Comment by S_A_P | Hacker News Reader

Comment by S_A_P | Hacker News Reader

Im a fan of what Tesla is doing from a distance. I cant afford any Tesla that fits my needs at the moment. Im not 100% sold on their viability long term, but glad that they are in business if at least to spur the incumbents into innovation.

That said, the Chevy Bolt is not Teslas dream car. That car is ugly, awkward and poorly conceived. It may check out on the spec sheet but there is no passion or personality in that car. Tesla is at least trying to build cars that are desirable as well as efficient, and whether or not they hit the mark, you can see that they are trying to do that.

I understand there is a demographic out there that doesn't care what their car looks like, and maybe that is what they were shooting for when they designed the bolt, but that is not a car I would ever drive. The Model 3 looks upmarket enough to satisfy aesthetics as well as practicality. The Bolt looks like what it is, a frankenstein model that had its ICE powertrain swapped with an electric one. Doing that required design compromises that just don't look good. This criticism carries over to BMW with their i series as well. The i3 is ugly and poor performing, and the i8 is impractical and expensive.

Until GM/BMW/VW/FCA/Ford/ETC start with a real electric platform designed for both efficiency and driving dynamics they will never succeed. Part of me thinks they realize that electrification will largely lead to commoditization and remove a big chunk of the profits that are derived from ICE differentiation, and they don't want that.

This being the top post is bad news at many levels. As a Volt owner, I am more than satisfied by that car, and passionately recommend it to people. The BoltEV is perhaps unsexy, but its dimensions are practical and the reviews are overall good.

Its the only long distance practical EV for at least couple of years for all markets in US, until Model 3 and Leaf Gen 2 come out.

edit: here is the review of the car, http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/2017-chevrolet-bolt-ev-f...

I think your second sentence is wrong or at least very misleading. The bolt is not the only long distance practical ev. The tesla model s and x are exactly that. The bolt is cheaper, and has great range (less than existing teslas), but the bolt is much less practical because it charges much more slowly and has a drastically less comprehensive and less reliable network. The tesla covers the country and has been shown to be reliable.

The bolt is a great car, but its recharging network makes it far less reliable as a long distance car. It's shorter range is part of that, but its not as important as the fast recharger network availability.

It was said in another post but it bears repeating - you might find that ugly, to my eyes it is indistinguishable from a good 50% of the cars on the road in the country I live in - the UK. I personally am not satisfied with an average hatchback, it seems most people are though.

I agree with you about the BMW i3. The i8 is pretty though...

> The i8 is pretty though...

It is, and it's not a car you buy for practicality.

There are a lot of people (mostly in NA, it seems) who reflexively call every hatch ugly. I guess. Eye of the beholder, and all. But I'll take a _better_ car over a _prettier_ car every day. And that's assuming that I even think hatches are ugly, which I don't.

The funny counterpoint to those people is that the Tesla Model S IS a 5-door hatchback! (Albeit a big one)

It IS possible to make a "better" AND a "prettier" car at the same time. They aren't mutually exclusive...

Yup, some people get pedantic and call it a "liftback", either way it's got a ton of usable storage because of it.

It's not pedantic. Liftbacks sacrifice rear visibility and read headroom for that sedan-like shape.

As the OP and being from NA let me clarify that I am a fan of hatchbacks and even "wagons/avants" GASP! When I have the disposable income, I want an Audi S6 avant for weekend fun/repair projects. My distaste for the Bolt/Volt is my general distaste for GM styling (specifically that of Chevy) and quality issues.

> There are a lot of people (mostly in NA, it seems) who reflexively call every hatch ugly.

Not NA, more like US. Canadians do like hatchbacks.

From the looks of the Bolt, it appears that GM expects Europe to be its primary market.

The American aversion to hatches is why we don't get sexy cars like the BMW 1 series hatch.

However, GM took the decision not to launch in the UK. :(

I actually like how it looks. It looks like a plain regular compact hatchback. I hate how manufacturers feel the need to design all EV cars with black shiny plastic trims all over the place, weird lights and a hatch door that is ugly and non functional.

I don't feel the need for my car to scream "Look! A'm electric car! And you people are all ICEhole."

I think the current (huh, pun) Bolt looks fine, but then I drive a 1988 Mazda 323, paid $900 for it.

I just want an EV that gets me to the beach and back (120k round trip) and then to work and back the next day (6k round trip) that I can put roof racks on. And I want to buy it second for under AU$15,000.

I don't really care what it looks like, but I do find the BMW i3 weird looking. I will probably wash it twice a year.

Not everyone wants a luxury looking car, or a car with sports styling.

> That car is ugly, awkward and poorly conceived

It's a cheap family sedan. It's the car you buy because you need a second car so the other parent can get around all day. This car is targeted at people who buy Volt's, Corollas, Focus, etc...

If you want passion and personality from a chevy you are looking buying a Camaro, or a Corvette.

and it looks worlds better than the ugly as sin i3.

To my eyes there is hardly anything uglier than the Tesla Model X, and Tesla's interiors are garbage across the board. You can't _see_ anything in the Tesla except for the gigantic TV. Maybe I'm strange, but I feel that being able to see out of the vehicle at night is still very important in these waning days of the human-driven car.

Unfortunately many EV makers are trying to ape Tesla's look and feel, so the Bolt includes a large but not enormous touchscreen display, and graphical instruments as well. But at least they are using hard knobs and buttons for the climate controls.

You do know that at dawn/dusk Tesla switches to a night-mode that's dark themed? Never been an issue seeing at night.

There's still a ton of light coming out of it no matter what color the panel thinks it is displaying. If it was OLED that would be one thing but it's not. I find driving in my Tesla at night to be very disturbing. I know I'm not in the majority any more since I see so many people driving down the freeway at night with a huge phablet mounted front and center on their windshield, but those people are universally crazy.

At night your car's instruments should be very gently illuminated by red or amber lights or LEDs, the way baby Jesus meant for things to be when he invented the BMW E30.

http://i.imgur.com/Yt4n7.jpg?4661

Every car maker and model has to reinvent things like the speed dial, in an ever worsening way. When the good, the intermediate and the bad designs have all been done, only truly atrocious gimmicks are left.

You can either use automatic adjustment of brightness and color scheme when it gets dark, or you can adjust it yourself. You can make it so dark you can barely see anything. It's not a problem in practice.

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