Locator: 48593EVS.
Biden, Harris, Trump will put a stop to Chinese EV imports.
From the linked article, the lede:
Jim Farley had just returned from China. What the Ford Motor chief executive found during the May visit made him anxious: The local automakers were pulling away in the electric-vehicle race.In an early-morning call with fellow board member John Thornton, an exasperated Farley unloaded.The Chinese carmakers are moving at light speed, he told Thornton, a former Goldman Sachs executive who spent years as a senior banker in China. They are using artificial intelligence and other tech in cars that is unlike anything available in the U.S. These Chinese EV makers are using a low-cost supply base to undercut the competition on price, offering slick digital features and aggressively expanding to overseas markets.“John, this is an existential threat,” Farley said.For years, Tesla was the main source of consternation for auto CEOs trying to tackle a transition to electric vehicles. Now, it is the rapid rise of nimble automakers in China that have rattled executives from Detroit to Germany and Japan. Even Tesla’s Elon Musk recently called the Chinese the “most competitive” carmakers in the world.
I think the entire EV story is fascinating.
I found the closing paragraphs intriguing.
Farley and Field huddled around a laptop, looking at a spreadsheet of line items for the future midsize electric pickup. The goal: figure out how to extract $800 in cost.The team had overachieved on the driving range by 16 miles, Field explained, which meant they could wring out about $500 by shrinking the battery. Finding the rest of the savings would be a slog. Would it really need a heated steering wheel? Maybe the front trunk was expendable, one of the execs suggested.Before long, Farley worried aloud that they might be cutting too many corners, and that “the product could end up being really sh—y.” He suggested to Field an informal process: How about they slap sticky notes all over the prototype to hash out what should go?
In an age of ChaptGPT and OpenAI, the best and the brightest are using yellow stickies.
But most intriguing -- "the team had overachieved on the driving range by 16 miles" which means they could "wring out about $500 by shrinking the battery."
$70,000 vehicles and they're talking a cost savings of $500 by shrinking the battery. Say what?
But worse, seeming to get excited by increasing the battery range by 16 miles. Really?
The one thing that EV auto manufacturers will never be able to undo: the fact that EVs are tethered vehicles.
*****************************
Top Ten Reasons To Avoid The EV
Top ten:
- a solution to a problem that doesn't exist
- tethered vehicle
- tethered vehicle
- tethered vehicle
- tethered vehicle
- tethered vehicle
- too expensive
- infrastructure lacking (possibly getting worse, not improving)
- 40% of Americans live in apartments
- don't understand the technology
"Range anxiety" doesn't make the top ten list.
How to market EVs:
- extremely fun to drive
- comprehensive entertainment package
- CarPlay
- Sirius
- Apple GUI
- sporty; really sporty
- iPhone 16 part of the overall package at no extra cost
- free maintenance for ten years
- ten-year all-inclusive warranty
- insurance coverage provided by dealer
- fast charging installation to be provided by dealer
- never mention:
- cost
- range
- electricity
- batteries
Make the EV a must-have sports car. Money is not an issue. Exhibit A.
It needs to be the entire package: EV auto manufacturers are not just selling a tethered vehicle; they’re also selling “lifestyle,” for lack of a better word.The folks buying $100,000 Cybertrucks don't care about pesky details like range, infrastructure -- they are into a “lifestyle”: they see and want to be seen. They want a swag bag with their EV.
This is the EV swag bag:
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.