuel which has historically lead to higher fuel prices.

Innovation leads to success. Henry Ford was an auto industry innovator. Maybe the last one. Why? Because many of the innovations of the auto industry in the last 50 years were forced on them by regulation. Seat Belts, MPG requirements just to name a couple biggies. For the most part the auto industry is like your grand parents. Dragged into the next century kicking and screaming if they don’t die first.

The article also states that GM has temporarily halted production of the Volt. Well, considering they announced that next year they will have the Volt 2.0 that’s going to be significantly better, who’s going to pay full price for last years technology. They might as well keep dropping the price till the last buyer wants it so cheap it makes more sense to donate them to a charity for the tax break.

People who can pay full price for an iPhone don’t go running out once the timeframe for the new iPhone is near. Which is why Steve Jobs kept the next big thing a big secret till it was ready for sale.

And while car dealers give rebates and incentives on last years model all the time cars like the Volt will be much more sensitive to new model announcements. Many of the people buying these cars want the latest and greatest tech. This will also become more common on all cars as things like blind spot monitoring, adaptive cruise control and a host of many other technologies become more prevalent in cars of all trim levels.

The USA Today article also talks about dismal sales of Plug in Toyota hybrids being down 61%. That might have something to do with the fact that it’s hard to find one on a dealers lot if you don’t live in a CARB State.

Toyota only sold their Rav4 EV in California. Yet I personally know 3 people who bought one and brought it back to Arizona. They love that SUV. Even though it’s sort of a bastardized RAV4.

Honda only sold their Fit EV in AZ for a very short time and then only leased them. And then discontinued making then shortly there after.

I’m not sure car dealers like EV’s much, especially BEV’s as they require so little maintenance. A large profit center for dealers.

When I was car shopping with my mother earlier this year their were no plug in Prius’s to be found in Arizona. How can someone buy one when dealers don’t have them to sell?

And when I went shopping for my Ford Focus Electric (FFE), you couldn’t find any of those in Arizona either. At least  The dealers sold them all 20 minutes after they hit the lot. I had to go to California to buy mine. And the economics made sense. And they still make sense as gas prices are actually 15% higher than the day I bought it. The price of gas would have to go to 70 cents a gallon to equal the price of electricity per mile. And since most of the electricity produced at night is from nuclear the amount of carbon per mile is much lower.

The tags in AZ for the equivalent Ford Focus are $500 for the first year. The cost of the tags for my Focus, $60 for 5 years. Access to the HOV lane. I would say you can’t put a price on that but you actually can. There are people who can no longer get a HOV access plate with a new hybrid car who are leasing plates from prior Prius owners for $1000 per year.

If people are buying SUV’s and trading in their hybrids it has nothing to do with the economics. It has more to do with the emotions.

Hybrids for the most part are pretty boring and very utilitarian. The Toyota Prius does make a great Taxicab though. It has a very large back seat with lots of legroom.

The fact that hybrids are so boring is why Tesla is so successful. Their cars, while quite expensive are actually fun to drive. They don’t handle like a box truck. They aren’t the bottom of the line trim levels. But the VW Golf E, The Kia Soul E and Ford Focus E are actually very nice cars as well and at the top trim levels can be had for less than 30k after the tax credit.

Had Ford not dropped the price of the FFE to 32k and the dealer not also dropped another 2k off the price I would have probably bought a Volkswagen Golf Electric. Another car maker who chose to go top of the line trim instead of bottom of the line trim. Just like the FFE. That’s what swayed me away from the Leaf. In order to have the price make sense the only Leaf would have been the S or bottom trim level.

One other thing car makers need to do, not just in their EV vehicles but all vehicles is stop selling expensive Nav packages with old useless tech. Almost everybody today has a smartphone. All they need to do is put the necessary interfaces for people to use their smartphones. At least Tesla chose to make their tech an improvement on current display tech vs using 3 or 4 year old tech in the average new car.

Like 15 or 20 years ago nobody new they wanted let alone needed a smartphone and that they would become as ubiquitous as watches were just 20-70 years ago. In 10-20 years the Electric Vehicle that primarily drives itself, will be the new iPhone. All it takes is some leadership and vision from an industry that has a dismal track record of predicting the future.

Elon Musk will be seen as the next Steve Jobs but just like Apple it took companies like Google, Samsung and LG to join in on the road to the future we now know. Maybe it’s time those companies take their huge stockpiles of cash and start building cars while the current car companies fade into the sunset and stop perpetuating the myth that bring hydrocarbons is good for the planet.

While GM got it’s bailout, like Chrysler before it, this will probably not be the last time we see a big automaker in need of a financial lifeline. It’s time they stopped being pretending to be experts. The last thing they need to do is build the next Hummer. If they can’t lead they need to follow or just get the hell out of the way.

This time if we support innovators with the bailout money instead we can transform our society into the future sooner rather than later.