2024 North American Car, Truck, and SUV of the Year finalists

[GearheadGrrrl]

16 minutes ago, DeluxeStang said:

Darren Palmer, Ford's head of EV development and an all around awesome dude said Ford will rectify this with a future software update. That could mean giving drivers 7 seconds of full power, or it could be something more substantial, he was very vague and didn't say how much better it would be. 

 

The mach-e is already super fast when it comes to low end acceleration, but I'll concede, it struggles with top end relative to other sporty EV offerings. I think it's basically a guarantee that the second gen mach-e won't have these power limiters, so it's not gonna be an issue for much longer. 

That might help, autocross is usually a minute or less sprint with short spurts of acceleration between very tight corners so if the Mach-E could do the course without derating it might be competitive. still, it got thrown in at the deep end of the pool in the fastest class while the Bolt got thrown in SCCA's slowest autocross class, H/Street, where it hasn't exactly set the world on fire due to it's near thousand pound weight disadvantage to the Hondas and GTIs. 

[jpd80]

3 hours ago, silvrsvt said:

 

Circling back to my thoughts on this-the problem is that even though your MPGs (which is a terrible measurement for it anyways) might be double of a regular ICE car, the actual improvement in the best case PHEV is only about 1/2 of an ICE only car.

 

So what is the point of spending extra money on a PHEV if people don't use it properly (not all will) and they will just default back to driving it like a regular car (and would have been better off getting a HEV anyways if they did that)

The point being that Euro regulators are rating the PHEVs as though they are in charge sustain

and several counties tax road use based on the amount of pollution released so has a snowball effect.

The other part of that is the need to travel in charge sustain to get to ZEV zones and have enough range to avoid any tolls or fines.

 

2 hours ago, GearheadGrrrl said:

True, but unless they've got center of gravity data showing there safe, the Sports Car Club of America bans cars that are taller than their track width from autocross. Mach E is allowed so they must have found the data somewhere, but they put it in the fastest street class, S/S, with some the fastest pony cars and Corvettes. They'd need the GT's power to be competitive, and that drivetrain can only deliver full power for 5 seconds.

That also reminds me of the outdated drag race rules and at one time,  the road going Tesla S  

was actually too quick/fast over the quarter and required roll cage and a parachute to comply.

Its good to see that the knuckle draggers in Motorsport are slowly changing the rules, imagine

what happens when guys start modifying teslas to be really fast, ICE cars become dinosaurs…

 

Edited November 26, 2023 by jpd80

[GearheadGrrrl]

I suspect what is happening in charging EVs in the EU is a repeat of GE's experience when they supplied their salesforce with Volt company cars- Instead of charging at home at their cost, they fueled up like usual at the gas station on the company credit cards! Given that fleet sales dominate the UK market and probably all of Europe, PHEV drivers may be fueling on company credit cards instead of charging at home at their expense?

[HotRunrGuy]

1 hour ago, GearheadGrrrl said:

I suspect what is happening in charging EVs in the EU is a repeat of GE's experience when they supplied their salesforce with Volt company cars- Instead of charging at home at their cost, they fueled up like usual at the gas station on the company credit cards! Given that fleet sales dominate the UK market and probably all of Europe, PHEV drivers may be fueling on company credit cards instead of charging at home at their expense?

 

Having had a company car for 30+ years, with unlimited personal use, and all gas paid for by the company, why would I choose to pay for the charging at home, unless I was getting compensated?

 

HRG

Edited November 26, 2023 by HotRunrGuy

[GearheadGrrrl]

1 hour ago, HotRunrGuy said:

 

Having had a company car for 30+ years, with unlimited personal use, and all gas paid for by the company, why would I choose to pay for the charging at home, unless I was getting compensated?

 

HRG

That's exactly what GE should have expected, but apparently they don't think that far ahead. Even more amazing given that GE had a sizable business managing fleets for other companies...

[Texasota]

17 hours ago, silvrsvt said:

So what is the point of spending extra money on a PHEV if people don't use it properly (not all will) and they will just default back to driving it like a regular car (and would have been better off getting a HEV anyways if they did that)

Because with the federal tax credit PHEVs can cost less or about the same as a HEV.  I accept that some people don't charge PHEVs as they should but we'll never know to an accurate degree how big or small that number is. I can only speak for myself, but my Escape PHEV is always plugged in when it is not being driven.

 

The Escape PHEV is a great car, fits my needs perfectly and I'm buying no gas for my local driving. Another bonus about a PHEV is I'll still be driving to the grocery store if the grid goes down and I'll still be driving to the grocery store if gasoline is unavailable at an affordable cost. The dual fuel flexibility is attractive to me. A small solar PV system I am planning will provide even more self sufficiency.

Edited November 26, 2023 by Texasota

[CKNSLS]

On 11/20/2023 at 8:15 AM, rperez817 said:

 

That's correct Chrisgb, not unless Ford makes substantial changes to FCEV Super Duty in its second year.  Or introduces a new Super Duty Variant, like Super Duty Lightning/BEV in that timeframe. NACTOY says that "The process of selecting the Car, Truck and Utility Vehicle of the Year begins with a “long list” of all eligible new or substantially changed vehicles for that year". About NACTOY - The North American Car, Utility and Truck of the Year (northamericancaroftheyear.org)

 

As an example, Ford F-150 won the truck award for NACTOY multiple times (2023, 2021, 2015, 2009, 2004, 1996) but in each case it involved a redesign or a new variant.

 

It has to be sustainably changed in order to be considered. It's one of the criteria.

[iamweasel]

On 11/25/2023 at 10:55 PM, DeluxeStang said:

I'm not gonna lie, I love this little thing. I love the fact that it's actually pretty affordable, I love the fact that it's fast as hell, and I love the fact that it looks great. Designing something to look fresh, and sporty, but also timeless, is really hard to pull off, but they nailed it here. Something about the front arches, and the hood cut line made me think of the gen 1 Audi TT, and that made me love it even more. 

 

I don't know if I trust to reliability of newer volvos as much as the reliability of Ford or Tesla EVs. But if this thing turns out to be reliable, it has a good chance of being my family's first EV. I've proposed turning the escape into a sporty street focused EV crossover in order to make it more appealing. This mixed with the mach-e is what I have in mind. 

 

I like it,,,but given Volvo is essentially Chinese now that is a hard NO for me......