03-16-2021, 03:27 PM | #375 | |
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A manual transmission can be set to "comfort", "sport", and "track" modes simply by the technique and speed at which you shift it; it doesn't need "modes", modes are for manumatics that try to behave like a real 3-pedal manual transmission. If you can money-shift it, it's a manual transmission. "Yeah, but NO ONE puts an automatic trans shift knob on a manual transmission."
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03-16-2021, 04:39 PM | #376 | |
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That said, this is impressive: I still don't think most consumers care and it's more of a also-this feature. |
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03-16-2021, 05:13 PM | #377 |
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I think this is because customers who want green/sustainable stuff already know what is and isn't (for them) and don't need to be marketed to - everyone else, which is the vast majority of car customers, just want a cool car].......
Cool helps though as I being able to brag about auto pilot etc though 90%,maybe not need or use them. Being green is definitely a thing as people want to be appearing to fo the climate conscious thing. He'll my beer loving pot bellied friend gave up drink meet and started recycling everything and even came around when he knew I was clearing out my garage to see if he could take away anything that could be reused. Good for him but he tells me buying tesla, ''opened his eyes' good for him.and the environment. BMW is struggling fairly mightily to figure out how to grow in each segment with only 1 (or arguably 3) brands ... I think BMW was hoping Mini would take their VW brand niche, but that's not happened and BMW is stuck and flailing trying out crazy stuff like their new design language.[/QUOTE]... By heavily involving their sales in SUVs they are least likely to be affected by the EV problem. As much as I hate the grilles the cool factor might actually be with them lungs. |
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03-16-2021, 05:30 PM | #378 | |
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03-16-2021, 05:32 PM | #379 | |
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03-16-2021, 06:57 PM | #380 | |
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(1.) For fleet sales, then the trucks with the easiest, lowest maintenance with the most infrastructure would sell; individual operators might look more at driver features as they may do some of their own maintenance & standardization might not be as important. (2.) Operator routes driven, i.e., is the semi mostly trans-con routes or intra-state routes? Range, comfort, etc would be sales factors there for both fleet and individuals. (3.) Operating costs - obvs large fuel savings (or driver costs) would be important I don't think class 4/5 FSD/AP is gonna be a thing this decade (even though it's technically possible today, that product is too expensive) ... and Tesla must be thinking this way too because lately they're pushing the "train" concept meaning, say, 3 trucks in line and only the 1st truck has a driver ... Anyway, my question is, who's gonna buy a Tesla Class 8 Semi? like who's the core customer here? I don't get it probably out of ignorance of the market ... here's what sells now: Way back in my civil engineering days one of my clients was this badass chick who owned a trucking company with Freightliners ... I just can't see her buying Teslas unless there was a HUGE cost advantage for the range trade-off ... will there be? |
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03-16-2021, 07:13 PM | #381 | |
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Right now I'd say the battle for a future in auto sales comes down to 1 thing: battery production capacity. Oddly, VW is only targeting 240GWh by 2030 with 50% coming from partners! Compare that to Tesla who's targeting 2TWh by 2030 ... we can quibble over Elon's exaggera-predictions, but $TSLA seems pretty damn serious about battery capacity based on their 3 continents of factory square footage coming online versus VW which has a LOT of factories to convert. The BMW X5 45e is probably the best vehicle BMW makes right now ... double the battery capacity and it'd be a breakout superseller. Quadruple it and get rid of the ICE and it'd be the hottest selling BEV other than a Model 3. Hell, their BEV X3 would be a huge seller if they could commit and boost the range and power (and sold it in the US). Unfortunately BMW isn't planning on producing big selling BEVs, rather beaver-faced iX type vehicles, marketed to silly twits who can't afford them: "look ma, no hands!" This will not go well for BMW. |
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03-16-2021, 07:26 PM | #382 |
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BMW doesn't intend to poach sales from its successful ice platform yet as X3 X5 etc are very hugely successful and are money spinners. Also why 45 e is slightly hamstrung intentionally. Also imagine Model y+x sales v x3 +x5 sales as compared to model 3 v 3 series. ie BMW is strongest in the SUV sector.
The beaver ix etc will just hopefully poach a few from merc/Tesla/audi/LR etc. All that battery that Tesla produces isn't going to go into premium SUVs. Mostly into sedans. Volkswagen in trying to copy Tesla but not coming out with pretty good products with no cool factor are likely on a lose lose(unless they give fantastic lease deals). When you mentioned grille I thought new m3/4 agreed the ix is just a poor ugly effort. |
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03-16-2021, 08:17 PM | #383 | |
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Fleet sales of Class 8 make up the largest percentage of purchases when you look across all brands. Each brand has a different mix of fleet vs. Owner/Operator. Freightliner is the GM of the Class 8 market. They make their money on volume so it's no surprise they sell a lot of fleet vehicles. Of the manufactures on the chart, Pete is the most bespoke. So they have a higher percentage of O/O sales than Freightliner. 1) You're spot on. Fleets want low operating costs and high up time. A lot of them take the same approach Southwest Airlines takes; Buy only 1 spec of vehicle so you can make repairs, maintenance, etc. easier through standardization. $ per mile is everything to these guys. An O/O on the otherhand tends to care less, as you said, and wants things like 197 individual chrome ringed gauges, chicken lights, headache rack, chrome bumper that weighs 900 pounds, etc. Lots of fleets will buy 95% base model, stripped down, trucks and 5% top of the line. The top of the line with all the bells and whistles go to their most trusted, tenured, drivers as a retention method. "Make a million accident-free miles and get a flashy truck." 2) Both. You have to remember the vehicle class denotes GVW capacity. If you need to tow 80,000 pounds you need a class 8. Doesnt matter if that's interstate, intrastate, or from one end of the street to the other. 3) Correct. Operating costs, fuel being the biggest, is always a concern for fleets. For what they are, a modern class 8 truck is really efficient. 10 MPG, fully loaded, at highway speed is common. If you're running 250,000+ miles per year and you can improve fuel economy by 1% the savings are meaningful. Anyway, the market for a Class 8 Tesla has got to be short run, intercity transport. Think Airport to Amazon distribution center and back, 4 times a day. In-city stop and go traffic plummets that 10 MPG of a class 8 down to about 2. Your over the road tag-team of 2 drivers can cover 20 hours of driving in a shift and carry enough fuel to not stop. Until Tesla can do 20 hours of straight highway pulling 80,000 pounds gross, there isnt much of a case for it. A true hybrid that can run on batteries up to say 30 MPH, then pivot to diesel, now that could have some merit. a few of the big players like Freightliner and PACCAR worked on that a while back but I'm not sure it went anywhere. i think the challenge is the every pound of batteries you add takes away a pound of cargo. Where I see HUGE potential is in electric cargo vans. I was stuck at a light in S. Seattle the other day and counted a line of 37 Amazon Prime vans all leaving the DC. I'm looking out my window and there's 2 prime vans on my street right now. Every one of those vans leaves the DC in the morning and returns to the same DC at night. if you can electrify them and get a full day's route out of a charge, then charge at night. Man, that's a winner on so many levels. Last edited by DETRoadster; 03-16-2021 at 08:23 PM.. |
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03-16-2021, 09:00 PM | #384 | |
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great post! |
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03-17-2021, 07:15 AM | #385 | |
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When I periodically ask how the self-driving mode is working, he has pointed out several times that at night and in inclement weather, and especially in construction zones, the Autopilot system gives up and asks for human override. Poorly marked lanes and rough pavement surfaces, such as milled pavement, wreak havoc with the sensors and Autopilot returns to the better-adapted interface, the human sitting in the driver's seat. I don't think the AI in Tesla's Autopilot can match the NI (natural intelligence) of the experienced human driver. While your aged eyes may not be what they used to be, your brain has massive amounts of stored data it can instantly recall, and make up with experience, what your eyes may be lacking in a particular situation. Humans can drive cars better than computers, it's just humans can easily degrade into lack of interest... As we falsely add safety systems to cars, the level of a false sense of security increases and the concern for self-responsibility decreases, which leaves the driver vulnerable when the tech fails him.
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A manual transmission can be set to "comfort", "sport", and "track" modes simply by the technique and speed at which you shift it; it doesn't need "modes", modes are for manumatics that try to behave like a real 3-pedal manual transmission. If you can money-shift it, it's a manual transmission. "Yeah, but NO ONE puts an automatic trans shift knob on a manual transmission."
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03-17-2021, 08:38 AM | #386 | |
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Remember all the dudes in the 80's when ABS came out who would puff up their chest and talk about how they could "feel" the pedal and the car better and stop faster than a car with ABS through their superior pedal modulation? Yeah, those dude all just mash the pedal to the floor and pray just like the rest of us when the sh*t hits the fan. Maybe an F1 driver can still actually brake faster through his superior skills, but for the rest of us, we just let the computer take over. Sure, we still get to decide WHEN to brake and the computer manages HOW to brake. But even the WHEN decision is starting to be encroached upon. Last edited by DETRoadster; 03-17-2021 at 08:44 AM.. |
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03-17-2021, 08:54 AM | #387 | |
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The Tesla "autopilot" also randomly jams on the brakes because it senses an obstacle on the road ahead, even though there is nothing there. At highway speeds, it scares the crap out of me and could easily cause an accident. I absolutely refuse to use the "autopilot" when I drive that car. And I put autopilot in quotes because that device is not really capable of autonomous function. At least, I don't trust it to work autonomously. At best, it should be labeled as, and used as, a driver's aid. |
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03-17-2021, 09:33 AM | #388 | |
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03-17-2021, 11:03 AM | #389 | |
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A manual transmission can be set to "comfort", "sport", and "track" modes simply by the technique and speed at which you shift it; it doesn't need "modes", modes are for manumatics that try to behave like a real 3-pedal manual transmission. If you can money-shift it, it's a manual transmission. "Yeah, but NO ONE puts an automatic trans shift knob on a manual transmission."
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03-17-2021, 11:50 AM | #390 | ||
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03-17-2021, 12:23 PM | #391 | |
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I look forward to getting it. Been a Ford Guy well before I was a Bimmerhead. |
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03-19-2021, 08:27 AM | #393 | |
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03-19-2021, 10:14 AM | #394 |
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So the games begin. Due to security concerns Tesla vehicles are being restricted by use from employees in defense and key state-owned companies.
https://mobile.reuters.com/article/a...mpression=true
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03-19-2021, 11:26 AM | #395 | |
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