I like the look of the Slate truck, but ai fear it is becoming vaporware.

No, because poor people won't pay in advance for a car that is "coming next year" (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026, 2027...?)

I visited a friend in australia who can finally afford a brand new car on a funeral assistant's wage because of how cheap chinese EVs are. Even has in-seat massagers.

X.I.T.T. (you know the pronunciation)

You see, Europeans cannot have the Cybertruck. Americans cannot have the R5.
I can live with that, but then, I am European.

They also won't sell it in Australia

Europe's loss really though, euro cars sell well here but since you refuse to sell us the EV versions, China is already taking over and Euro cars are already on the back foot, I don't think they'll ever gain the marketshare they had either.

We need to make it ourselves

Was anyone driving that car or was it just a remote controlled shell with compressed air thrusters?

Remote control (EDIT: Pre-scripted, no driver. Think Boston Dynamics dance videos). Imagine the shitshow if there was someone there and the Cybertruck-reveal level of preparedness played out on live broadcast.

Thought so. Let's see Elon showcase this himself, on an actual road.

Those new idiot sized cars surely are good for funeral business

Some chinese EV actually come in fun size. Like Geely EX2 and Wuling Binguo, it's about the size of Ford Fiesta but round, and BYD Seal is a midsized sedan similarly to the Accord. Unfortunately, most EV tend to be SUV for some reason, so the fault is not solely on Chinese EV.

I am not Renault. I have no idea why they are not selling it in the US or Australia. It is very well possible that they already have given up Australia against the Chinese. The "Made in Europe" argument certainly has less weight there than in Europe. Like I said, I am not sitting in the strategy meetings of Renault but if I had to guess they are choosing their retreat battles already.

They said it's coming out on 2028 this time, so maybe this time instead of "next year" it would be "2 years later".

Yeah it's not just Chinese EVs, just almost all that are on the streets

And they're not like SUVs, but more like oversized hatchbacks

Does that mean it's 50% more likely or less likely to come out next decade?

What are you talking about? SpaceX's COPVs are famously reliable! Nothing could possibly go wrong!

Nah I'm good. I don't want a klanborghini from him.

Nazi ?

USA bans affordable EVs, no Chinese EVs even though iPhones are made in China https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czx17361pw1o

Compact SUV, i guess. It's still too big for my liking. There's also a lot of jeep-type EV (iCar) on the road now.

Batteries are expensive. Tesla had the best value EV for a long time until alternatives with real buttons and no nazis came along so this is a weird one.

That's Chinas job

Don't know why, but nazis were spraying swastikas on teslas, along with "trans rights" slogans. US is a weird place

Wuling Binguo

Surely that can't be a real name

Renault had seemingly given up on hatchbacks for the Aussie market, it feels like only a few years ago the Megane and Clio were all over our roads.

I can’t particularly blame them, though. We have something like ~5% of the population of Europe in about the same landmass, our regulations (ADRs) quite onerous, we drive on the other side of the road compared to continental Europe, and the logistical costs of sending a finished vehicle from Europe to Oceania makes it quite difficult to compete economically against Chinese, Korean and Japanese brands.

I say this as someone heartbroken, who absolutely adores the designs of European marques like Peugeot, Renault, Alfa Romeo, Abarth and Citroen - they are all undeniably cool.

I would have loved this in 2018ish when I still thought Musk was cool and flying cars were a good idea.

This is still cool tech, I just hope to never see one flying around outside of very specific controlled situations with professional pilots.

Did you mean "an actual cliff on a very windy day during a thunderstorm while a pack of seagulls crashes into his windshield"?

(Edit: Sorry Seagulls, but it was for a good cause!)

I choose to believe you are Renault's corporate personhood! (obviously you're not)

Also you'd be surprised how much weight 'made in europe' carries still.

Funny name for funny car

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuling_Binguo

I am the opposite of a Tesla fan but when you can live with all the nonsense (no proper door handles, no real buttons, being forced to do all stuff on a tacked on iPad style panel taking eyes of the street ...), their two models they sell in Europe are still strong options when all you care about is km range/EUR and efficiency. That is likely also the reason why they still sell non-zero numbers of those. It is certainly not for the "coolness" of the brand.

That said, the Hyundai Ioniq 3 has dethroned the Tesla 3 even on the cost effective range criterion and it comes with real buttons, door handles etc and a still very practical 491 km range WLTP, at 33k EUR.

Don't ever by a brand new car that is fresh of the production line. That is the biggest decrease of value you could do with your money.

If you absolutely have to own a shiny new thing then buy yourself a car that is 6-12 months old. You will get the same "new car feeling" but you will save a lot of money.

Yeah. I have an ioniq 6 so am pretty on board with those

This is always what I hear, but the average American drives less than 40 miles a day. I don’t get why no one makes an EV with a small battery and ~100 mile range? It would meet the daily needs of most Americans and have like 70% less battery

No it’s not. It’s a fucking Rocket thruster variant. It’s 40 year old tech applied in the dumbest way imaginable.

Boomer advice. You’ll save $3000 and not have the original factory warranty and you’ll still have to pay for cpo.

Always was.

The idea is cool but 20k for a truck without paint and shitty capabilities is DOA.

Because of that cowboy delusion of being able to just ride (drive) off into the sunset is still a part of the cultural identity. You are correct, that consumer wise, this would be a very efficent and ideal product for commuters. The range would get you from Boston to Heartford, or Chicago to Milwaukee, to and from any suburb to the nearest major airport, but you could not just... GO. (Far off with John Denver playing on the radio)

Its a sad attempt to salvage Tesla's reputation of being cool.

The Ioniq 6 is basically a Tesla 3 killer.

I thought this was debunked as Tesla pretty much faking the energy consumption numbers. The cars seem to be average in independent real world tests. That's not really surprising as electrical motors are more or less a solved problem for a long time now.

I'm not American but the daily drive of our car is very short. However, if we're going to have a car i want it to be suitable for the majority of our driving, which includes much longer trips every few months. I don't want to have to hire a car or own a second one for something we do multiple times a year.

Alas we are doomed. There was the Nissan leaf 15 years ago but they canceled it because no one bought them

Sorry, I did not follow that. That would make sense, how their numbers can be so damn low. I was basing my assessment on the official numbers.

That said, there is more fine tuning possible with electrical motors than many believe. The new VW platform and the BMW Neue Klasse are partially so exciting because there is still stuff that can be improved with EV motor systems.

If someone had been in that car, and they were not in a full on stunt driver safety suit and harness, pretty good chance they'd be seriously injured, possibly paralyzed, possibly having an induced heart attack, possibly passed out / unconscious.

Sure you can make the car itself do that... but a human meatbag inside a car doing that? Much less a typically overweight/obese average American driver?

Thats a lot of extreme g forces in violently rapidly changing axes and directions.

I wonder if Elon will provide the g suit and pilot g force conditioning regimen...

(obviously he will not)

There are a couple like the Fiat 500 and Mini cooper EV that get around 150, but they also coat like $45K USD. Somehow the Chevy Bolt remains the cheapest option while still having 250 miles of range while also being one of the best EVs available.

But if you start looking at used cars it changes massively. You can get a 10 year old Nissan leaf that can still do 100 miles on a charge for like 3 grand. And early Bolts are also sub 10k.

If it weren't for the nazism and my desire for buttons I would've got a model 3. So maybe I don't see it as a 'killer' but it ticked my boxes

But why pay all that money for a truck when you can get a used EV for half the price that has many luxuries like electric windows and back seats.

They really just kind of had that one car.

The thing is used EVs are so affordable that it's basically impossible for western companies to make something cheap enough to compete. The real answer is to allow Chinese EVs to be sold in the US.