Welcome to Transport Evolved! Join us every day for content from Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield, Kate Walton-Elliott, Erin Carlie and Michael Horton as they explore and explain the world of cleaner, greener, safer, and smarter transport. Between us, we've got more than 20 years of driving cleaner, greener vehicles, and we believe that the future of transport depends on a whole lot more than one company!
From Tesla to Toyota and Faraday Future to Ford, we provide analysis and insight in a balanced and independent way.
Outdated facts rivian lose 39k per vehicle. Updated facts riviam has done retooling to cut cost atleast by 35percent. This not a comment towrds you great video by the way
Elon musk is the reason I will never buy a tesla. His behaviour is atrocious as per everything you said. I am eagerly awaiting the 2nd quarter sales results and the probably inevitable drop in the price of his vehicles to bolster sales. What ever happened to his statement that buying a tesla would be buying an appreciating asset, that earned money while you were sleeping, told to us by the man who believes himself to know more about manufacturing than anyone currently alive on earth. The man who laughed at BYD and virtually said they were a joke and no competition for him. The man who proclaims that he couldn't care less what people say and think of him or how it affects his companies when he goes on his unhinged twitter rants (latterly known as x). He is just a loathsome troll of a clown. I love and own an EV, just not a tesla. Just the humble honest opinion of a reformed fan boy.
Just completely lost ALL journalistic standards, Niki et al. Publishing total rubbish on Tesla exclusively for years. Your doggedness just makes you look dumber and dumber ev3ry year. Stop it! Do an HONEST re-evaluation of what you think you are doing, then QUIT! YOU ARE GIVING ENVIRONMENTALISTS A BAD NAME! . Reminds me of the German "protesters" at the factory there.
There's no way around making long range EV's, nor large long range EV's. Automakers have to build cars that people will buy. It's not the automakers determining what we want, it's the other way around - people just feel that way when automakers don't make the car that they and their niche want. The actual number of people that will buy a small, low range EV are extremely small, and this is obvious looking at sales figures. Outside of the US, smaller, lower range EV's sell much better than in the US, but markets are gonna do what markets are gonna do. I desperately want wagons (estates) but Americans don't buy them, so there's extremely few options available to me. I love sedans, but they're a dying breed, just don't sell well enough for some automakers to bother, so die they will continue to do. It would be *nice* if automakers could afford to offer niche options to people who want them, but at the end of the day, they have a business to run, bills to pay, people to pay, shareholders to make happy. Same story with public transit. If people wanted it bad enough, they would vote for advocates, but we have big fish to fry and the American public just isn't stirred by better public transit, regardless of the benefits. If people don't want to do it, that's kind of the end of the discussion.
Well, you know VW is in trouble right? So it would appear VW is thinking strapped Rivian will be able to help them out of their hole somehow? How I dont know. Sell RIVIANs as VWs perhaps? !
Ohh so true and Toyota had have stuck with their relationship with Tesla instead of bailing when they did they could have been a company with a real future instead they now seem almost doomed to bankruptcy
Only 4 EVs have above average reliability and is recommended according to Consumer Reports. They are NIssan Ariya, Porsche Taycan, Hyundai Ioniq 6 and Lexus RZ. No EVs have EXCELLENT reliability. 2 of these are IIHS Top Safety Picks (Ariya and RZ). I might be interested in an affordable hatchback EV that has excellent reliability and is an IIHS Top Safety pick, but so far, this isn’t one.
The next President of the USA could ban EVs as his first “official act” under his administration. It is a shame that EVs have been politicized by both sides of the aisle instead of focusing on its merits.
According to Bloomberg News (July 1), JD Power just did a report on EVs. Below is clip from the news article: “But the pure EV makers scored low on the quality rankings. Tesla and Rivian both had 266 problems per 100 vehicles, while Polestar had the most of any of the brands, at 316 problems per 100 vehicles. EVs in general have lower quality than traditional internal combustion engine vehicles. While EVs have fewer parts to break down, they also tend to be loaded with new technology that can go wrong, Hanley said. In fact, he said, EV owners “are experiencing problems that are of a severity level high enough for them to take their new vehicle into the dealership at a rate three times higher than that of gas-powered-vehicle owners.””
As you pointed out, this kind of dance has been going on forever. The main thing is that viable new companies like Rivian and established companies like VW both gain an advantage and quality EV development continues.
On the “no such thing as an iron-clad partnership” - both Tesla and Rivian got their initial factories from failed ICE partnerships. Telsa’s Fremont facility had been a joint GM/Toyota “NUMMI” factory, producing both GM and Toyota vehicles; and Rivians’ had been a joint Mitsubishi/Chrysler “Diamond-Star Motors” factory. (Although Chrysler pulled out of that factory many years before Mitsubishi finally closed it.)
Very informative, as always. I appreciate your thoughtful takes regarding developments in the EV world. A production-related question: Was the audio processed differently for this episode? It may simply be that I was using my headphones instead of my TV, but there was a distracting, almost metallic sounding voice processing that I've never noticed before. Anyways, long-time viewer. First time commenter. Keep up the incredible work!
JVs are notoriously unstable, particularly the 50/50 kind. Such arrangements are usually workable for a single digit number of years, when both parties find reasonable value in them. Most fail early because of the divergent interests of the parties.
Nicely done. As a long-term Gen2 RAV4 EV owner, you laid out the pitfalls of owning one accurately: Toyota does the bare minimum during warranty (or, in many cases, extended warranty) period, but washes its hands -- by quoting un-economical repair prices using Telsa-inflated and Tesla-supplied reman parts -- of owners of the orphan. Fortunately, there has developed some community and experience around the most-common failures on these cars (see myrav4ev forums), primarily around eliminating rotor cooling through "coolant delete" -- as has (finally) Telsla on the Rev U reman units for similar technology Model S repairs -- and affordable DIY fixes for the Gen1 OBC AC input fuse failures, the original cabin heater failures (which take out a HV fuse that's located inside the glued-together DC-DC Converter), the high-failure-rate HV DC contactors, and various other Tesla-centric issues, all of which are shared with the aforementioned early Model S. The Toyota bits are largely of Toyota durability and in general cause no issues. On the MB Electric Drive (later: B250e), some of the same issues apply and MB dealers have similarly turned their backs on B250e owners, but the astronomical repair prices quoted there are more in line with what the typical MB owner expects, and while there is some belly-aching on mybclasselectricdrive, less so than with the Toyota owners, who expected better (cheaper) running costs. RAV4 EV owners now have reasonable DIY-centered fixes and community experience to keep the Tesla bits working . . . for now. The oldest (2012) are now 12 years old and we expect battery cell and module failures to ramp up as the years pile on; there is no interchangeability with Model S modules, so we're still looking for a cost-effective way to replace a module or entire pack on these orphan cars; one could reasonably expect that battery degradation will take most of them off the road, due to lack of a suitable replacement traction battery, or will to create one. There were fewer than 2600 made in total.
I had this exact problem with an out of the blue malfunctioned ABS on a gen 2 Prius. Hapless business interest in servicing and repair. Hence the cottage industries of battery refurbishing.
@@toyotaprius79 One of the nice things about owning a mass-market car (or anything, really) in the modern age is that community will grow up around it to support it, outside of the dealer channel. The knowledge often becomes available for DIYers to self-support, with the help of the community.
Rivian’s CEO did say in some other RU-vidr’s interview after the R2/R3 launch that the R2/R3 are targeting Europe. While this joint venture seem solely around actual EV “compute” and software resources, not full-platform and/or manufacturing, it would be great if Rivian were to lease some VW manufacturing capability to bring R2/R3 to Europe sooner!
doesnt sound like rivian is getting any real money anytime soon. that makes this a super great deal for VW. my daughter in law has an ID4 and the software is finally usable, but it looks very very 1980s.
@@scottmcshannon6821It is cash. It’s an immediate $1 billion loan. It’s just that the loan will either have to be paid back or will be converted into VW owning some Rivian stock, in a couple years. Rivian gets the cash now, though, just as if they had gotten a loan from a bank. With up to $4 billion more in future “partnership” investment. Humorously, the ID.4’s software looking like it’s from the 1980s fits the Rivian R3’s ‘80s hatchback look. :-D
@@AnonymousFreakYT so wVW get all of rivian intellectual property they are giving rivian a loan? this sounds like a great deal for VW and a bad deal for rivian.
@@scottmcshannon6821 Technically, a joint venture would own the intellectual property, granting both companies full access. So yes, the initial side is "VW gains Rivian EV tech," but then any improvements from the VW side get folded back to Rivian. And Rivian gets $1-5 billion to keep running. If without this, Rivian would have faced financial problems, then this is totally worth it to Rivian. You can bet your ass if Fisker had been offered this deal three months ago, they would have taken it in a heartbeat. "Sharing our intellectual property" is a far better outcome than bankruptcy.
There's been a Merc B-class EV sat in a multi-story car park in Nottingham, in an EV bay, not plugged in, for at least 2 years, possibly more. Abandoned, alone and very dusty, someone was very much "done" with dealing with it. I hate to think what it would cost if anyone ever wanted to get it back out of the car park...
I'm hoping this means Rivian will adopt Volkswagen's upcoming next gen vehicle's physical buttons/dials on the dash. I'm ready to see EV's biggest downside die a horrible death (Cut & paste touch screen reliant interiors)
It does make perfect sense, stiff competition for Polestar/Volvo/Geeley But I don't see it helping the tide for more affordable influence in the way the market has headed
I cannot wait I have a 2023 ID four Pro S with all-wheel-drive and needless to say I do not like the software thank goodness for CarPlay however, the connection functionality, both wired and wireless is also buggy. It’s also sad to report that I haven’t had good luck with with both Volkswagen corporate or two of my local dealers. 😢
Why? Please take a couple of hours and go drive something else, anything else. Give your money to a company that CARES about actually making a good EV. Go drive a Kia EV. Or for that matter go drive a Model Y or a Blazer. VW does not give a rats arse about making EV's. Rivian needs financial support to grow. I just hope VW does not F' this up like they have everything else EV.
@@transportevolved What you are saying is a company that cheated on emission requirements for decades gets a free pass. They are forced to roll out an EV charging network and then get to sell it and recoup those costs. They bring to market an EV, that for all intents and purposes was made so poorly it could only be said was done to drive people back to their ICE cars. VW and Toyota are a scourge to the automotive market. I agree that my choice isn't the same as other people. But my choice is to tell people that FFS there are other companies making far better cars for less money than VW. So why are you not going to try them? I have driven plenty of EV's. And all of them have been reasonably good cars except one, the ID.4. At the time I was driving a 2020 Bolt, I had just test driven a Kia Niro EV and found it to be a fantastic EV. Then I drove an ID.4. I have never hurried back to a dealer lot fast enough. No amount of lipstick can convivence me that VW intentionally made that car bad because they felt that EV's would not make it. Now they are stuck with that hunk of dumpster fire garbage and I feel sorry for anyone that buys one. Especially if the reason they bought it is because they are long time VW owners and buy because of brand loyalty. This is not an uninformed opinion. VW as a company has let the world down with their business practices and they let the EV world down by producing not even a half assed good car.
@@AnonymousFreakYT Please explain exactly how I was an A-Hole. I said absolutely nothing about OP or anyone in general. All of my comments were towards VW. Does VW need your protection? I said nothing about any individual. I asked someone to consider other options. Since when is that being an A-Hole. And forgive me for recommending that someone NOT spend over $50,000 on a car that by all impartial metrics is an overpriced POS and by most peoples subjective metrics is a POS at any price.
VW is struggling to break into the US EV market ... investing in Rivian is a good idea ... as is VW reviving the International Harvester / Scout brand in the USA.
@@mikewallace8087IH has also been defunct as a consumer vehicle brand for longer than I’ve been alive. Bench seats, lack of AC, and AM-only radios were downright *NORMAL* when it was discontinued. (Although I’m just barely younger than the last IH pickup, and I do own a cargo trailer made from the bed and rear chassis of an IH pickup that had been my father-in-law’s farm truck. :-D ) Scout barely longer - 1960 to 1980.
I can think of a lot of historical & living figures who have caused mass murder and sheer misery of the human race. But please tell me which single person dead or alive has achieved more good & benefits than Elon Musk? and he still has a long way to go.
Tesla is still the top EV company, well that's a surprise, Not! I honestly think Elon Musk will be remembered as the most important human being in the history of mankind! Right up to the arrival of Jesus Christ who has promised to come back for his thousand year reign!
The ATT 4G WiFi connection on my Lemon 2023 Chevy Bolt EUV Premier (that Chevy STILL hasn't bought back) is SIGNIFICANTLY slower than the 4G (much less 5G) ATT, Verizon, or T-Mobile phones I've checked (people I know helped me out before my car crapped out on 12 days). I even got better results with ATT MVNOs. I didn't want and EUV, a premier, Sun & Sound, or light around the charge port, but I had to settle for what was on the lot, I guess the positive side if dealing with this is a that I decided to buy a used EV (then I can give it to my kid when she goes to college, and who knows what we'll have in 4 years- she's doing 2 years community college to save money). I'm thinking a 2020-2022 Kona or similar Hyundai, not sure. Thought about Model 3, but insurance is 40% higher, no thank you. Must be 100% EV (I hate hybrids). CCS or NACS is all that seems to be an option. Medical reasons make the Leaf battery range + lack of DC impossible.
