Comment by dragontamer | Hacker News Reader

Comment by dragontamer | Hacker News Reader

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I'm a big fan of Toyota Prius Prime and RAV4 Prime. (High efficiency vehicles, Prius Prime is #1 most green car of ACEEE list, etc. etc.). But people buying Tesla aren't aligned to Toyota.

But a better match to culture is likely Jeep Wrangler 4xe. Incredible offroading performance, reasonable towing capacity, large size / in-your-face advertising to some extent. And electrified, so that your daily commute is efficient and environmentally friendly.

Etc. etc. There's a lot of competition these days. People who buy Toyota / Honda are people who care #1 about reliability and simplicity.

But "Tesla Buyers" are more excited about niche features or feeling like their car can do something other cars cannot do (even if they never actually use that feature). And honestly, vehicles like Jeep Wrangler 4xe are best suited for that mindset.

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Or the new Dodge Charger EV. Now that Stellantis is making their EV push, I think Stellantis has better branding for what the stereotypical Tesla Buyer is going for... without the awfulness associated with Elon.

Naw, I and many people probably cross shopped Toyota's Prius Prime and Rav4 Prime with the Tesla Model Y. As of last fall and early this year, both models were barely to be found in Northern Virginia, and if you could find one within hours of where I live they were under huge dealership-fuckery with options and markups.

When I finally was able to test drive a standard 2023 Prius, I decided its cargo space was way too small for what I was looking for. When test driving a Rav4 (not Prime) I decided its visibility (for me, maybe this is highly personal) was absolutely terrible compared to the Model Y. Model Y prices were VERY competitive compared to Rav4 Primes anyway, so that's what I went with. I've been very happy with it.

> electrified, so that your daily commute is efficient and environmentally friendly.

Moving an off-road vehicle of over two tons to transport (usually) one person to work seems neither efficient nor environmentally friendly. The vehicle being electric doesn’t change that, as the electricity has to be generated somewhere.

I do nominally agree with you. But I'm also pretty sure I can't convince my coworker or my sister-in-law to switch off of their Jeep.

But switching them to a Jeep Wrangler 4xe is much easier. They seem more amendable to that idea, because they want an offroading vehicle so much. I do think its a bit of a "cosplay" situation because they only do offroading one or two times per year, but ... yeah.

Anyway, getting +5 MPG and electrifying the overall drive of a Jeep will save a ton of fuel. If I can't convince them to drive efficiently with a Corolla, I'm still happy to convince them to get a more environmentally friendly decision here.

We have EV sports cars, SUV, trucks and package vans but I have not seen an EV passenger van.

I suppose they are out of fashion right now but honestly that is the form factor that I would be most interested in. I could use it for both home projects but also with the longer body it would have have a fairly decent range so wouldn't be bad for the family road trips. I don't like the idea of having to stop every 2 or 3 hours, 4 would be more ideal.

Chrysler Pacifica PHEV should be mostly electric on daily drives and then gasoline for the long trips.

Honestly, passenger van / road trip vehicle makes the most sense in PHEV form factor out of all other styles IMO.

Yes on paper this looks like a great and very practical vehicle for many people, but boy am I hesitant to buy a Chrysler product with this amount of drivetrain complexity. You've got everything that can fail in a fairly high tech ICE drivetrain, plus everything that can fail in an EV drivetrain, made by the lowest reliability major automaker.

> You've got everything that can fail in a fairly high tech ICE drivetrain, plus everything that can fail in an EV drivetrain

You should seriously look up the drivetrain of hybrids.

The planetary gearset is a single set of gears that functions as the alternator/generator, the starter/EV motor, the transmission, and the engine driveshaft.

Its not "different" or "new" components. Its a singular design that accomplishes what 3x different parts of the car used to do seperately. There's a reason why Toyota Hybrids are $23k, its a lot cheaper and more efficient to do it this way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jofycaXByTc

You needed the starter anyway. When its beefed up to a full-size EV motor that can drive the car, its more powerful and more durable.

You needed the alternator anyway. When its beefed up to a full-sized generator, its more powerful and more durable.

When the ICE engine operates at its ideal RPM (rather than directly connected to the road), it can be made cheaper, more reliable, smaller, more efficiently than when its the only thing moving the car.

Hybrids are superior to ICE, and Prius shows how to do it with more reliability. Now yes, Chrysler is terrible with reliability, but that's nothing to do with Hybrids and everything to do with Chrysler.

The Volkswagen ID.Buzz (sic) is supposed to start selling in the US this summer.

I bought a new Wrangler last year, and I was sorely tempted by the 4xe, but Chrysler's track record with electronics is pretty poor. I'd lease one, but I don't think I'd buy one.

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