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Joined 3 years ago
Cake day: June 15th, 2023
  • Like I said, it’s been a minute, but BYD isn’t available in the US; looks like Mercedes offers 4 SUV/crossover models starting at $55k and 2 sedans starting at $75k; Kia is all SUV; Hyndai has one sedan and two crossovers. Ford is crossover/truck; GM is all SUVs. More than there were, but non-Tesla sedans are still the exception. I’d love to see BYD in the US. Love to see KEI in the US.

  • It’s been a while since I looked at EVs, but my (US) experience at the time was that Tesla was one of very few companies offering sedan-shaped EVs. The US market was full of crossovers & SUVs (like Rivian), and that form factor seems antagonistic to many of the things that make high performance, long range EVs: terrible aerodynamics, high body weight, poor visibility… They’re big enough to fill will batteries to compensate for the poor efficiency, but that just raises costs.

  • Traveled to Rome recently (as US citizen). Walked no more than 10 minutes from the gate, was 5th in line to one of a half dozen or so automated camera/scanner customs gates, and cleared customs within 15 minutes of landing.

    Returned to the US, walked for 20 minutes through a maze of twisty passages to get to the customs hall, where I stood in line for another 30 minutes to get to one of a half dozen or so checkpoints where an agent scanned my passport, told me to stare at the camera, and eventually, maybe even grudgingly, welcomed me home.