Automotive

Also, you've got two generations of technicians out there at these legacy brands who have never been trained on electric car repairs. How many will do a good job? How many will shock themselves from the battery? Retraining this workforce will be a big thing. Also, franchised dealers make more money off service than off sales. The electric car industry really limits how much money they can make on service... Dealers will have to find new ways to overcharge their clients. Additional inspections.

They are recouping the lost income from the service by charging more for the electric cars. I am disappointed that in the 21st century the best alternative to the combustion engine has been some batteries and an electric motor. The technology for both have improved but there is nothing revolutionary about either. I doubt 100 years from now people will look back and say "wow, they came up with electric cars". I'd like to see more R&D into hydrogen cars but as usual the manufacturers have the taken the easiest and most lucrative option.

Hydrogen cars make absolutely no sense. A lot of consumers want Hydrogen but they really have no idea how hydrogen is made. Oil companies have falsely advertised that hydrogen comes from water (the vast majority of hydrogen made does not come from this method). Consumers have also made big assumptions about how hydrogen is made from their very limited understanding and the influence of the oil companies. Primarily, hydrogen is made by stripping the hydrogen out of natural gas, the remainder of the molecule is burned off - awful for the environment. Or the less common method is to take water, huge amounts of electricity, and split the hydrogen off the oxygen atom. The huge amount of electricity used is actually almost more than the electricity the hydrogen will give off, meaning there's huge inefficiencies. Basically it takes 1 kwh to make 1 kwh worth of hydrogen... Who would want to go into that inefficient business? I've worked in the automotive industry, I wouldn't entirely agree with your statement that "they are recouping the lost income from the service by charging more for the electric cars." How do you define "they" the manufacturer or the franchised dealer? The manufacturer is charging more for electric cars but this is likely temporary. Morever, speaking from the dealer's perspective, franchised dealers get a similar or smaller profit margin from electric cars as they do conventional cars. In fact, VW, limits the profit VW franchised dealers can make on electric car sales in many markets so your statement isn't true from a dealer's perspective. Thus, those franchised dealers will eventually have to try to gouge the customer in service somehow to cover the lost service revenue as the world transitions from combustion cars to electric cars. You're definitely right overall, it's not going to be great for us consumers!

Is a trend that absolutely needs to stop. It’s belittling to customers. It essentially says, “we think you’re too stupid to know what’s under the hood of your car.” It’s a problem for some gasoline cars too (ecoboost Mustang, for instance).

I have to admit, BMW does a better job with their fake sounds. Although still not perfect. I can see the RPMs on the tachometer change about half a second before the sound changes. It wasn't obvious, but if you look at the tach when you drive, you might notice it. But this EQS sound was awful, it was like a 2-3 second delay from your accelerator pedal movement change. Painfully obvious.

...especially cars that are supposed to be quiet. It defeats the entire purpose. Have you driven the Lucid Air? They look like the ones to beat from what I've been reading...

But Lucid has their own problems. They pale in terms of Tesla when it comes to Autopilot technology. They may have a fast motor that might be more efficient than Tesla, but for how long? Also, their interior and their car just doesn't have great ergonomics. The trunk lid doesn't open all the way. The interior UI looks like it'll be difficult to use. Haven't experienced it yet, but doesn't look promising. I'm a stockholder in Lucid, so I want them to do well, but so far... it looks second rate...

...if I am going to spend $100k on a car, I'd like it to feel like it is a quality product. And to me, Tesla's Autopilot is vaporware. I don't know that I'd ever use it anyway...

The Tesla isn't exactly known for excellent quality.  But overall, despite lots of inadequacies from Tesla compared to what I was accustomed to from driving Mercedes and BMW vehicles, I still don't regret my Tesla purchase.  And I'd purchase a Tesla again.  With some reservations.  But I'm glad there are more choices coming from BMW, Rivian, Lucid, and the new Kia looks amazing (although the sales and service experience might not be what I'm accustomed to).  As this will give Tesla some competition and motivation to improve their processes! 

Was just speaking with a friend to arrange a visit to the showroom. After reading this, I will probably take my time😅. For Daimler, an organization so obsessed with engineering, design and quality, this is really unexplainable sloppiness. I will reserve further comments until I have a chance to check it out 😉.

Fake engine sound is getting common but shouldn’t it at least respond to the accelerator?

No plan switching to EV anytime soon and based on the models available in my country now, I think I can live with the Porsche Taycan and Audi e-tron GT. The rest are pretty forgettable.

I've always said a Rolls-Royce isn't exactly a fun to drive car. They're definitely not bad to drive, but they're not fun to drive. They're not "drivers' cars." The Wraith two door is actually pretty nice to drive - except it dives quite a bit under braking. This EQS was MUCH LESS FUN to drive than a Rolls-Royce. And I was expecting it to be more fun. The Tesla Model S is much more enjoyable to drive than the EQS.

Today’s ev have no soul

As for build quality, MB BMW and other supposed luxury cars are no longer made to a standard as they used to be and have only gotten worse in recent years.

One would buy a MB and have it for 20 years. Now consumers are trading up every 2-3 years. Automakers know this so they have invested less in build quality and more in cheap materials

Myself personally I wouldn’t be jumping so fast into buying an ev
Battery range and infrastructure issues and let’s not forget the environmental repercussions.

Just my thoughts

We have a lot of assumptions and impressions that are based off what we think we see, but not always based off of actual statistical fact and data. Furthermore, we tend to see a micro-view of what happens amongst our friends and in our region, but we incorrectly assume that it automatically applies to the macro when it doesn't. For instance, "consumers are trading up every 2-3 years" can be a high percentage of certain areas where there are leased vehicles (such as certain states in the USA where people lease frequently), but is still not as high of a percentage in the world as a whole. "Automakers... have invested less in build quality and more in cheap materials" is a huge generalization, for instance, the current BMW 5 series has almost all aluminum suspension linkages and even aluminum front and rear subframes! That's a marked improvement over the past 5 series which had more steel suspension and sub-frame components, and a significant improvement over its other competitors in its car class (the E63 AMG still has a steel rear subframe). So it's not all bad! But yes, you're right, there's a lot of room for improvment! Here on WatchProSite, we try to spread information that is objective and fair and try to not over-generalize too much. Thank you for sharing your thoughts! They're definitely valid!

Retro-grouches have bemoaned the passing of "real cars" since the Stutz Bearcat went out of production. Oldtimers in the 60's complained that GTOs, Shelby Mustangs, and Lincoln Continental convertibles were pale shadows of the grand Duesenbergs and Cords they knew in their youth. And auto journalists of the period frequently lamented how poorly American cars were made at the time -- we forget that today, but it's in many period magazine road tests. Now all you hear about is how the cars of the 60's have "soul" and were "built to last" and how sterile today's cars are.