I drive a Mazda 5, a model going out of production. I suspect one reason is that it doesn't fit in any well-understood category. The back doors slide like a mini-van's, but it's way smaller than a mini-van, about the size of the light Toyota station wagons of yore. My wife think's it's a van. It's a great car for me, peppy to drive and the cargo area swallows my sailbags with no trouble. It's not rugged. I rather think it's sort of delicate.
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Building any mechanical device with 1/10th the parts (by the way it's more like 1/20th) is a massive advantage and early reliability numbers on the longevity of the Model S are proving that out. There are now dozens (maybe 100s) of Teslas in service as Limos because they are substantially cheaper to operate. Our personal Model S has just about 40,000 miles on it and has been to the shop only because rats ate through some hoses and wires. Our 560 SEL had been to the shop 4 times (twice major problems) by this point, our BMW 740i had been to the shop 5 times (once major) by this point. There is quite literally no comparison between the reliability of the three cars. They are the same price range, and the Model S is just a much better car.
Until Beau wrote this, I never thought about how much a pure electric car can reduce routine maintenance. After all, my wife takes her Prius in for oil change more often than I do my Mazda. (Two reasons for this: the first couple years of oil changes were free, and my wife is more susceptible to industry whining that oil degrades with time as a well as miles.)
I won't buy a GM product again, so that rules out the Bolt.
Mention of the Bolt caused me to look it up. It promises 280 miles on a charge. We could live with that in a second car. For all the time that EV's were limited to 80-100 miles/charge, I thought that was not enough. I think in terms of going to JFK, about 60 miles round trip. That's cutting it close with an 80 mile range. OTOH, the Bolt recharges at the rate of 25 miles worth per 1 hour of charging. That pretty much takes it out of the road trip category. Also, the prices listed was $38,000. If there is enough material and labor in it to support that price, it must also take enough energy that it's not really a boon for the environment.
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