About a decade ago, Tesla rigged the dashboard readouts in its electric cars to provide “rosy” projections of how far owners can drive before needing to recharge, a source told Reuters.

From the article: “About a decade ago, Tesla rigged the dashboard readouts in its electric cars to provide “rosy” projections of how far owners can drive before needing to recharge, a source told Reuters. The automaker last year became so inundated with driving-range complaints that it created a special team to cancel owners’ service appointments.”

  • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Yup.

    I need a cheap EV (<$10k) with >100 miles (160km) range to handle a 25mi (40km) commute year round (we’re consistently below freezing in the winter), and a long range family vehicle (minivan or SUV) that can go >400mi (640km) in the summer (100F, or ~38C, outside temp).

    Current offerings either have too little range (e.g. older Leafs), cost too much and have excessive range (Bolt, Model 3, etc), or can’t fit my family (3 kids; carseat + booster) and don’t quite have enough range (need a replacement for our minivan).

    The proper solution is a mix of better mass transit (so I wouldn’t need a commuter at all) and better battery tech. Even if charging stations were plentiful (they’re not), I don’t want to charge 3-4 times on one trip (e.g. visiting my parents is 850 miles, my brother is 650 miles, and we do one of those almost every year; both have crazy steep mountain passes at highway speeds).

    In 5-10 years, I won’t need a commuter. In 101-15, I won’t need the family car. But for now, EVs are either too expensive or too inconvenient, or both.