smk4565

I bash companies like Lucid for putting out a $150,000 sedan and saying, but oh wait the $80,000 version will follow shortly then it doesn’t show up. Or Ford when the Lightning came out, it was going to be $40k base but they basically just made limited trims for 2022 and upped the base price to $53,000 for 2023. GM is starting with the $105,000 Silverado, so how long before the regular version shows up and at what cost? I believe on the Equinox though the base model arrives first just as was the case with Cadillac Lyric. Mercedes did the same with the standard versions first and the AMG follows. I actually think GM is going to get it right. They are using names with recognition like Equinox and Blazer, not crap like EV6 or bz4x. And GM’s pricing seems to pretty good from what they say but a lot of these GM EV’s are 6-12 months away from dealerships. And you look at $40-43k for a VW or Toyota EV, if the Equinox is $33k that’s a huge win, because why pay $45k for a bz4x when you can just get a RAV4 for $30k unless you only want a Toyota and only want an EV. If the Equinox EV is even $33k with a $3750 tax credit, now it’s back under $30k and that is a no brainer to go EV over gas.

Low end cars will be the last ones with ICE powertrains due to price. It is easy to make $100,000 EV's and thus you can kill off your expensive ICE cars. It isn't easy to make an EV with a $21,000 base price like an Elantra or Corolla. I agree you have to go all the way through the model lineup with EV's but the cost parity isn't there yet. The Equinox EV if they deliver on that around $30k promise would be a great step, but I suspect the gasoline Equinox will be on sale at least another 10 years because it will still be cheaper (at least before you look at tax credits, fuel cost, maintenance, etc). The Mercedes lower end EV would be the sedan based on the Vision EQXX that is coming in 2025 model year. They are working top down, have to finish the top and middle range first.

Which would mean the C9 gets and ICE power plant. They could probably stretch the C8 out to 2030, especially when you look at how long the C4 lasted. If they do that you can probably move right to EV only, which is what I think they should do. EV is the future, and if GM wants to get there, it is easier to do on a high end low volume car than making something like an Equinox EV only.

I think the $104k is a fine price, but you can get a Stingray way cheaper. If the Stingray base price goes up a bit more then the E-Ray looks like a better deal.

The E-ray has some stuff standard that a Stingray doesn’t, but you could equip a Stingray for $70-75k and get what the E-Ray has at $105k. Toyota puts an electric motor on the rear axel of the Venza, Sienna and Highlander and I think it is standard on all of them. Throwing an electric motor on an axle doesn’t cost that much. If it was a $15-20k gap I could see that being reasonable.

If the C8 is the last Corvette with an ICE power plant then they might as well just continue on with the V8. And I never said get rid of the V8, I said do a 4 cylinder hybrid in the base car, and still do the V8 Z06 and V8 E-ray. Although in thinking about it, while I like the V8 hybrid idea, this is like a $30k price premium to add the hybrid, which seems like a lot.

I assume they are just going to stick with the V8 until ICE is killed off, maybe GM can make up their CAFE and emissions requirements elsewhere and doesn't care what the Corvette does. But it is possible to make a 4-cylinder hybrid that makes more horsepower and torque than this V8 hybrid, because it is has already been done. But if they need to get higher MPG out of the Corvette, or want to sell in other countries that have displacement taxes, they could easily replace the base 6.2 V8 with a 2.7T they have in house, add the same electric motor and end up with around 500 hp/500 lb-ft. Then you get AWD hybrids on every model, add it to the Z06 even.

I only read the main details but I like this. AWD hybrid is always a plus. And I wonder if they wouldn’t be well served to make all Corvettes hybrid in the coming years maybe post 2025 and you could do a turbo 4 in back with this electric motor up front and that would still make the power of the current V8 but get them much more mpg and help on the CAFE and emissions side.

People want a Honda, they don't want an Afeela, because they don't even know what an Afeela is. This is just yet another aero car with a plain, no style interior with screens. Boring.

Very concept that looks like production is a while away. I like how the tailgate folds out and has that extension on it, I always thought there should be a tailgate that folds out into a box to extend the bed.

Yay for more chargers and anyone can use these. So we need the EV charge network to get bigger. But what I don't get is why do all these EV chargers need some sort of app and an account to log in to. Why can't you just pull up and swipe your credit card like a gas pump. Also why aren't gas stations putting in EV chargers? Or are they just going to sell gas only another 15 -20 years then all close.

You have to keep eyes on the road with Super Cruise, with Drive Pilot you don't, you can do other tasks. Drive Pilot is the only level 3 system in the world. And I think the 60 kph limit is more a liability thing, not the system limits, that I suspect goes up in time. Ultra Cruise is still Level 2, it isn't even here yet, already outdated competed to the S-class before it arrives.

It's the best car in the world, in 2023 becomes the first car in the US to have level 3 autonomy as it just got regulatory approval. The S-class is the gold standard, it is the car all other luxury cars are compared to, it is what other brands try to copy.

There is an EQA coming, that should be under 50. Mercedes EV's cost Mercedes prices though, most brands EV's are way more than their other cars. Although I think they need to get the battery cost down that EQB needs to drop about $5k in price, or else people will just buy GLB.

All automotive media.

The S-class has been the best car in the world for 40-50 years at this point. Yes it is big and expensive and you can get 80% the cat in an E-Class or Lexus but if you want the best, it’s the S-class. Why they departed so much from what has widely been considered the best car for decades makes no sense. Other than to just be different or go out on a limb which is rather un-German of them.

No frunk who cares, that is really a feature nice for a pickup truck, but the EQS and every other sedan and SUV has plenty of cargo space in back. The S580 registers 65 decibels at 70 mph from Car and Driver's test, and got 32 mpg on their highway test, with a a V8. So that car is slippery too and doesn't look like a worn bar of soap. The problem with the EQS is not enough S-class. And maybe they just wanted to do more of a concept car or take chances that they can't on the traditional, conservative S-class. Solution is take the S-class body, put on EQS platform.

$45k is still a lot for what is basically EV Passat when the Passat wasn't selling at $25-30k. The Arteon didn't sell either because it was over priced. I get that VW doesn't really need the American market because they sell 3 million cars a year in China and that is where the money is made. The iD4 has been a global bust thus far though, so VW has a long way to go with the EV's because really the Tiguan/Jetta/Taos/Golf are falling way behind the Asian competition too. The F150 Lightning is on the F150 ICE platform, that is about as good economies of scale as you can get. I understand GM's Ultium plan, what I am somewhat skeptical on is they can execute the plan. Because GM had about 4 Cadillac revival plans in the past 20 years and none of those worked. GM has had lots of plans, didn't always execute and I get that a lot of the management from the 2000s and 2010s is gone and not here to screw this one up. The Equinox EV doesn't even go on sale for another year, a lot can happen in a year, but I hope they can pull it off. Also would like to see the EV Malibu that is around $30,000 and undercutting this iD7 by a big amount.

435 miles on WLT, which is probably low 300s EPA. But plenty of range I think. I don't see the price parity yet, the VW iD4 is $12,000 more than the Tiguan. I wouldn't be surprised if the iD7 starts over $50k. If GM can deliver on their "about $30,000" for the Equinox without sacrificing all quality and materials or pulling a bait and switch like the "under $40,000" F150 lightning that is now $54,000, I think it will be quite an achievement.

The iD4 isn't a sedan. I wouldn't buy a crossover, my mom won't, there are still people that want a sedan, and maybe not a big one. Agree that there is some bad space utilization in sedans, but with an EV, they should be able to make an Jetta sized EV sedan have the room of a Passat. Even the little Chevy Bolt has E-class level leg room in the back seat. If the Audi A6 EV is based on this, that might save them some money and make this worthwhile.

A Jetta sized EV sedan would do a lot better than this, but they probably need this car too. Although they killed the Passat and Arteon off so how much demand is there for a biggish midsize VW sedan in the USA? And I bet this costs double what a Passat costs.

I actually am because if it and the Tesla Roadster show up, it will start to launch EV sports cars and we need more EV options other than $100k+ big sedan and small crossover or full size pick up truck. There are a lot of body styles, price points and vehicle types that aren't even being explored with EV yet.

This part, the 959 was one as a halo above the 911, that tech trickled down. The F40, F50, Enzo, LaFerrari, done as projects above the Testarossa, 430, 458, etc. Dual purpose, builds the brand image, then tickles down the tech. GM doesn't have this. Doesn't mean they need it just because others did it, but I like that strategy. The LFA at least from an engineering standpoint got them the GS-F, IS-F V10 cars that followed. Lexus and Acura don't know how to do performance like the Germans, and they didn't go all in, that's why they failed. Cadillac doesn't have to fail just because they did, if Cadillac builds a half assed sports car like the XLR it will fail, if they build the next Bugatti Veyron or next McLaren F1 then it won't be a failure.

Yes the Corvette is engineered to hit a price point, so that have that covered, but what if there were no price point? What if you could take Cadillac Celestiq interior and make a 2 seat coupe out of carbon fiber and put 4 EV motors in it for 1600 hp for example. Mercedes is working on a 480 hp electric motor that weighs half their current ev motor and they can put 1 at each wheel vs 1 on each axle. So 1,920 hp is possible with the same weight of an EQS dual motor set up. Cadillac could build that, might cost a million dollars but who cares, you do it just to push the envelope of what's possible. Bugatti reportedly lost $6 million per car on the Veyron, but Volkswagen still built it knowing they'd lose money just to push the engineering boundaries. Now they made money on the Chiron. Just like VW probably lost money on the Phaeton but that work paved the way for the A8, Continental GT and Flying Spur which made money. GM could make a hyper car that is really pushing 2030s tech and performance that loses money, but puts Cadillac back on the map and that trickles down to other cars 10 years from now. Correct on the Boxter/Cayman/718 being Corvette price, but not having the same performance, but the Porsche has better build quality than a Cadillac or anything at GM, and better resale value than anything at GM. Some of that money for the Porsche is going to luxury and build quality, and badge, Porsche vs Chevrolet. So it depends on what you want, if you just want and at VIR the C8 Z51 runs a 2:49 the 718 GT4 runs a 2:50.3 they aren't that far apart. I will give the newer Ford GT hyper car status since the price is high and they are more rare than the 2005 version and the GT hits 216 mph. But using VIR times as a guide the 2017 Ford GT did a 2:43 the 2018 AMG GT R did a 2:43.4 and that isn't a Black Series or Pro. The McLaren 600LT Spider, 911 GT3, 911 GT3 RS and 911 Turbo S all beat it in the following years. The Ford GT set the lap record for Car and Driver Lightning lap in 2017, but 10 cars have since passed it, so it had the hyper car performance 5 years ago, which still makes it a hyper car for its time just like the Ferrari Enzo was 20 years ago. But I think Ford is done making the GT now anyway.

It is and it would be more of an engineering exercise really, probably would not make any money to build a hyper car. And the Corvette beats any other American or Asian sports car in performance already so not like any of GM’s key rivals are doing it. All the hyper cars or from Europe, it would be nice for America to build one, but probably not going to happen.