balthazar

The mercedes evcuv will look like every other cuv they’ve built over the last 15 years. The camo is unnecessary.

- - - - - Now for some mind soap :

Mathmatically, that translates to an unchanged market. If we use 2000 & 100,000 to represent the 2.0% of current EV marketshare, multiplying by the percentages above gives EVs a market share of 2.1%. The 5% difference is negligible when your slice of the pie is so tiny. - - - - - For EVs to "account" for 31% of the overall fleet of vehicles in 20 years' time, they will have to average 4.12 million sales per year starting immediately (31% of 275,000,000 is 82,500,000/20). But US & global EV sales peaked in 2018, and were down in 2019. 2019's US sales were 330,000, a bit shy of 4.1 million. And being that 2020 sales are going to be terrible, let's just call it 4.34 million U.S. EV sales starting 1/1/21. GOOD LUCK with that!! And; MATH.

And vice versa. Since the 1920s at least. - - - - Somewhat fawning...

• Driver-side rear brake is now done. That side drum (brand new) was painted satin black hi-temp paint, still have to spray the passenger drum. • Painted up some of the parking brake hardware and bolted it under the car. Funky wheels to direct the cable toward the back. Have to do fabrication there, will tinker with that soon. • Thinking again about the front speakers- most likely spot is in the doors. I generally don't like that look but maybe I can mask them / make them work with the door panel. Mulling. But I put the vent window back in the door to check how much space I have. • There was some of this, accompanied by Sounds of Brutal Acceleration :

I don't think that was the point. Rather; that the volume of e-class fleet/taxi perhaps warrants s slightly higher degree of quality to maintain that revenue stream. Aren't all e-class built in Germany & exported?

sod house, Nebraska Territory, 1884 :

Not currently. But you CAN build/buy a GT500 at Ford.

M340injected is the top trim/performance model in the 3-series. But NONe of the 3 American models you compared it to are the top performance models. That’s the problem.

'57 DeSoto Adventurer nonchalantly chillin' next to service station. 1 of 300 built, it has sold as high as $340,000.

I JUST illustrated how those numbers are incorrect.

CT5 Sport starts at $43K. It's not going to sell that low. CT5-V starts at $49K. It's not going to sell that low. CT5-V AWD starts at $51K. It's not going to sell that low. My local dealer has 15 listed on their website. 13 are over $50K, so there goes your 'commonly $45K, $46K, $47K, $48K, $49K' out the window. The bulk are $52-54K. The top 2 are stickered at $64K and $66K. Blackwing not released yet.

Answer this question; how many luxury vehicles are sold with zero options? If your answer is (rightfully) 'none', then how is base MSRP a factor in any way if that number is never paid? - - - - - merceds is likely too small/ cramped/ underpowered/ old to be cross-shopped. It was refreshed for '20 but I doubt consumers do anything but assume it's the same since 2013. toyoter people shun luxury vehicles. According to your narrative, the TLX doesn't compete because it's FWD (same with the CLA).

Both rear wheel wells are painted, and the pass rear brake is rebuilt. Have Kevlar-impregnated shoes and finally got the right parking brake hardware. The rears are actually MoPar brakes- a direct fit onto the Dana 60 axle. The 'ME' is Moser Engineering axle shafts- the good stuff. Ain't snapping dem babies.

Here we go again with that same broken, invalid comparison of base MSRPs.

I've been on a plane I think 4 times in 30 years. Not a big traveler.

Sedans are going to die off at a frightening rate in 2020-21.

To clarify; I don't have a problem with EV vehicles existing, and they have some tangible advantages. Ocnblu doesn't seem to want them to exist, if I may be boldly assumptive. Now, an EV would not work for me- I need the same size truck I have now, I cannot park inside so I'd have to run an extension cord out to it daily, then coil it up in the morning/stow it (that might fall under "maintenance" for some), and I don't have $125,000 budgeted for a Bolinger. But that's not to say I wish to deny Bolinger to try and sell it's truck. That also doesn't mean I believe all the futurist unicorn fart babble that everything's wonderful and these EV start-ups are all in perfect health / going to last 100 years. There is wishful thinking and there is reality. You can't tell me anyone is making money on a production EV in the big picture.

Longevity and future non-automotive usage does not impact new cost in any way. While claims of 'slashed cost' are all well and good, there's still 2 hurdles to clear; 1. it has to actually happen, and 2. the OEM has to pass those reduced costs onto the consumer. With profit margins on EVs currently non-existent, I wouldn't hold my breath that's going to happen anytime soon. The consumer doesn't remotely care what a component costs the manufacturer.

Both motive method autos feature plenty of ‘connectivity’, and almost no one does their own maintenance, so that’s not a major factor either. Whats probably a larger factor is Tesla quality issues, not maintenance. The claim that EVs now are where IC was in the beginning is invalid, as I’ve outlined. Besides, EVs were there in the beginning, too; so in addition to not being a different thing, they’re not a ‘new thing’.

I would prefer to drive than fly also, but auto travel is no where near as safe as air travel.

^ And I disagree with that link; far too broad and focuses more on carriages as vehicles than horses as the 'engine'. Carriage companies as a composite number saw the exact same thing the auto industry did; consolidation and survival of the fittest. Look at cell phone companies in 2000 vs. now. The 'cell phone < smart phone' is equally as illegitimate as the 'horse<auto' comparison. The smart phone does tons of different things that the cell phone could not. Note how each succeeding generation of smart phone has lesser & lesser upgrades over the previous one. The EV auto doesn't do much of anything differently than the IC auto. Functionally it's identical. Problem is- it costs too damned much. And with no signs of that dropping, gas being dirt cheap & getting moreso by the day... AND millions out of work- the EV business model just slammed head-on into a bridge abutment.

I think we tend to have a romanticized ideal that horses were owned for transportation, when the (private) owner primarily had them for work [race horses (then & now) are a different category]. Folk owned horses for work, and, since they were right there; used them for occasional transportation too, but that was not their usual purpose. Yes- there were exceptions. A horse carried 1 (sometimes 2) people, out in the weather, at 5-10 MPH. Or 3 or 4 or 5, but then you'd need a wagon and another horse (and you'd be going slower yet). Tractors took over the work of horses, but no one drove their tractor to town for transportation; they took their Model T. The tractor replaced the common horse. Autos were a new category. They enabled at-will / discretionary transportation. At speed, protected from the weather. A Model T could do 40+. With a top. It got 17-18 MPH with a 10-gal tank, for a range of 170-180 miles. That was 8 or 10 times what a horse would do in a day. Electric-powered autos do the exact same fundamental and functional things an IC auto does; carry 1-5 passengers, protected from the weather, with radio & comfortable seats & A/C, at 75 MPH for hours at a time. That right there is why full replacement will take FAR longer than all the so-called experts/analysts claim. The only metric that will change that faster than the last 20+ year's history is a substantially lower price than the equivalent IC auto.

• People clamor and cry for public chargers, and use them regularly, despite having functioning outlets in their homes. I see it all the time, daily. • Prices dropping on components has yet to translate to the MSRP. Tesla -arguably the largest & most efficient EV maker, has RAISED the cost of getting into a Tesla. • We're sitting at 2% of sales after 20 years, and you really think we're going to see another 92% in another 20 years??? We were told we'd already be at 50% in another 4. • There are no "EV high profits"- Tesla eeked out a profit in what- 5 of 35 quarters? They need another 8 years to just break even- you can't just wave away the billions lost in the past. 'EV high profits', right now, are as real as the Mercedes One vaporcar. • People who value old cars, for the vast majority, value how they were built new. There'll be a few folk who electrifiy old cars, but that's not an incoming tide for the segment, sorry.