Thankfully, I’ve seen some pushback against that trend when it comes to touch controls on the dash (a scourge affecting far more of the market than just luxury cars or EVs), and I hope manufacturers realize soon that buttons and dials are there for a reason.
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The GV60 above, notably, has real buttons and knobs for the climate controls, and actual buttons on the steering wheel. I always thought Audi had the perfect blend of real and virtual controls, and the Genesis - of all things - is very close to that.
Musk’s insistence that everything - up to and including opening the glove box - be controlled through the screen is pure ego trip. It’s stupid and dangerous.
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Dude looks like a megachurch youth pastor.
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FIFY
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Musk is going to take control of Twitter and un-ban the Former Guy, just in time for the mid-terms so that he doesn’t have to play the billionaire tax.
What he has done to jump start (a term used purely ironically) the adoption of EVs is incredible. Other than that, the guy is fetid garbage.
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Watching reports by YouTubers from the Giga Texas event reminds me of how much I like Teslas and how little urine I could muster if Musk was on fire.
Read somewhere that his opening shindig on stage was very reminiscent of Kendall Roy’s birthday party.
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I drove by the new Tesla building in Austin last Monday. It’s fuckin huge.
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It just shy of a mile long.
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The Giga Texas Model Y appears to be a resurrection of the “standard range” AWD model, with about 280 miles range. This seems to be how they are going to handle having multiple factories putting out multiple models with different build specs. Austin will be building this new model with gigacastings and the 4680 battery packs, while Fremont will continue to build the long range and performance models.
There doesn’t seem to be much of a price break for the Texas Model Y. It’s all a bit messy right now.
Texas Model Y update. The 279 miles of range in this standard range AWD model is due to a significantly smaller battery pack. I.e., Tesla is taking advantage of the weight savings from the gigacasting technique and the extra power density of the 4680 batteries to shrink the battery pack for this model.
The smaller pack not only itself saves weight, it makes it cheaper, which is why this model is going to be priced at under $60k, compared to the $63k price for the current 318 mile “long range” AWD.
What I am interested to see is the charging time; the smaller pack should be able to charge to 80% much more quickly. It will be very interesting to see how this translates into real world cross country performance, as it is entirely possible that that faster charging of the “standard range” model could offset the range advantage of the “long range” version.
Lastly, it’s now being estimated that a Texas Model Y with a full size 4680 battery pack could get close to 500 miles of range.
We’re participating in a solar coop, to install solar panels at our house. According to the coop representative, last year for the first time more than 50% of participants included batteries in the installation. Before it was somewhere less than 30%.
They also expect a significant increase in Type II chargers installed.
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I’m sure last winter had a big influence on the increase in battery installations - at least in Texas.
Here’s a non-Tesla, non-bolt on solar roof option.
GigaTexas will be making Model Ys with both 2160 and the 4680 batteries. Basically, until you can actually order a standard range AWD, you’re going to get the 2160 batteries.
Speaking of batteries, LFP batteries are coming on in leaps and bounds. They have the advantage of having no precious metals in their construction - making them cheaper and blood-metals free - and they can be charged to 100% on the regular without impacting long-term performance. They are behind other battery chemistries in energy density, but they are catching up and being able to charge to 100% every day offsets a chunk of the energy density deficit.
Oops.
I have a friend who is a Tesla owner and Tesla stock owner who has been cheering for this Twitter purchase.
People have their reasons for doing what they do. Sometimes they have regrets too.
Driving home I saw a new Tesla (temporary plates), driver’s window rolled down, driver with his whole body turned and arms crossed in the window, head hanging out the window, not watching the road and smoking an e-cig while his car did the driving.
I hate that company and its fanboys.
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