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Mercedes-Benz scales back electric ambitions as EV pessimism grows
(arstechnica.com)
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this post was submitted on 22 Feb 2024
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It’s not EV’s I’m skeptical of hey.
It’s the cars they are making. The evs are all quite expensive and then all new cars seem to be taking the opportunity to tack on all these extra subscriptions and such.
I’m never buying a car where heated seats are bound to my car app account on a subscription like seriously…
Most of the car subscription items don't bother me. Many are like cosmetic skins in game. The car still works well without them. Lets look at Tesla just because they are popular:
None of that stuff is required and the usability and features of the car are still really good.
Further, for many of those factory hardware locked features there are one-time aftermarket solutions to enable them from third parties, though I have never had the need or desire for those things.
Honestly it’s sort of the principle of it.
Like the car has it, it’s already cost the manufacturer to install it sure there are ongoing dev costs for some things, but not all.
On top of that many manufacturers are locking the features to the one person.
So for example I pay for heated seats. Then I sell the car, and the new owner has to “buy” heated seats again.
I’m sorry I’m not supporting that bullshit or the manufacturers who are doing this one bit even if I don’t pay for a feature.
On top of that there are issues with servicing and also forced firmware updates.
A friend was late to work the other day because his Tesla was doing an update when he tried to leave, like what happens if someone was trying to rush a partner to a hospital or something and you happen to jump in the car as it’s mid way through an update.
I want to be in control of the things I own and pay for, that’s the whole point of owning something. Car manufacturers these days seem to be under the delusion that they still own our vehicles and we are just the money sacks they are renting them to.
This has been going on for a while, but seem much much worse on the electric cars.
Also frankly the infrastructure isn’t there in many places around the world.
It’s not just waiting to charge the car that’s the issue, it’s waiting for the charger… when each vehicle takes up to 30min-an hour to get a meaningful amount of range back suddenly you need like 10x as many charging stations as you had petrol/diesel pumps.
And while this may be in place in some places in the world it’s not in most. Add this to the fact that charging points are often out of order well you start to see the issue.
I know this isn't an obvious point, but if you got the car how you wanted it, it would actually cost more for things you may not care about. The complaint then would be "why is the car so expensive? Why don't they sell a more basic version?"
When a manufacture has to actually build different cars with different features at time of manufacture it drives up the costs for ALL models. They can't easy substitution when market conditions change and could be stuck with only the premium versions which cost more. A great example of this is the Ford Lightning. There were as many as 12 different model/trim levels. One of the primary complaints of prospective buyers is only the premium priced versions were on dealership lots. This is what you get.
The car is cheaper with the addons disabled. If forced to sell with all addons enabled, the car would be much more expensive for things may people don't care about.
I'm not understanding your argument here. If we're talking Tesla, and you bought the $2k Acceleration Boost, if you sold the car to someone, that $2k feature would still be there. Who is removing paid enabled addons? Can you cite an example?
Besides NTSB recall firmware updates, a you can make a Tesla not force a firmware update. It may nag though.
This isn't something new though, its just the delivery. About 18 years ago, there was a Honda firmware that I DID NOT WANT INSTALLED. I had to take the Honda 2003 car to a Honda dealer for warranty work, and SPECIFICALLY TOLD THEM NOT TO INSTALL THAT FIRMWARE. They did anyway. So this is nothing new to EVs or even modern cars.
Your friend may not have told you the whole story.
A Tesla firmware will prompt you when it wants to install. It will tell you "this takes about 25 minutes to complete and the car will be unusable during that time". You can choose to install it immediately by pressing the button when prompted, or set a time for it to wake the car and install it. Even if you accidentally say "install now" it gives you a 2 minute countdown on screen to cancel it. So your buddy either scheduled it to install 30 min before he was supposed to go to work, or he hit the button to install it, waited for the entire 2 minute cancellation period to expire and did nothing.
You're projecting for a problem that likely won't happen in the scale you're describing. Battery tech is evolving fast. Modern batteries can charge in a fraction of time of those even sold 3 years ago. This charging speed of battery as well as faster chargers look to be solving this.
Further, 80% of EV drivers charge at home. source Nearly 0% of petrol drivers refuel at home, so comparing the two isn't equivalent.
No. The add ons are already installed. The car would not cost the manufacturer any more money. Turning on your pre-installed heated seat does not cost them any money. In fact it would have been cheaper to not install a blocking mechanism.
So now we have to pay for all this equipment on the car that we don't want or need. We have to pay for their subscription mechanism that's already in the car as well. And then if we did want to use a feature, we'd have to pay that subscription to turn it on.
That's the definition of rent seeking behavior. They haven't added any actual value for that second payment. They merely blocked you from using part of what you already bought until you paid them an arbitrary amount.
Except those add ons wouldn't be in the car if the OP got their way. If "its installed already turn it on for free" was the action, then manufacturers wouldn't put those addons in. They'd have to create separate versions of the cars with, say, seat heaters and not instead. That doesn't save you, the consumer, money. It makes it *more expensive for you because they now have to have separate production line options, inventory management, logistics, etc.
Except you're NOT paying for it. Its in there, but the manufacturer REDUCED THE CAR COST TO YOU by disabling it.
I've seen third party workaround options for paid seat heaters. So no, you wouldn't have to pay a subscription if you used those.
I'm sorry has the cost of a car gone down at any point? No? Then it's not cheaper is it? It might be cheaper to make, but then if that's true we're paying for installed items plus an extra monopoly premium.
Which is called rent seeking behavior.
This is a bad faith statement. You're not an idiot and you're well aware that thousands of different inputs raise or lower the overall price of a car including basic things like inflationary actions which have nothing to do with the components of the car, but result in prices increases of the car.
I could probably find an equally bad faith statement indeed showing the car being cheaper because of the prior increases in 2020 during the pandemic shortage, but I'm not going to find a misleading statement to back that up just to score "points". Its not honest, and I"m not willing to do that.
If this is the level of conversation that we're now at, I think we've reach the end of it being productive.
Have a nice day.
Oh no, I'll give you inflation. But the "real" cost of an average new car hasn't ever gone down. So if they're making them for lower costs and charging DLC for them...
Ew. No, fuck tesla.
Sure fine, fuck tesla, but can you separate your feelings from Tesla for a moment to discuss the topic or do we need to shop for a brand that you are okay discussing that also has paid addon features before you contribute to the discussion?
That was my contribution to the discussion. Have a nice day!
You didn't tell us about what you had for breakfast, the weather in your locality, or perhaps your current bathroom habits yet. Each would have been equal to your contribution to the conversation so far.
Thank you for taking the time out of your day to tell me what a waste of time my comment was.
You're quite welcome! You did the same for me in starting this tangent, so it was the least I could do. Have a nice day!