Frivolous Comparisons: Electric Vehicle Tech
In the vein of comparing things to other things they are not but have the same tendencies… I am going to compare Electric Vehicle Makers to Technology Companies (mainly Phone makers) that I think fit their general gestalt.
Chevrolet/GM as Qualcomm: Actually holds all the patents for Electric Vehicles (as pioneered with the EV1) but can’t seem to make good money off their individual efforts in the US and now just brings over things their Korean and Chinese companies designed for Asia-Pac.
Nissan as Motorola: What everyone thinks about when they think “what was the first EV that really started selling in high numbers”. The LEAF was the RAZR in that was EVERYWHERE for most of the 2010s. At least until the lease/contract wore out. Everyone has mostly fond memories of their LEAF but a few horror stories persist about ones that were bad or being used for something they just weren’t good-at. In the same way Motorola makes $200-500 phones that are wonderful, Nissan continues to make affordable EVs that are lauded and loved but much like Motorola’s current foldable screen phones… more upmarket attempts at EVs like the Nissan Ariya are well-considered but often passed-over also-rans. Had weird proprietary chargers until recently.
Tesla as Apple: What everyone ended up getting when the lease was up on their LEAF, and they were so nice that their friends got one too. Like the iPhone, the Model 3 and Model Y are the most popular and usually sold at high trim levels but packed with the most features and benefits of having the biggest userbase: Whatever problems a Tesla DOES have will have 100+ articles, videos, and reddit threads on whether it can be easily fixed, how to fix it if it can, and which class action lawsuit to join if it can’t. While not the most technologically advanced, their ad campaign would have you believe otherwise. Precious about their charger/connector (NACS/Telsa Supercharger) but magnanimously made it a published standard. Americans in particular often feel a little bit of “I need to justify why” shame if they don’t have one.
Kia/Hyundai/Genesis as Samsung: Tends to leapfrog with Tesla in terms of technology while being more affordable. Very Korean. Often helps design and uses same suppliers as Tesla for common tech (screens, batteries, drivelines). A comparably priced Hyundai/Kia will absolutely roast a similar tesla in range/performance/usefulness, but people won’t know what it is other than “Weird lookin’ EV”
Mitsubishi as Sony: Remember those Sony Vaio netbooks that could be stuffed in your pocket and could run a very stripped down version of Windows XP Home? Imagine if those had taken off instead of smartphones. The i-MiEV was very similar. All sorts of considerate features for the owners, stylish in a cheap plastic way; Lowest cost, especially for an EV… but the teensy battery and abysmal performance pretty much meant it was only a weird loaner car given to people getting their more normal Mitsubishi’s serviced.
Europe: Early attempts at European Electric Cars are like Early Attempts at European Phones: same look, different guts… or a Very Fancy Grown Up Toy (Think of cool cordless/office phones from VTech or Seimens). EU Companies flipped a coin on whether they are going to shoehorn an electric drivetrain into a hydrocarbon production car, or whether they are going to essentially release a concept car to production… and then the Germans flipped somewhere around 2020. BMW is an example of the latter with the very funky i3 and i8, as is Jaguar with their electrics a in the early 2010s… but now whether a BMW is electric is just like whether a BMW has an M-package. Mercedes, Volvo/Polestar, Mini, and a bunch of french cars felt more like the former: Instead of a gas or diesel (and maybe also hybrid), one could just get the EV drivetrain. But now Mercedes has specific EQ line cars that are NOT the same as the gasoline cousins. Renault and FIAT were interesting in that they did both: releasing Electric drivetrain options within their lineup of existing cars while also releasing might-as-well-be-concept supermini city commuter EVs like the Tipolino and the Twingo.
China: A bunch of really nice electric vehicles I’m sad we don’t get here. The tech is making it here via Luxury Euro Brands like Volvo/Polestar and Jaguar… but we aren’t getting Cool Imported Cheapies that make American companies nervous and try harder like our parents got in the 70s/80s.
The rest of Southeast Asia: A bunch of electric vehicles I am NOT sad we don’t get here.