real world EVs review

[tikal]

Definitively EVs growth will continue in the USA at a mostly linear pace in the next few years. At the moment, the negatives dominate over the positive factors to dampen a potential exponential EV sales growth.

 

[kjclow]

Took the truck in for an oil change earlier this week. My local Ram dealer has seed about 12 charging stations behind their sales building. It's where they used to line up the finished service vehicles. There was one Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xE plugged in. Those sounded nice at the initial conversation but once the battery is depleted, it switched over to gas. Full charge only gets about 30 miles. That should get me to my daughter's house and back but not much else.

 

[El Dobro]

In the meantime, look who Harvard's top four foreign contributors are. Coincidence, nah!
Harvard Received $151 Million From Foreign Governments Since January 2020 | News | The Harvard Crimson

 

[tikal]

Are US manufactureres pulling back from EVs?

The problem with the 'rest of the industry' is that the majority of the people in it (engineers, service, sales, management, regulators, supply chain, etc) are in the ICE industry, not the general car industry. Therefore, any company that makes ICE vehicles faces strong internal resistance to making EVs since they will inevitably put the majority of that company out of work or force them to change careers from which they'd be starting out as newbies.

The Chinese companies were never really in the ICE industries so they don't have this internal resistance. Neither was Tesla, Rivian, or Lucid, therefore, these are where the rEVolution will come.

The traditional folks will make EVs, but only if their sales and marketing folks force them to. This means there is only drive for very profitable vehicles (eg. Hummer EV, Cadillac Lyriq, Porsche, i8), ones that don't threaten their mainstream, profitable product lines (eg. Leaf, Bolt, i4), or ones that still have a part for every current person in the company (PHEVs).

Startups, like Tesla, Rivian, and Lucid, of course, need to start with the high-end until they can get the economies of scale going to be able to reduce Costs in order to reduce Price and still break even.

 

[oilhammer]

Man, that overpriced ID-Buzz is getting discounted finally. They really missed the mark on that thing.

 

[gulfcoastguy]

Man, that overpriced ID-Buzz is getting discounted finally. They really missed the mark on that thing.

Listening to people on the vwidtalk forum one of the main problems is the paint job. You can only get the nostalgic two tone paint job if you buy the expensive AWD top of the line models. The RWD less expensive ones are only a single color and usually a fugly one at that. I have seen both at the dealer and I agree with that viewpoint. Some of the dealers are actually wrapping the ugly ducks in an effort to make them into profitable swans.

 

[oilhammer]

The "less expensive" one is $60k. LMAO.... Base price for a Sienna is $40k, and I'll wager it's a better vehicle and can go for much, much longer.

It's a failure. Period.

What The ID. Buzz Flop Says About VW’s Long-Running U.S. Problem

The ID. Buzz was supposed to be a comeback machine, but Volkswagen's usual problems got in the way. Plus: Nissan and Honda are still teaming up on software.

insideevs.com

https://www.reddit.com/r/electricvehicles/comments/1kxnmxk

MSN

It's too expensive, it has abysmal bad range (even by EV standards), and its systems are too goofy.

Dealers also thought they could slap price hikes on them like they did with the TDIs and New Beetles when they first came out. Nope, not happening. Yeah, in late '97 when the NB arrived, there were loads of folks who would pay ~15% over MSRP for one. I saw a '98 NB TDI automatic (the first two-pedal TDI sold here) sell for nearly $8k over MSRP. (!!!!!).

 

[El Dobro]

Of all the EVs on the road around here, I've yet to see an ID Buzz.

 

[oilhammer]

I only see the two gathering dust on the dealer's lot I pass by twice a day. The all white one actually doesn't look that bad to me. The other one is the two tone copper/white one. They periodically move them about the lot.

 

[tikal]

I do not think the main problem of buying an EV car for family road trips is the color choices of the vehicle.

A hybrid minivan like the Toyota Sienna is so much more convenient than a similarly sized EV, for going anywhere you want, including roads outside the main interstates, rural roads, and places off the beaten path. The average range is around 600 to 700 miles with an 18 gallon gasoline tank, depending on your speed and other environmental factors.

 

[El Dobro]

I'm thinking there's not enough hippies left to buy them.

 

[tikal]

Hippies with such disposable income!

 

[gulfcoastguy]

Ex hippies with such disposable income didn’t get it by I wanna purchases.

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

What the VW Bus has become in the US is a shame. Our family cars when I was growing up were VW Busses. We had 3 of them, a '64, a '66, and a '71. They were comically slow, cold in the winter, and loud, but they were good at hauling me and my 3 brothers around. The '66 was a 21 window with a sunroof: I wish I had that one today.

The ID.Buzz is everything the original bus wasn't. Expensive, complex, less flexible interior configurations, and heavy. Too bad.

 

[oilhammer]

And what is even worse, VAG has decided to stop their own production of the Transporter, and pawn that off on Ford. The 2025 version is a reskinned Ford Transit Custom (not the Transit we get here) assembled by Ford, in Turkey. After a whopping 70 years in continuous production in Hannover Germany, the best selling van in history has been outsourced, so butt-hurt Volkswagen can attempt (and fail) at building EVs in volumes they cannot sell at one of their main plants. And they've managed to put that entire city in turmoil, just like they've done with Wolfsburg. It's pathetic.

 

[jmodge]

What the VW Bus has become in the US is a shame. Our family cars when I was growing up were VW Busses. We had 3 of them, a '64, a '66, and a '71. They were comically slow, cold in the winter, and loud, but they were good at hauling me and my 3 brothers around. The '66 was a 21 window with a sunroof: I wish I had that one today.

The ID.Buzz is everything the original bus wasn't. Expensive, complex, less flexible interior configurations, and heavy. Too bad.

I can concur the cold part of buses We had a ‘67 my dad pulled the back seats out of to repurpose for camping.
As a teenager we camped out in it hunting state land. He didn’t trust the LP furnace he installed so we didn’t fire it. It got so cold one night when we pulled our milk out for breakfast it was frozen.
Another time we had to go to a general store to get a candle for the dash to keep the windshield defrosted.
As a silver lining, it kept barrels of smelt cool coming home from the UP in the spring.
I can’t remember a time it ever failed to start or got stuck though.

 

[kjclow]

I've seen a couple of idbuzzes running around Charlotte but not sure if they were just on test drives. I looked at one at the auto show back in November. What really turned me off was the seat material. It showed dirt like nothing else there and even worse than my cream-colored interior of my 2000 beetle. Instant turn off.

 

[tikal]

AAA: Americans Slow to Adopt Electric Vehicles

* A new AAA survey for 2025 shows EV interest in the US is at its lowest since 2019.

* Only 16 percent of Americans say they will likely buy an EV, while 63 percent won’t.

* Battery repair cost is the biggest concern, followed by high vehicle purchase prices.

AAA: Americans Slow to Adopt Electric Vehicles

ORLANDO, Fla. (June 3, 2025) – Despite the wide variety of electric vehicle (EV) models now available—over 75 options introduced in the past four

newsroom.aaa.com

 

[El Dobro]

 

[tikal]

VW’s $72K Electric Van Just Sold for $61K After 398 Miles

https://www.autoblog.com/news/vw-id-buzz-1st-edition-sold-at-huge-loss

In case you didn’t know, fully electric vehicles depreciate at a rate that’s 30% faster than gas-powered cars. Vehicles like the Jaguar I-Pace, Tesla Model S, and Nissan Leaf are some of the worst performers. Based on a recent Bring A Trailer sale of a Volkswagen ID.Buzz, we may have to add VW’s cheerful electric van to that list. A 2025 version of the ID.Buzz just sold for almost $11,000 less than its sticker price. To make matters worse, it was a highly desirable 1st Edition model with barely any miles on the clock.

 

[x1800MODMY360x]

So guy buys new car for 72k and sold it used for 61k.

Like every car that existed, once you drive off the lot the value goes down

 

[tikal]

Correct. Just in a more extreme way with some EVs if the above article is factual.

 

[kjclow]

doesn't that site cover auction pricing?

 

[P2B]

doesn't that site cover auction pricing?

BAT is an online auction.

 

[El Dobro]

I don't think they're taking into account the EV incentives when the cars were sold. When I bought my 2023, $11,500 was taken off in incentives, besides no sales tax.

 

[gulfcoastguy]

I don't think they're taking into account the EV incentives when the cars were sold. When I bought my 2023, $11,500 was taken off in incentives, besides no sales tax.

Unfortunately those tax credits end next month. They also never applied to the Buzz as it wasn’t made in North America. Some individual states may have incentives still though.

 

[El Dobro]

Unfortunately those tax credits end next month. They also never applied to the Buzz as it wasn’t made in North America. Some individual states may have incentives still though.

I did a search on a used model of my car and it was well within the price of my car when I bought it new. As the incentives go away, I'm sure used prices will adjust.

 

[tikal]

Reference to the post # 3920: https://www.iseecars.com/cars-that-hold-their-value-study

 

[El Dobro]

If you're buying a new car and you're worried about the resale value, why buy it.
If you're looking for a used car and it's gone down in value, you got a deal.
If you're buying a car and intending on keeping it 'til the wheels fall off, the used value is a moot point.

 

[P2B]

If you're buying a car and intending on keeping it 'til the wheels fall off, the used value is a moot point.

Unless some idiot runs into it and it's depreciated to the point it's totalled.