Transport Evolved

[vfx]

All that money spent on new tech toys but Nikki's place still looks like a hurricane hit it.

 

[dpeilow]

Exactly. This 300 miles at 55mph thing is a total non-story, yet some green car sites reacted like it was a complete surprise. Bullet, meet foot.

 

[jerry33]

And anyway, I believe that the quote is "55 mph average speed". That's a big difference than "55 mph top speed". 300 miles at 55 mph average also far better than the Leaf's "100 miles at 25 mph average speed". Good thing we're not talking gallons here since there are different sizes of gallons

 

[aminorjourney]

All that money spent on new tech toys but Nikki's place still looks like a hurricane hit it.

Ouch. Do you not like the bookcase, or the tiny studio we record in?

Would love a larger room, but that isn't going to happen. Sorry.

 

[bonnie]

Nikki - I didn't find it distracting at all. In fact, I LIKE the lower-tech look. It makes it look less produced and more from-the-heart, if that makes sense. (v, hush.)

 

[Slackjaw]

I'm still listening to the audio podcast every Monday morning - it fits almost perfectly into my morning commute. It's a treat. Some weeks that's about all the EV fanaticism I have time for [er, not counting 650 miles a week in my Roadster]. Most weeks MPT or Nikki comes up with a one-liner that sticks in my head, whether it's Nikki saying "don't forget to plug in!" [if only Mr Tesla Brick had been a regular listener!] or something like MPT's description last week of "really cooking it into a corner" in his Roadster. Can't quite remember the context but the pithy comments stand out even when the news is thin. I did enjoy the interview with MarkWJ and was inspired to order the OVMS. Thanks to all.

 

[mpt]

Transport Evolved 93 - Ice the ICE

Join Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield from Green Car Reports, Michael Thwaite from TeslaMotorsClub, and guest Rich Stienberg from BMW USA as they discuss the MINI E, ActiveE and BMW i range, give a report on winter Volvo electric car driving, and discuss some of the week’s electric car news.

 

[JRP3]

Nikki overstates the possible efficiency gains of the Mitsubishi motor/inverter combo. Cutting losses by 50% in a system that currently operates with less than 10% losses means you might get less than an extra 5 miles of range from a 100 mile range pack. It's a nice gain but no one is going to down size the pack because of it.

 

[dpeilow]

Just listening back to this week's Transport Evolved 94.

I noticed Nikki sniping at "someone got cross at me for calling the Ampera entering the Monte Carlo rally a Chevy Volt" - yeah that was me (I wasn't angry just picking up on a point of order). See:

2012 Chevrolet Volt Enters 2012 Monte Carlo Alternative Energy Rally

The response was "It's known all round the world as a Chevy Volt, get over it". Err - Holden? So if the Opel Ampera is the European version of the Chevy Volt, then what do you call the European version of the Chevy Volt?

The Volvo S40 is basically a close cousin of the Ford Focus so if Volvo entered them in some rally, would the headline be "Ford Focus enters rally"?


Heat pumps working below 0... 0 deg C being a threshold that is an artificial construct that happens to be where one compound (H2O) freezes. The best have "coefficients of performance" of up to 5 now - meaning they provide 5x the heat energy as the electrical energy put in, way better than resistive heating.


On the subject of one Toyota dealer selling the Prius C at 7k above list... It's a free market, so that's just supply and demand 101.


"Engineers not making good business people - Tesla being testament to that..." Tesla is in rude health compared to many others in this segment, so make of that what you will.


Oh, the original local currency in the UK (the one MPT is probably thinking of) is the "Totnes Pound". It's been going 5 years or so. There have been several others since then. Bristol's is but a young upstart.

 

[mpt]

Transport Evolved 94 - Thanks for all the fish

Join Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield from Green Car Reports, Michael Thwaite from TeslaMotorsClub, and guest Chad Schwitters from Plug-in America as they discuss the week’s news in the world of electric cars, including the proposed upgrades to the 2013 Nissan Leaf, Chevy’s latest Volt promotion, and Elon Musk’s opinions on the DoE Loan Program

 

[mpt]

On the subject of one Toyota dealer selling the Prius C at 7k above list... It's a free market, so that's just supply and demand 101.

Morally bankrupt though and perhaps short sighted IMO on both an environmental and a long-term sales point of view. Kind of the antithesis of...

Oh, the original local currency in the UK (the one MPT is probably thinking of) is the "Totnes Pound". It's been going 5 years or so. There have been several others since then. Bristol's is but a young upstart.

Thanks, that's the one! That town has a high number of solar installations as well I seem to recall.

 

[JRP3]

I blame the customer who pays the premium instead of waiting a bit just as much as the dealer, maybe more so. You can't take my money unless I let you.

 

[jerry33]

There is a proven way to get a Prius at no more than MSRP, and quick deliver--even in shortage periods:

1. Draw a circle on a map of the radius you are willing to travel.

2. Call every dealer within that radius.

3. Tell them that you want to purchase a Prius today with these options for $X amount.

4. Give them your cellphone number.

This works because during shortages, Toyota allocates cars to every dealer and some small dealers get cars they don't have orders for. In addition, the dealers play fast and loose with the waiting list. If a person doesn't take delivery, they don't call the next person on the list--they sell the car to the first warm body they find.

 

[ElSupreme]

There is a proven way to get a Prius at no more than MSRP, and quick deliver--even in shortage periods:

1. Draw a circle on a map of the radius you are willing to travel.

2. Call every dealer within that radius.

3. Tell them that you want to purchase a Prius today with these options for $X amount.

4. Give them your cellphone number.

This works because during shortages, Toyota allocates cars to every dealer and some small dealers get cars they don't have orders for. In addition, the dealers play fast and loose with the waiting list. If a person doesn't take delivery, they don't call the next person on the list--they sell the car to the first warm body they find.

This works to get cars under MSRP also. That is the way I got my GTI. I openly copied about 7 VW dealerships exactly what I wanted on an email. One emailed back exactly what I wanted but Grey instead of White and offered 2k off sticker to start negotiations.

I bought my car later that night. It probably helped that it was November 30th. :wink:

 

[bonnie]

This works to get cars under MSRP also. That is the way I got my GTI. I openly copied about 7 VW dealerships exactly what I wanted on an email. One emailed back exactly what I wanted but Grey instead of White and offered 2k off sticker to start negotiations.

I bought my car later that night. It probably helped that it was November 30th. :wink:

That's how I bought my BMW 540i, too ... I printed out the options I wanted, fax'd it to every dealer within a 200 mile radius for their 'best quote', took the quotes to the local dealership (who had been unwilling to deal) and said 'beat this and I'll buy from you'. So he did.

The argument could be made that I should have bought from whoever sent me the lowest quote - but I wanted to buy within my community, and most importantly, I believed (rightly or wrongly) that service would be easier if I were taking the car into the dealership where it was purchased.

 

[Norbert]

"Engineers not making good business people - Tesla being testament to that..." Tesla is in rude health compared to many others in this segment, so make of that what you will.

Not sure what you mean by that. My understanding is that in the US, the Roadster is the only electric car sold above cost. At least, Leaf and Volt are said to be sold below cost. (EDIT: Not sure about Coda and Mitsubishi "i".)

 

[dpeilow]

You'd need to watch the video.

 

[jerry33]

Not sure what you mean by that. My understanding is that in the US, the Roadster is the only electric car sold above cost. At least, Leaf and Volt are said to be sold below cost.

Don't know about the Volt, but Ghosn won't get out of bed unless there is money in it according to the Revenge of the Electric Car. I really doubt that Nissan is selling below cost. Setting up the Nissan factory in Tennessee, Ghosn is betting Nissan's future on it.

There was all kinds of FUD like that about the Prius when it came out too. Wasn't true then, most likely isn't true now.

 

[Norbert]

Don't know about the Volt, but Ghosn won't get out of bed unless there is money in it according to the Revenge of the Electric Car. I really doubt that Nissan is selling below cost. Setting up the Nissan factory in Tennessee, Ghosn is betting Nissan's future on it.

I think it was Carlos Ghosn himself who said that they expect to make money on the Leaf as it will be produced in larger volume, but not yet. That was about a year ago, but I don't think the 20,000 sold so far are the volumes he was thinking about. It may come once Tennessee allows Nissan to go to higher volumes.

 

[jerry33]

I think it was Carlos Ghosn himself who said that they expect to make money on the Leaf as it will be produced in larger volume, but not yet. That was about a year ago, but I don't think the 20,000 sold so far are the volumes he was thinking about. It may come once Tennessee allows Nissan to go to higher volumes.

Ah, it's a terminology issue. Obviously, they haven't recouped the R&D costs in 20,000 cars--at least I hope they spent more than that on R&D. I took the original comment to mean that they were selling for less than the manufacturing costs for each car. Because the Leaf can be made on a regular production line, they should be making a profit on each car.