Cars We Drive!

[Jr Mouse]

Can we not do the 'hidden door handle' thing though?

Less drag that way so it helps with range. I'm sure if they could get rid of the side mirrors they would.

 

[Jr Mouse]

Me likey.

The more I look at the R3 the more I like it. Great looking little SUV/crossover. Smart play since the R2 feels more traditional in design.

I’m curious about what price point they will hit. If the R2 is 45k then I suspect the R3 will be under 40k. Hit 38k and it’s a direct shot at the Model 3.

 

[sugarbutch]

City is trying to eminent domain PG&E which, as bad as SF government is at everything, would likely still be an improvement. We are already getting our energy from the city (which is both cleaner than the regular PG&E grid and saves us a few pennies / kw hr).

I think the tl;dr is that it would let us avoid the tree-trimming and fire tax that is a big drive of electricity costs right now. There is a lot happening in this space right now. PG&E is trying to pass through another big increase and the state passed a law in 2022 to allow utilities to charge high fixed charges based on income (which is likely to create improper incentives around usage). Of course, I wouldn't put it past SF to do something even worse if they do take over.


These are "real world" numbers, so they already haircut what Tesla represents. Tesla doesn't come close to what they claim, but they are still very efficient. I don't follow Lucid as closely, but I think they do a pretty good job as well. Rivian's have quite a few blockers on efficiency (blocky styling, high ground clearance, frequently AT tires) but I think the core EV platform is also just less efficient right now. Hopefully with the innovation in R2, they will close the gap some.

SFPUC is actually a competent agency, so I don't have much concern that the otherwise dysfunctional government would ruin things.

Gonna get told to CE this ****, but good luck getting cheaper power by nationalizing the utility here...PG&E already shed as much legacy cost as they could through bankruptcy, but they are still on the hook for future wildfires which means high avoidance/prevention costs combined with high wholesale power costs. If nationalized, those costs don't go away and if you artificially push down costs you are just going to end up making it up with more taxes.

Maybe SF could do what UnF said and screw their neighbors over by breaking free of all the costs of having to deliver to people in high fire-threat zones, but I doubt that's gonna fly with the CPUC and state government as everyone outside of the cities would get screwed and have incredibly unaffordable power.
(Which maybe isn't a bad thing--don't live in remote fire-prone areas if you can't afford to pay the costs...but that's not a politically popular opinion)

Or I suppose there's a world where the government takes over everywhere and then decides to just shirk responsibility for future wildfires (because they are the government and can presumably pass laws that say they can't be held accountable like police sovereign immunity).
Then they can cut costs a lot by simply saying "too bad, you should have had more insurance" to anyone who is harmed...and maybe also cut fire prevention costs because they lose the big incentive.
But that again screws everyone in fire risk areas--now they definitely can't afford insurance and they'll get nothing if their area burns.

CA's electricity market is effed and they are nowhere close to meeting their own demand. I think the real answer is to build some more nukes...instead they are taking them offline because social pressure and renewable mandates made them unsustainable.

Charge all those EVs overnight with base load nukes. Heck, pay people who don't need their cars every day to backfeed energy into the grid to help meet peak demand rather than spinning up the natural-gas peaker plants.

Honestly, I don't think anyone in SF really cares about the red portions of the state which vote against their own interests. And, as noted, our departure from the PG&E universe wouldn't really affect them much.

 

[venividivicibj]

Less drag that way so it helps with range. I'm sure if they could get rid of the side mirrors they would.

C’mon, how much drag are you getting from a door handle

 

[sugarbutch]

C’mon, how much drag are you getting from a door handl

https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/abs/10.2514/6.2014-2013

 

[brokencycle]

https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/abs/10.2514/6.2014-2013

I can't see the conclusion, but I have to imagine going to smaller wheels would be much more effective than doorhandles.

 

[sugarbutch]

I can't see the conclusion, but I have to imagine going to smaller wheels would be much more effective than doorhandles.

BMW agrees with you, so they made the i3 with tall, skinny wheels. But car designers and buyers seem to have decided that giant wheels and tires are stylistically desirable, so...

 

[Jr Mouse]

Good interview. If you are interested in the R2 and R3 it’s worth a watch.

 

[Jr Mouse]

BMW agrees with you, so they made the i3 with tall, skinny wheels. But car designers and buyers seem to have decided that giant wheels and tires are stylistically desirable, so...

And most buyers don’t care about flat door handles. So they are optimizing what the market will tolerate.

 

[Jr Mouse]

I know rooftop tents have been around for a while but I like seeing mar makers release ones with high level of integration to their vehicles. Supposedly this one pulls power from the car to have a heated floor.

 

[venividivicibj]

Ramuman : Tesla
Jr Mouse : Rivian

??

 

[Texasmade]

Ramuman : Tesla
Jr Mouse : Rivian

??

Piob : Volvo

 

[brokencycle]

It seems like Mouse is dumping AOC for Rivian.

 

[patrick_b]

I know rooftop tents have been around for a while but I like seeing mar makers release ones with high level of integration to their vehicles. Supposedly this one pulls power from the car to have a heated floor.

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I can't get the MK II GTI out of my head after seeing that pic that @otc posted. Even that color is vintage early 90's.

 

[otc]

I haven’t looked at the dimensions, but I wish it actually were “hot hatch” sized. But it is

I know rooftop tents have been around for a while but I like seeing mar makers release ones with high level of integration to their vehicles. Supposedly this one pulls power from the car to have a heated floor.

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did they design their own bike rack? I like the look of it

edit: yeah, they did. And it attaches directly to the car instead of to a hitch receiver.

On one hand...probably real nice and optimized for convenient use/install. On the other hand, there's something nice about the universal attachment of a receiver mount...especially for an accessory that can last through MANY cars like my 1up hitch rack.

It is actually 2 independent pieces which would probably make it much easier for smaller/weaker people to install/remove:

My 1up is on the light side for 2-bike wheel tray style racks and I doubt my wife could ever install/remove it.