EV owners of today and tomorrow

[Blue Mule]

Dodge was selling nearly 80,000 Charger vehicles per year. The new one now is EV. They got 82 orders for it. Eighty. Two. That says everything that needs to be said.

Stellantis is now scrambling to try and save the company, as their stocks have been plummeting for the last 12 months. The CEO resigned. They pushed back launches of new EVs such as the Ram REV truck. They are accelerating the timeline for the ICE version of the Charger. They are openly discussing V8 engines with the public again. They've had meetings with the new administration in the U.S. and there are rumors of the "Chrysler" domestic brands being sold off to American owners. It's crazy. They're just trying to save the company. None of this would have happened to them if they had listened to CUSTOMERS to begin with.

 

[RiverHill]

Dodge was selling nearly 80,000 Charger vehicles per year. The new one now is EV. They got 82 orders for it. Eighty. Two. That says everything that needs to be said.

Stellantis is now scrambling to try and save the company, as their stocks have been plummeting for the last 12 months. The CEO resigned. They pushed back launches of new EVs such as the Ram REV truck. They are accelerating the timeline for the ICE version of the Charger. They are openly discussing V8 engines with the public again. They've had meetings with the new administration in the U.S. and there are rumors of the "Chrysler" domestic brands being sold off to American owners. It's crazy. They're just trying to save the company. None of this would have happened to them if they had listened to CUSTOMERS to begin with.

82 orders says all that needs to be said about Stellantis, not EV’s as a whole. They made a “muscle car” that won’t do a burnout…

 

[Blue Mule]

82 orders says all that needs to be said about Stellantis, not EV’s as a whole. They made a “muscle car” that won’t do a burnout…

It will do a burnout. It's an electronic feature that shuts off the front drive. It's only available on "Stage 2" cars.

The decline happened immediately after the "no more Hemi" announcement. This has nothing to do with Stellantis. Up until 2022 they had the #2 selling pickup in America, which had passed the Chevrolet brand for the first time in history. They had the #1 selling muscle/sports car in America. They had the #1 selling SUVs in America. Their company was on fire. IMMEDIATELY after they announced that they were switching to EV and would stop producing V8s their sales began to decline and never stopped declining. That is very telling and is a great lesson.

People who view vehicles the same way they view toasters and microwave ovens don't care what powers their car. If those people wanted an EV they've already got them. The other 90% of buyers DO very much care and for a company with a rich history of ICE to put all their eggs in the EV basket is suicide.

 

[sd455dan]

YEP... At the very least a person should be able to Kill the exhaust sound on any EV that has that "feature"
Dodge should have offered a rear wheel drive model with at least as much power as a Tesla S Plaid.

If they bring back the Hemi V8's they will still sell well and obviously better than the "er" version.

Ford should not have slapped Mustang on a 4 door EV either.

ps. I want Dodge/RAM to succeed with EV and Hybrid tech, but they have made some mistakes and certainly looks like they mis judged what their customer base wants.

 

[WinterDeere]

Dodge was selling nearly 80,000 Charger vehicles per year. The new one now is EV. They got 82 orders for it. Eighty. Two. That says everything that needs to be said.

Whoa... talk about "bad data"? I'm all for data, but let's be at least half-honest in presenting it. You're comparing sales of one always-unpopular trim level to the sum total sales of ALL trim levels of ICE's!

How many Daytona Scat Pack Challengers have they sold each year? Maybe then we can make an honest comparison. Including the overwhelming number of v6 POS's in the denominator is about as useless a comparison as one can pretend to make.

By only releasing one unpopular trim level of the Charger in EV, and starting with a 2-door variant of it, they pretty much guaranteed themselves low sales. It seems that the most common reason Charger sales were as good as they were, in comparison to the more-nostalgic Challenger, is for the sake of getting 4 doors. Remove that, and it loses a lot of appeal. Combine that with the always low-volume popularity of the Daytona Scat Pack trim level, when the differential cost up to the much better SRT variants is relatively small, and they almost ensured sales would be as low as possible.

The press back in 2022/23 was that they'd be releasing an SRT Hellcat variant of each in 2025. What happened?

 

[mike69440]

You beg the question in assuming The Infrastructure is necessary.

Why do I need a "huge charging station at the big box store down the street"?

You will own nothing and be happy! Why would I submit to wear and tear on my EV battery for buffering demand on your almighty The Grid? Cybertruck and Ford Lightning have bidirectional power capabilities on the L2 EVSE. Managed behind a Tesla Energy Gateway (between your electrical meter and the house) one can limit discharge to no more than one's instantaneous personal consumption.

You forgot the recycling issue. Gale's weak LEAF battery was still a perfectly functional battery, just down on capacity. That sort of thing matters little for home energy time shifting. Used EV batteries are excellent sources for home use where size and weight matters not. Before ultimately gifting my 2013 Model S to my sister I considered how it's remaining 75 kWh of battery storage to be the cheapest source of battery storage I could get. The totally new system I am getting will only have 27 kWh.

Politicians to approve it? All good things come from The Government? So you approve of government mandate for EVs? Because, you know, government is so good at successfully planning things?

The Grid still has a 50% generating capacity surplus at night. Night is a natural time for EVs to charge, easily, with inexpensive hardware, using existing "infrastructure". With a fresh charge every night there is little need for "infrastructure" in the guise of Gas Stations. My 192 miles today was easy from driveway back to driveway with only McDonalds "infrastructure" in between for a McCrispy $5 meal, later an ice cream cone, and biological needs. No Government Rest Stops for me! Good clean McDonald's bathrooms only!

The People's Republik of Kalifornia often has a surplus of power during bright days due to over building and poor planning & design of their PV Solar push. You want more "infrastructure" from those who have proven incompetent to implement? Same for Texas who has tried to invent a power grid version of Hillary Clinton's "managed competition health care market." You know how good the government is at planning things!

As a Caveman, I wish to thank all the early adopters of immergersing technology. Your market demand for the latest and greatest, faciitates and motivates the incentive for progress. Without your financial support, tecnological development would be slower.
In general my approach is to purchase solutions that at the point of time of purchase offer the most value for what I want to accomplish. For instance I don't need the newest cell phone, vehicle, computer or convenience.etc. This minimizes technological sticker shock.
In any case, being a Caveman, I am naturally attracted to combustion an violent reactions. Something primal about combustion and fire, like a ride in a dragster or letting off a substantial firearm, feeling the vibration from a locomotive straining, etc.

 

[riptides]

...
In any case, being a Caveman, I am naturally attracted to combustion an violent reactions. Something primal about combustion and fire, like a ride in a dragster or letting off a substantial firearm, feeling the vibration from a locomotive straining, etc.

 

[BleedingOrange]

 

[Grumpycat]

If only we'd have waited until the Internet reached today's maturity before selling the first computer or inventing the iPhone, or if we'd only waited until Verizon offered 250 channels before selling the first television...

No no no! Must have at least 500 channels of 4k before TV is perfected. Until then battery powered AM radio!

 

[Grumpycat]

View attachment 2392013

And pay $1/minute while camped not charging.

Clearly the meme was authored to amuse the ignorant ICE-head community who has no idea how fast a Tesla charges. No doubt the same author created the meme of a Tesla towing a genset trailer plugged into the charge port.