Any GTAM'ers own an electric vehicle? | Page 52 | GTAMotorcycle.com

Any GTAM'ers own an electric vehicle?

One more reason to hate dealers, and love Tesla.

You got it almost right, with a slight correction from my point of view ..... "One more reason to hate dealer system, and love direct sales system." ... or even better allow both and let's see which one survives longer. The dealer system in a way we know it, is going extinct. Not if, but when .... Manufacturers, just need show rooms (so people can sit in a demo their cars) and let cars be serviced wherever a client decides .... of course until, that is not needed anymore, since almost everyone will be purchasing car service and will not care to own a car ... :-(
 
It's a sad, but common, situation when salespeople in dealers know less about the cars than the people buying them. This is by far not unique to GM. I know someone who recently bought a Ford C-Max Energi, and they pretty much had to coax the dealer into letting them order it (it seems that NO dealers keep these in stock). The dealer would rather sell one of the 10 or 20 Escapes that they had sitting on the lot.

True. I have not bought a car yet where the dealer sales guy knew more or even remotely close to what I would expect him to know. I think if the manufacturers could have their way, they would get rid of the dealers as quickly as they could ... it's an outdated concept with no future in sight.
 
Considering the level of enlightenment and interest in EVs demonstrated by this thread, there's a lot salespeople could do to influence EV sales.

This thread hardly represents EV enthusiasts ... it's a whining GTA motorcycle web site, right ... :), not EV oriented site. The EV guys know how their charging amps taper after x amount of time ... they don't need a dealer. The Civic or Corolla crowd will need one, but we are far from that ...
 
This thread hardly represents EV enthusiasts ... it's a whining GTA motorcycle web site, right ... :), not EV oriented site. The EV guys know how their charging amps taper after x amount of time ... they don't need a dealer. The Civic or Corolla crowd will need one, but we are far from that ...

That's the major obstacle. For much of the general public, a vehicle like the Volt makes a lot of sense. The pool of EV enthusiasts is very small compared to the pool of people that should strongly consider range extended EV's (or whatever you want to call a large battery pack and ICE in the same vehicle).
 
Lake Orion is being idled because small cars in general, and the Sonic in particular, are not selling well. (Fuel prices are too low. Likely the same reason the Bolt is not selling well in the USA.)

I find it to be too much of a coincidence that the price of oil dropped and stayed low at around the time viable electric cars started becoming available.

I put a deposit down on a 2018 Bolt earlier this week. No details of the 2018 have been released yet, so I'm just on the list.
 
Topic of the thread is.....Any GTAM'ers own an electric vehicle?
 
Anyhow, catching up on a bunch of recent replies (life has been crazy, haven't had much time here)...

Yes, I don't know WTF is going on with GM and their Bolt stock distribution - it makes no sense that people here in Canada (and in many places across the USA) are waiting months to get their hand on one, but GM is idling the factory and some dealerships have hundreds of unsold inventory. That makes ZERO sense.

As for the difference between Canadian and USA models, typically the only difference is Canadian models have daytime running lights, and USA models do not. This can be changed with a simple software update. I looked at importing a US Volt at some points in the past few months (we are seriously thinking about getting a second one eventually, and there are some attractive prices south of the border, especially if our dollar keeps climbing) and those who have done it report the only thing they needed to change was either having the BCM reprogrammed for DRL's, or simply running a wire from a switched circuit to the low beams to basically simulate such...and it passes inspection.

The "skip the dealer" method Tesla is using, opting for direct sales? I like it, but it's a double edged sword - Tesla is putting all its eggs in one basket and it's unclear if they are going to be able to properly support the cars after they reach the consumers as the number of potential service locations is tiny compared to a traditional dealership network. Remember, dealerships don't only sell the cars, they also service them after the fact...and since Tesla still steadfastly refuses to open their service network/parts/manuals to third parties, well....for things aside from the very basics (brakes for example), you have only one option for service - your local (or perhaps not so local) Tesla service centre. You're not going to find a little dealership able to fix things for you every 20-40 minutes along every major highway like you can a traditional dealership network. Don't get me wrong, I'm no fan of the dealership system in general (high prices, and as mentioned, often misinformed or completely uninformed salespeople who don't really know WTF they're selling), but it does have advantages Tesla's system won't.

As for the Model 3...well, I will reassess things in 6 or 8 months once cars actually get into peoples hands and we see how many people cancel their orders. I'm still amazed that people are buying these things basically sight unseen - people are still excited to see photos of the interior - many of the same people who have deposits on the cars and really don't even know what they're actually getting, assuming they actually like the result (and the reviews/reliability prove solid) and follow through with their reservation vs cancelling for a refund.
 
The direct sales model only works if you open your factory support to virtually any shop willing to learn fixing your cars ... which is not Tesla's case right now. But they are in process of changing what would be a serious bottle neck for the thousands of M3 owners. Eventually, I suspect there will be many independent shops able to get their hands on manuals, factory support and parts ordering. The only way to go ....

I wouldn't read much into the M3 sight-unseen deposits ... it's returnable without any commitment necessary. Not the same when you put a deposit on your ordered Bolt.
 
Update on the Bolt production .... sounds to me that Brian and couple of other guys were right that it is a) regular .... 2) more related to Sonic weak sales .... 3) GM actually increasing production numbers for Bolt

quote
I work at the factory.

We added an extra week for shutdown because of slowing sales for the Sonic, I’m assuming because of gas prices.

Another reason for the extra week was to complete bank systems and re do the assembly line to INCREASE Bolt production.

The jobs are all set to produce Bolts on a 2 Sonics, 1 Bolt mix. They are changing the mix to a 50/50 split, which requires adjustments.
Unquote


Either way, good news hopefully for people waiting long time for Bolt.
 
The problem that everyone seems to want to continually ignore with hydrogen is that it's wasteful to generate. Using electricity or natural gas to generate hydrogen, only to have the car convert it back to electricity again to actually provide propulsion still seems wasteful/silly to me when one can skip a step, avoid the losses involved in such, and use the electricity directly without the wasteful middle steps.

"Fuel cell automakers push Ottawa to dive in on hydrogen infrastructure"

Of course they are, which is why they've hired an advocate - the few manufacturers who are still desperately clinging to hydrogen just want more of a market for the compliance cars they're building, nothing more.

Electricity is everywhere...hydrogen filling stations never will be.
 
Drove a 2017 Volt yesterday....this car will replace my Civic when it's time. Very impressed with it and the drive was very good. Little tight on space but doable for us with a baby.
 
Electricity is everywhere...hydrogen filling stations never will be.

I bet he knows it, it's just against his favorite brand/employer believes and actions ....Repeating the obvious does nothing to change that, sadly ... :-(
 
Quick pic also hooked up the supplied charger to 220v instant level 2 charging only works with the 2016+ chargers the older ones will go boom if you try this.

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15d6246a4f5508d2d4505976deea12a2.jpg


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