The Model Y is a better all-arounder, in your terms. The Model 3 is a nice sedan, while the Model Y is a bit larger (taller and wider) which means people are a bit more comfortable in the back seats, and has a lot more internal storage when you need it.

As for charge speed, all batteries charge faster up to about 50%,…

That’s why people buy used cars and finance cars - the average price paid for a new car price is over $47k, which is certainly more than people can typically afford to spend all at once. Spread the payments over 7 years and that’s how people pay for cars.

And of course, most people buy used cars instead of new cars -…

There are more cheap EVs these days - The Cooper Mini EV is $30k and is quite nice, the Kia Niro EV is $32k, etc. And internationally, of course, there are EVs down to $5k, though at that price point there are clear tradeoffs.

And, of course, you’re ignoring that there are used EVs - most people don’t buy new cars,…

Toolchain updates pretty much never break apps. The exceptions are when you ignore “this API is deprecated” warnings for 5+ years, after which you might have some work to do, but that’s pretty rare.

Requiring devs to recompile their apps every few years, so they’re using the current compiler, etc., has nothing to do with monetization. It just means that ancient apps get recompiled so they run on modern hardware (e.g. 64-bit, Apple Silicon, etc.). The vast majority of the time it’s just a recompile and quick…

This is not all bad. Apple and MS have opposite positions on APIs evolving over time. MS’ position is that all old APIs should work forever, which means that the OS over time has to retain DOS, old Win32, etc., making the OS increasingly complex and hard to enhance and maintain. Apple’s position is that over time…

The issues that Consumer Reports complained about in that survey you’re referring to aren’t “reliability” but are were all little build quality issues that Tesla fixes for free - trim, panel gap alignment, etc., that they come and fix in your driveway after you report it, and they ignored all the scheduled maintenance…

The average new car price paid is over $47k. EVs are on the market down to $30k (in the US, lower in other countries). So while there are certainly high end EVs that cost a lot, not everyone needs to buy a new, high-end sports car. And of course there are used EVs, just like there are used gas cars. So it’s not like…

Exactly. The reason that EVs are taking off now is that battery costs have dropped radically, and are projected to keep dropping. 1 kWh cost $10,000 in the 1970s, and around $100 now, which is why EVs have been dropping in cost and increasing in range over the years.

For a data point around pricing, the auto…

Hybrids are more expensive to maintain and operate, as having two power trains adds to both manufacturing and maintenance costs, so all-in lifetime cost is higher than a BEV. I’m not sure how paying less is “rich-guy entitled”.

Tax credits are intentionally only useful for relatively wealthy people, because unless you pay more in income taxes than the credit (i.e. you are high income) you lose the tax credit, so they don’t actually make EVs cheaper for people making below-average income or no income (retirees, students, etc.). The BBB…

I’ve been driving a Model 3 LR since 2018, and the range (325 miles) has never been a problem - there are chargers every 50 miles or so along major highways, and typical charge times are 15 minutes every 3-4 hours, so road trips are a pleasure. Of course 95% of driving is close to home - the average daily drive in the…

Right now EVs are a little more expensive than comparable ICE vehicles, around 10% typically, but you save more than that on gas (70% less) and maintenance (40% less) so the all-in cost is significantly lower, which is why fleets, which are cost-optimized, are shifting to EVs. And EV prices have been dropping compared…

That’s why the rules are written in general terms, e.g. reducing emissions, not in terms of specific technologies. It’s up to industry to figure out which specific technologies to use to satisfy those goals. Toyota spent decades chasing hydrogen, with near-zero sales so far, but the government isn’t telling them to…

No, battery prices have been dropping for decades, and according to the battery manufacturers, are projected to continue dropping going forward. There’s a short term shortage of raw materials while new mines and refineries are being built, which is going on already, and when supply catches up to demand the prices will…

Right, but that’s a short-term price hike - EV prices have been coming down for decades, and are on track to continue to come down as battery designs continue to be cost optimized. The fact that right now Nickle prices are high due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine disrupting supply lines isn’t a long-term issue -…

Nope - over the time that Tesla raised prices 20%, the average car sale price went up 24%. The only difference is that Tesla raised their list price, since they sell direct, and the legacy car companies’ sales prices are inflated by the dealers selling for over list price through markups.

Dealers on average add 15-20% to the cost of cars, in their overhead - marketing, sales commissions, SPIFs, etc. And these days, insane markups due to car shortages have tripled dealer profits year-over-year. That’s how Tesla can match the traditional car companies on price and still make over 3x the margin. And when…

Why? Combustion engines are only 25% efficient - they waste 75% of the energy in gasoline as noise, heat and pollution. There’s a reason that EVs cost 1/4 as much per mile to run.

There have been a series of radical innovations in battery technology, and there are a stream of improvements coming. The costs came down from $10,000/kWh in the 1970s to nearly $100/kWh now, and it’s continuing to come down - Tesla’s new 4680 batteries are cheaper to make, and much cheaper to assemble, than the…