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Friday, February 23, 2018

I've decided on the Chevy Bolt

Tesla Model 3

I wrote an article last year titled Which Electric Car Would you buy, Bolt, 2018 Leaf, Model 3, Model S, or Model X? and received some really excellent advice in the comment field. It's decision time because I'll soon be commuting to a location just out of round-trip range of my 2011 Leaf and I don't want to hit a fast charger as part of that commute.

The Tesla Model 3 is (in theory) the Bolt's only competitor, but I couldn't get my hands on one of those in time for this commute if I wanted to, which isn't a problem because I wouldn't buy one if available (for the same price as a Bolt).

Why?

Tesla may yet go the way of the DeLorean (popularized in the movie Back to the Future).


DeLorean. I took this photo just last week
From Seeking Alpha:

The Model 3 will not save Tesla. The cards are stacked against that happening. The Tesla owner forums are showing a solid 1/4 of people being offered the chance to configure their Model 3 are choosing to delay their orders. They are waiting for either the Standard Battery or AWD options to be offered. And that is amongst the current Tesla owners, people more likely to spend high amounts for another Tesla. With the currently available configuration set at no less than $50,000, it is doubtful we will see as large a percentage of drivers willing to step up to this price range when configurations are opened up to non-owners holding reservations later this spring. We can blame that largely on the press that continues to identify the "$35,000 Model 3" as the car now available. That car is nowhere to be found, and it is doubtful, in my opinion, that anyone will ever be able to order one.
Cars often serve as status symbols (see figures below for a recent Tweet on that topic and from an evolutionary perspective).

Top, Delorean, Center, Tesla Model X, Bottom, Male stalk-eyed fly (evolution of eye spacing via female sexual selection)
Delorean photo via By en:user:Grenex - Wikipedia en, CC BY-SA 3.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2500249
Nothing wrong with that, but for me, a car is mostly just another a tool. Status comes in many flavors. It can be inherited, earned, found, bestowed, stumbled upon, or obtained by association.

Like the Hummer (and the poor-man versions that followed; H2, and H3) along with the extinct biodiesel Jettas, the $90K Tesla models represent a fad, with the Model 3 being the poor man's version capitalizing on the high-status Tesla brand.

Hummer next to the original SUV, a Jeep Cherokee
I don't care for (what I think is) Tesla's James Bond look. I prefer plain vanilla. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder (my ascetic sense matters only to me).

Front: plain vanilla Chevy Bolt, next, my Nissan Leaf, back, BMW i3. The photo was taken in a parking garage next to Tesla dealership where the Model 3 photo was taken.
And finally, I want a hatchback and a charge port near the front of the car (Model 3 port hides under driver's side rear sidelight). It's a lot easier to back out of a tight charging station parking spot than to back into one.

Advice requested; lease or buy, fast charge port option or skip it?



















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