So much this. Why do car companies de-prioritize outward visibility so much? Are pedestrian crash requirements that onerous? Do the U.S. safety standards require pillar airbags to restrain unbelted occupants?
scramboleer
scramboleer
The beltline on this reminds me of the Mazda MX-30; it’s a few inches too high. The sheetmetal looks like it came from one car, and the greenhouse looks like it came from another. Like the MX-3o, it makes me wonder about outward visibility which I consider an important part of both safety as well as the joy of driving.
My co-worker had one. Borrowed it back then for an evening with my now wife. Great car. With DC fast charging, it would have been a great replacement for my wife’s 2002 325Ci.
That point on demand is hilarious when customers (in the U.S. anyway) don’t have many options beyond small hatchbacks and luxury EVs. In scrolling down the list of top 25 best-selling “cars” in the U.S., how many have a plug-in option or an equivalent?
Rivian is also opening up a showroom and service center in a former body shop in Hayes Valley, San Francisco. https://socketsite.com/archives/2021/02/rivian-automotive-has-set-its-sights-on-hayes-valley.html
I’d be all over a Wagoneer Trailhawk 4xe in a flash. Or at least a plug-in hybrid version of the Wagoneer with the “off-road” option.
Drove a Bolt for months. Great EV; good, but cheap car. Drove a Niro EV thereafter. Great EV; great car that didn’t make you feel cheap.
Kia and Hyundai (IMO) are the ones to watch in the U.S. They seem to be taking the playbook of Honda and Toyota in the 1980s and 1990s while offering a slew of plug-in options, some PHEV for more traditional buyers and some full BEV like this one. In the meantime, Toyota and Honda are busy trying to find an exterior…
How is this a surprise? These folks and their claims have raised a lot of questions since day 1.
That’s awesome. Pretty crazy that the specs on a 20+-year-old EV van meet or exceed the average driving route for the USPS mail van today (20.8 miles at 13.6 mph).
This. It’s like the stylists of the Accord and Civic took a Gobot, a Transformer, a Pokeman, and an American car of the 1970s Malaise Era. The combined result is what we see.
I’d also add that the Hyundai/Kia group appears to have a very strong product roadmap over the next few years. They appear to be exploiting a gap in the North American market where the Japanese sell well-made cars that look like Transformer rejects and the Big 3 (ish) focus on all the trucks.
Oh. Good point.
Yeah, maybe we are a market size of one, but I was hoping - but not expecting - for a Wagoneer Trailhawk 4xe at launch. Maybe a Grand Cherokee L Trailhawk 4xe is coming later this year. One can hope.
What... where is the Wagoneer Trailhawk 4xe?
Average driving route? 20.8 miles
https://www.nypa.gov/news/press-releases/2020/20201005-maid-of-the-mist
Not true. EVs are cleaner no matter what the energy source: https://evtool.ucsusa.org/. They also get cleaner as the grid gets cleaner over time.
True. But the electric utilities are unlikely to develop their own charging stations, just like they don’t develop transformers. Instead, they may turn to the free market which gladly sells them (Electrify America, EVgo, etc.). Aside from Tesla, the walled gardens of all of the private charging networks is rough at…