Bit of an interesting discussion here between Kyle from Our of Spec and Chris from Battery Life about the "new" ID.3
If you skip to around 28 mins, they get into a bit of a chat about VW as a company, and German brands in general
Their basic complaint is how they're so slow to change anything that it takes years to cycle through the smallest updates. It's likely the updated ID.3 began development in 2020 and has taken this long to bring to market, and doesn't have the updated motor or infotainment (which seems a massive improvement overall)
The question is, why not wait 6 months and get the same updates as the ID.4? And the answer unfortunately seems to be that if they waited, they'd lose something like a year or more because they'd have to reset the whole release process
One interesting point was the ID.7 designers wanted to change more but it was blocked because it would take "too long" to develop (we're talking about changing the buttons on the steering wheel btw)
This is really something that's going to kill the German brands in particular. There seems to be a group of people in VW who really want to change things up and bring the cars to their full potential, but are being held back by a totally risk averse management system
While I do like a safety first approach when it comes to development of a car, and I'm not a huge fan of brands like Tesla constantly needing to reinvent everything (no indicator stalks 🙄), VW are taking it to the opposite extreme and are far too conservative in their responsiveness to issues
Stating the obvious, but building cars is hard.
tesla talk a great game, but take the same amount of time as everyone else to deliver models - years.
there’s a great recent book written by the Irish guy David Twohig who worked all across the industry including delivering the Qashqai for Nissan, called Inside the Machine. He goes into great detail on the many commercial trade-offs involved in a car for years before announcement, and also feedback to suppliers about improved tolerances as manufacturing goes ahead.
you always hear stories about not buying the new model in the first months after launch while they iron things out - this is exactly what happens
Fisker is fairly niche though, the TVR Griffith is another.
a large manufacturer has never taken deposits this size for a car and delivered nothing.
Tesla knew when they took a non refundable deposit that they were years away from delivery, albeit probably not THIS long 💤💤.
in 2017 they rolled a working concept off a semi and even did ride-alongs afterwards.
in 2017 they rolled a working concept off a semi and even did ride-alongs afterwards
Musk has said it himself making prototypes is easy, but putting them into production is extremely hard…
It might also have something to do with Henrik Fisker being a bit of a scam artist and the first company to bear the name Fisker going down in flames years ago
I think the issue with the Roadster is that nobody is working on it, or at least not enough people to get it to production.
It's never going to be high volume and will be expensive as hell. So it isn't like you need to focus hard on design for manufacturing or meet tight cost targets
There just seems to always be a bigger priority, and something like the Model Y or Semi is going to make way more money for Tesla in the long run, so it doesn't make sense to invest the resources in the Roadster
Absolutely true, it's relatively simple to make a car that looks cool and can drive around a bit.
It takes a lot more to take that design to something with realistic specs, can be manufactured cheaply and is safe and reliable
And once you have that done it needs to go through a whole bunch of safety and compliance testing until it's ready for market
And once THAT is done, you need to build the thing and get it to customers
This was the very painful process Tesla went through, and probably the last time Musk was likeable because he seemed to be genuinely invested in the production ramp, often pulling all nighters in the factory
It kept him off Twitter as well which was probably a plus 😂
And Tesla only produce 2 cars at the moment (plus 2 in very small numbers that are not much more than halo cars at this stage)
Veering off topic for a moment, one of my favourite EV news sites, Electrive, seems to have undergone a bit of a remodelling
I hope I'm looking at the unfinished product because I absolutely hate the new look 😂
That looks like one of those stock CSS themes that used to be popular around 2012.
My own view is that the cybertruck will be a US only (relatively) niche model.
tesla saying nothing as usual, but there’s almost no chance it’ll be homologised for EU roads, the Chinese don’t drive monster trucks, and the rest of the world would have to pay a fortune to import it.
wrapping them will be very popular, given that the whole car is a fingerprint and scratch magnet.
id also predict that they’ll depreciate like a rock because the bodywork will look very raggy once a few years old.
Yeah it's got a very "work in progress" look to it
They only took the site down yesterday, so they're probably not done
Particularly since all the dates are in German. I'm all for internationalisation, but my morning brain can barely understand English 😂
Why would you call him a scam artist? Fisker has clearly learnt lessons and hence have outsourced their production of the Ocean SUV to third party manufacturer Manga Styer. Smart move from a quality point of view considering Manga's plant is Austria they currently build Jaguar iPace & e-Pace, BMW 5 series & Z4, Toyota GR Supra & Merc G-Class.
I like what Fisker are doing, but it is still too early to tell if they will be successful. Still very low production numbers, however they did report to increase production from 180 cars to 300 cars per in Q4. The question will be though if they are successful in building a brand, how do you scale production up.
Agreed, I certainly wouldn’t call Fisker’s early attempt to build and deliver the Karma to be a scam. They actually delivered a product, but were probably underfunded, early to the market (and the product quality was v poor).
this is the man who designed the bmw z8 and the Aston Martin DB9
Not a new idea, but kinda makes sense at a taxi rank
Exact same thing happened me about 8 weeks back
LoL thats your post I think, I just used it as an example of the real world,
Since all that, I have seen 3 more posts, of cars queuing, chargers down etc.
My one at home is always available 😉
I always wondered could EVs be powered off green diesel. Looks like a granny cable, that took a while ..
I think someone in the US was selling a generator with a built in 3.6kW EV charger
It was aimed for breakdown recovery I think
It'd be a lot more useful over there since their granny cables are at 110V so need 20A to work properly
You can buy that whole set up in one package, I forget the name of them.
Embarrassing for a 50 k spend.
You can get granny cables with large blue plugs that charge at 7kW. I think this used to come as standard with Teslas.
The UMC charger is capable but they don't give you the connector as standard, needs to be ordered separately.
Lets ignore the cost of generator or the 7kw chargepoint.. that works with it.
Whats cheaper per kwh.. green diesel or public charging.
Green diesel is about 1.10 a litre, about 10kwh/l efficiency is about 40% so for every litre you get 4 kwh of electric out., 27.5c/kwh... thats cheaper than day rate right now :O
Setup is ridiculous, far cheaper to buy a 10kWh batterypack with a 3.6kW outlet and have it in the back of a van. Charge it up cheaply at night too.
and throw a cheeky 1kWp system on the roof of the van too....
Is it possible this was just a once-off solution to get enough kWh into a stranded EV so that they could make it home/to a charging station?
LoL same guys that would laugh at hauling around a 10 kWh battery in a phev thats used everyday, now want a diesel van to haul one around for one or 2 times a year.
Solar panels, funny.
A lesson was learned, its unlikely to be repeated.
Well in a trailer then if you only need it sometimes. Smaller, lighter and cheaper setup than one with that diesel genny. And if that's indeed all the trailer is ever used for, might as well stick up a few panels, so that battery is always topped up.
Prove it, not some homemade job either,
I still find it laughable hauling around a truly dead weight being recommended by people who would spare no sympathy nor understanding of others wanting to avoid such a scenario.
Ignoring the wait for the van to come and the embarrassment of a diesel generator charging a car.
Tell you what, I could build one for 3k, possibly would fit on a handcart, from off the shelf parts,
One of them Seplos battery sets from frogstar, 3kw 48V inverter, and then throw in a 58V recifier to charge it., Portable 14kwh ish battery pack.
Damn, That would be better than a generator any day, For anything Id need to do.
Or just hire something pre assembled and certified for a fraction of the cost.
The telephone number is on the genset.
Laughable.
