I just came back from Thailand. I got a Grab and driver pulls up in a BYD. I have never been in one. It is a really nice car from what I can see. I asked dude how much the car was. He said it was under ฿1M Which is $30,000 US. I was shocked.
He said it was under ฿1M Which is $30,000 US. I was shocked.
That’s what heavily state subsidised and controlled manufacturing will get you. Not saying it’s bad, but it is just the reason they’re so cheap compared to many other brands that are not subsidised as heavily from their government.
Probably analogous to command economy? Basically all industry is centrally planned, so it’s not company A decides it wants to make some widget and company b decides they want to use company A’s widget in their new product that they’ve independently decided to make. The government says we need <product> which needs <widget>, thus company A shall make <widget> and company B will use <widget> to make <product>.
This is by no means an accurate representation of the whole system or an opinion on either, but just to give a simple idea of the difference.
I’ve only tried the peugeot 208 electric version, but my God is it an absolutely shit vehicle. Terrible range, terrible charging speed (much bigger issue than the limited range), bad driver assistances. Their TACC is about the worst I’ve tried with random phantom brakes all the time and poor reaction time (both reducing and increasing speed). All in all it feels much cheaper than it actually is, which is too bad.
The range is poor by design, keeping the vehicle price low while having still a steep margin due to cheaping out on the battery. This way urban affluent populations get the e vehicle while the rural populations get the benzin one since the electric version is borderline useless in a rural setting. Its a sad state of affairs. Regarding the rest, I couldn’t disagree more, had a completely opposite experience with the 208 E.
I could also live with low range, as you said it’s intentional to keep battery price low. But the damn charging speed is also bad, which is arguably more important than a large battery and doesn’t impose the same price increase as a large battery.
Regarding driver assistances like TACC, I’m not sure how you could be satisfied with it’s performance at all, it is by far the worst I’ve ever tried.
What are you charging with? I have a 208E and whilst I have issues with it, charging speed isn’t one of them. Will usually receive 75+KWh at a fast charger (registers as 300+ mph on the dash). My home 7KWh charger will charge the car from practically flat to 90% in 5 hours (registers as 28mph on dash).
What actually drives me mad about this car is
You can’t go into reverse unless you are at a dead stop. Do as your told please.
The keys will unlock the car by proximity which also interrupts charging. Some chargers don’t recover so I have to do the reconnect dance (and pay the prepay again)
I don’t ever use the radio, but it always comes on when I start the car, FFS
When using cruise control it will complain that I need to hold the steering wheel. Well I am! I have to move my hands all over the steering wheel or it will cancel cruise.
Related to previous, but if cruise gets cancelled, so does lane keeping.
I wish it remembered to keep regenerative braking enabled. I feel like a jet pilot going through start up motions each time I start the car.
The auto braking system can be a bit trigger happy and try and break my neck.
The speed camera warnings are really good. But the chirping sound it makes can be deafening. Why does it keep going to max volume?
The Peugeot app is less than useless. Has a good list of features, but it is unreliable.
Probably more. I like the look of the car. It drives great. It’s nippy from a stand still. Range is shit. Overall 6/10.
It’s the 75kW on a DC charger thats slow, decade old cars are getting better speeds than that and cars a couple of years old are 200kW+ on DC with some peaking at 300kW.
The 7kW AC charging is also annoying because they limit it by using single phase charging, especially if you’re in a country where 32A single phase current is not normal in residential areas. Then you’re limited to 16A which is only 3.5kW, meaning you can barely charge it in a night. There is just no good reason to do single phase charging on new cars.
I just came back from Thailand. I got a Grab and driver pulls up in a BYD. I have never been in one. It is a really nice car from what I can see. I asked dude how much the car was. He said it was under ฿1M Which is $30,000 US. I was shocked.
I saw hybrids and electric cars everywhere there.
That’s what heavily state subsidised and controlled manufacturing will get you. Not saying it’s bad, but it is just the reason they’re so cheap compared to many other brands that are not subsidised as heavily from their government.
Are there many country governments that don’t subsidize their transportation industry?
I heard about the heavy state subsidies from someone living there. Sounds good to me.
What does controlled manufacturing mean?
Probably analogous to command economy? Basically all industry is centrally planned, so it’s not company A decides it wants to make some widget and company b decides they want to use company A’s widget in their new product that they’ve independently decided to make. The government says we need <product> which needs <widget>, thus company A shall make <widget> and company B will use <widget> to make <product>.
This is by no means an accurate representation of the whole system or an opinion on either, but just to give a simple idea of the difference.
Meanwhile, the US market keeps pumping out oversized, overpriced EVs all while the manufacturers complain about lukewarm consumer demand.
Same in the EU, though its changing slowly. The French started a Trend with affordable, smaller EVs.
I’ve only tried the peugeot 208 electric version, but my God is it an absolutely shit vehicle. Terrible range, terrible charging speed (much bigger issue than the limited range), bad driver assistances. Their TACC is about the worst I’ve tried with random phantom brakes all the time and poor reaction time (both reducing and increasing speed). All in all it feels much cheaper than it actually is, which is too bad.
The range is poor by design, keeping the vehicle price low while having still a steep margin due to cheaping out on the battery. This way urban affluent populations get the e vehicle while the rural populations get the benzin one since the electric version is borderline useless in a rural setting. Its a sad state of affairs. Regarding the rest, I couldn’t disagree more, had a completely opposite experience with the 208 E.
I could also live with low range, as you said it’s intentional to keep battery price low. But the damn charging speed is also bad, which is arguably more important than a large battery and doesn’t impose the same price increase as a large battery.
Regarding driver assistances like TACC, I’m not sure how you could be satisfied with it’s performance at all, it is by far the worst I’ve ever tried.
What are you charging with? I have a 208E and whilst I have issues with it, charging speed isn’t one of them. Will usually receive 75+KWh at a fast charger (registers as 300+ mph on the dash). My home 7KWh charger will charge the car from practically flat to 90% in 5 hours (registers as 28mph on dash).
What actually drives me mad about this car is
Probably more. I like the look of the car. It drives great. It’s nippy from a stand still. Range is shit. Overall 6/10.
It’s the 75kW on a DC charger thats slow, decade old cars are getting better speeds than that and cars a couple of years old are 200kW+ on DC with some peaking at 300kW.
The 7kW AC charging is also annoying because they limit it by using single phase charging, especially if you’re in a country where 32A single phase current is not normal in residential areas. Then you’re limited to 16A which is only 3.5kW, meaning you can barely charge it in a night. There is just no good reason to do single phase charging on new cars.
There is a 3 phase 11Kw option for the car you could have had :( I don’t think they retrofit them though.
If they love Rand so much, let the market decide. Fucking cowards.
They are outlawed in the US. As to why we don’t see them. They have fully robotic fabrication at their facilities. No humans involved.
Land of the free ^for the rich^.
No. It’s to protect domestic manufacturing. It helps save union jobs.
Union jobs like at Tesla?
I understand. But it’s protecting the Big 3. Not Tesla.