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Aiming To Beat Tesla's "3", Chevy Tests and Teases a Cheaper 200-Mile Electric Car
PC Magazine is one of many to note Chevrolet's upcoming effort to beat Tesla's Model 3 to market with a car that is "affordable" (a lot more affordable than the Model S) but which tops the 200-mile range that right now only Tesla beats in a widely available pure electric car. The Model 3 is expected to feature many of the features of the currently Tesla S variants, but in a smaller package and with a much lower price tag. The linked article features GM-supplied video of Chevy's all-elecric bolt, about which it says The car maker doesn't reveal much beyond what we already know: 200-plus-mile range and a starting price tag of $30,000. The video shows various Chevy engineers putting the camouflage-wrapped Bolt EV through its paces—climbing hills, accelerating, and coming to a stop, as well as enduring extreme heat and charging.
Like most low end Chevy vehicles it'll probably be a complete shame and do the meaning of the word 'electric', that Tesla has worked so hard to craft prestige into, a disservice. 200 miles isn't enough. People will walk away from electric like they walked away from Atari going 'huh, video games are dumb'.
which tops the 200-mile range
Sounds to me like Chevy is picking a range that they can beat, rather than competing with the Tesla. I have a friend with one and it's range is a little better than 280 miles on a full charge. And believe me, on a long trip that difference is critical. He's done several trips (and I've been on one with him) where a 200 mile range just wouldn't have cut it. But if you can't match the Tesla's range, I guess the next best thing is to pick a lower number and call the Tesla's range "over" that so that you can claim to be over that new lower number too.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
ask yourself in what way Bolt can compete with BMW?
I tell you what, if you ever, in your entire life, see a BMW with Vermont plates driving at less than 30 mph over the speed limit, you will know that the world is coming to an end. It's not hard to compete with a brand that brands you as an asswipe driver.
There's no way it can compete with Tesla M3 on equal ground.
Sure they can, they have about 100x the manufacturing capability of Tesla. They have dealers and showrooms and distribution already set up all over the planet. If the market takes off they are MUCH better positioned to get cars made and distributed and sold and supported than a company with basically no distribution network and no dealers.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2015/05/04/new-car-transaction-price-3-kbb-kelley-blue-book/26690191/
"The estimated average transaction price of a new car or truck sold in the U.S. in April was $33,560"
Stop bitching about "expensive" electric cars. These new models from Chevy and Tesla are pretty much the same price as the old fashioned gasoline burning, fume belching models.
Slightly snarky but true: a lot of cities have special provisions for cars/vehicles that don't exceed 35mph and are banned from highways. They look like overgrown golf carts. There's a taxi service here in Dallas that operates a fleet of electric golf carts that seat between six and nine people, and a couple of bars in the Clear Lake (distant costal suburb of Houston) that operate a private (and free) electric car taxi service.
With a battery pack cosing about $7000 still, I don't think you can expect to make a highway legal chassis for $3000 with engine and tires. $10,000 is a nice round number but inflation is a thing so that number is probably closer to $12,000-15,000.
moox. for a new generation.
you cant buy a crapbox with no options for 10K anymore. with all the federal safety regulations its not possible anymore
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
And that's why there are no longer foreign cars sold in the US.
The Ranger's not sold in the US because Ford closed the Minnesota plant where they built them and decided not to sell them in the US and the market for small pickups has tanked. Has nothing to do with "rules".
http://news.pickuptrucks.com/2...
http://www.fool.com/investing/...
You are welcome on my lawn.
Got a link for a bar in Clear Lake with a private electric taxi service? Clear Lake is not a "distant coastal suburb of Houston." It is not coastal and is within the city limits of Houston.
I like what Musk is doing. But this just smacks of something akin to Apple's reality distortion field. The article is ostensibly about the Chevy Bolt EV. But it spends half the text talking about the Tesla Model 3 without actually saying anything new about it.
GM has too many cars, but many of the cars they have are good and sellling well. Having many models is a winning strategy for BMW, which builds the many models out of pieces of other models; and it's going to be an even better strategy for them going forwards if they adopt the i3's construction methods for more of their low-production vehicles. Using their particular method of using carbon fiber is less expensive than typical processes (it saves less weight too, but still saves most of it) but eliminates most of the tooling costs. For limited production runs (like the i3) eliminating the tooling needed to stamp sheet metal panels saves hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Right now, Chevy has the Cruze, Sonic, Spark, Impala, and Malibu cars at a time when car sales are declining and crossover sales continue to rise. That is probably too many cars for a struggling (if venerable) marque to sustain while also marketing the Bolt and the Volt (ugh.)
With that said, the Bolt and the Volt are two of the most interesting cars on or near the road at the moment — not from an enthusiast standpoint, but from a sales standpoint. "Everybody" is interested in high-mileage EVs for low money, and the Volt is the hybrid of the hour. But Chevy's model strategy still seems a little confused.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Given the EV1s apparently cost over $100k each, everyone who leased one for a fraction of its value sure should have loved it.
This looks like just another sucky electric car that costs more than a Civic and all the fuel the Civic will ever burn.
I doubt it. That's what people like to say about the Volt - that it is a Cruze with an electric motor. Except that's not true at all. The Volt is much more luxurious ride and is better appointed than a Cruze. I suspect the Bolt will be similar.
I don't always use unix-like operating systems; but when I do, I prefer FreeBSD.
However, having the gasoline engine means no range anxiety, so while the Leaf and the Tesla owner are back at home switching cars, the Volt is on the highway for a long trip.
The gasoline engine adds a lot of weight, complexity, and cost. If eliminating it can take a Volt's ~30 miles of range up to 100 miles without increasing the cost by substituting a bigger battery instead of the engine, while you still can't take it on a highway trip, that's 3 times the range for pure electric(IE avoiding the cost of gasoline) for running around town.
Besides, the vast majority of EV buyers are multiple car homes - they're not taking the volt on a road trip, they're taking something even more 'suitable' from the prospects of comfort, cargo capacity, etc... In my area it'd probably be a crew-cab F250.
I don't read AC A human right
People that believe in Apple's reality distortion field are the kind of people that fall for perpetual motion machines.
If Apple didn't actually deliver devices that people love, they wouldn't be able to continue to be the most popular brand of smartphones whilst charging a significant premium.
The so called RDF Is a simply a trustworthy brand. A brand is a promise of quality, and even though they aren't perfect, they do deliver better quality than any other manufacturer. They deliver on their promise. They beat all other companies in customer satisfaction surveys year in year out.
Tesla was a pioneer in the field of "electric cards that are not grocery getters", so it's reasonable that every other company is compared to them. BTW, the article doesn't mention whether the new GM vehicle can use Tesla's network of "superchargers". And if they can, will the pricing scheme be the same for GM owners (compared to Tesla owners). Musk built an infrastructure advantage for Tesla, which traditional carmakers will struggle to beat.