But money is always a factor.
An 8 year warranty is great. But try selling a mega expensive EV when that warranty is nearing it's end
Well, it was Paris Hilton. Not exactly the most interesting personality
8 year warranty makes that concern irrelevant for the initial buyers. Nor does the concept of saving money. EV here is offering incredible performance not cost savings.
That is why it is so expensive as you are paying for 8 years peace of mind. The older it gets the harder to sell I would think as it will be expensive to repair. Plus as JC said a crash could cause a huge short in the battery and that would be catastrophic for the passengers and anyone near.
I find it really odd that people keep talking about the perceived fire risk of EV's when in an (petrol) ICE car there is actually a tank of highly flammable liquid which in the right conditions can explode. No one is freaking out about LPG conversions which is just like the above but stored under high pressure. No one is making any noises about hydrogen either which mostly contain a large lithium ion battery and a big tank of flammable gas. Those sorts of points are just self confessed petrol heads tend to say when they are trying to think of something to bash EV's.
Why would it be catastrophic for anyone near? They don't explode.
The packaging on the battery pack makes a huge difference at mitigating fire likewise batteries burn really slowly compared to something like petrol which is pretty much instant. To the point it can be used as an explosive if you really wanted to.
So many EV's have been written off in very spectacular style (side effect of them being fast) already and there have been no reports of people being trapped in burning cars. The very nature of the way they are constructed also makes them much safer in a front on collision due to the huge crumple zones instead of the engine being a liability. The battery actually helps keep the passenger section of the car intact in a collision from all directions because it is a structural piece in the floor of the car.
Don't get me wrong EV's have some rather big shortcomings, repair costs being one of them (accident or otherwise) but reliability of the drive train is looking to be better than a conventional car. Affordable range is another one but lets not open that can of worms today.
Another good episode. The Tesla section was funny and the Raptor section was, well a Raptor section.
The only (well one of a few) issue with the Raptor is it only comes in a short box option, so it’s too short for what we need, or else we may well have bought one. The GF loves them so would be quite happy to have picked one up. That said, it’s like any “proper” 4x4, you’ll never use it to its full potential because you’ll be afraid of smashing it, unless of course you’re borrowing it for a TV review.
Which leads to the next point, the Shelby F150 is in a way a more exciting vehicle. Strap a rather large supercharger to the Coyote and you get 750hp, true V8 (rather than twin turbo V6) and a few more off road bits than the standard F150. Better on the road than the Raptor, where it’ll be 99% of the time, and the awesome supercharger whine.
Oh, and his reversing is terrible, should have just used the trailer backup assist which would have solved his issues. Less fun Tv though!
Battery fires are more dangerous because they go up extremely quickly and violently and you can't put them out once they start. It only needs one of the 1000s of cells to go up and they will all burn, they will even burn underwater so a regular fire engine will not be able to deal with it.
Petrol needs a spark to set it off, will burn up quickly and it's easy to put out. But batteries only need to be exposed to moisture in the air, be compressed or overheat.
This is why you buy old 4x4s
I used to constantly thrash my 4x4.
I know you will immediately think of the Rimac crash on The Grand Tour, and the way that burnt out, but that car was a pre-production concept, and it was oil cooling lines to the wheel mounted motor units rupturing that initiated the fire, and burnt out the vehicle, the actual battery pack was intact when investigated after the fire. Look at the underside of the car in post crash photos, it is virtually intact, had the battery pack caught fire or exploded there would be very little left.
Apparently Hammond barely got out before it went up in flames very quickly, then it took 5 days for the batteries to finish burning. They transported it away somewhere and it was still burning.
8 year warranty makes that concern irrelevant for the initial buyers. Nor does the concept of saving money. EV here is offering incredible performance not cost savings.
8 year warranty is somewhat irrelevant when they don't appear to take into account reductions in range (ie, battery efficiency).
I know people who bought Teslas only to be unable to use them 2-3 years later because the usable range no longer covered their commute.
The first option that may actually compensate for this is the new roadster with it's 1000km range... now we're starting to get into the realms where the standard charge range and range after efficiency loss might be usable on a daily basis.
1000km range is only just use-able on a daily basis? You have one hell of a commute. 300km is more than enough for almost everyone and almost all of their journeys ever, stick a few superchargers in key locations and it turns to all of their journeys.
The losses on Tesla's are really minimal especially after such a short time, it is projected to be at around 8-9% at 250,000 km. Most cars never make it that far and there is loads of data on this already. The person you are referring to's commute must have been borderline to begin with and with an extreme use case.