I just wanted to thank you for your reply. It was so well written and easily digested I feel like I got hours worth of research out of it. God bless Lemmy.

My 2 cents (more like $2 now that I wrote it) is that no car made in the past 20 years can be maintained to the degree older cars could, and electric cars will suffer from the same ephemeral lifespan as all modern autos do. Electric or not, makers will continue to abandon vehicle platforms regularly and aggressively in order to ensure no single component or technology becomes affordable or obtainable outside of a manufacturer-sponsored limited warranty plan. And they will lobby against our attempts to extend the service life of electric drivetrains in the name of safety or design secrecy.

The charger network: Superchargers are so much more plentiful than the alternatives, and there’s still not a great central charging app. I have 3 different ones installed on my phone and honestly most of them suck besides Tesla’s. Non-tesla chargers are basically just at apartments, businesses, and malls. Very few of which actually help me

Good thing Elon Musk fired the entire Supercharger team then.

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/inside-story-elon-musks-mass-firings-tesla-supercharger-staff-2024-05-15/

Yes, Elon is a massive piece of shit. You know who else is? Every auto exec. The only difference is that they’re quiet and effective. Those old money fucks have done so much more harm to our planet because they know how to influence politics effectively. Something something, ethical consumption, something, something, capitalism

Other autodealers aren't fucking their own company over by destroying the top reason you listed for buying their cars. We're well into the point where its clear that Elon is a terrible businessman not just morally, but also for you as the Tesla customer. There's no way Superchargers can be maintained (let alone expand) if the team is gone.

Closest in the united States is a chevy bolt, but that's still pretty far.

I'd love a fairly dumb ev. Give me just enough computer for battery/charging management and let me do the rest.

Dunno about no smart features, that's a tall order regardless of powertrain, unfortunately. But otherwise, what's your budget and can you charge at home easily?

VW ID.4 is not perfect but comes close to what you're asking for. also qualifies for full US tax credit. yes it integrates a bunch of stuff into the touch screen. But in terms of "fancy functions" it doesn't really have much except CarPlay/Android Auto.

I went with a Nissan Leaf. But only because it was the only EV I could have gotten on 2022, as it felt so hard to get them and dealers didn't seem to keep me updated on availability.

Most smart features can be disabled on modern cars if you dont want to use them.

The tracking is harder, but if you are willing to remove the stereo head unit, a lot of brands have their GPS junk attached to it.

Hyundai Ioniq 5 or Ioniq6 seems to be the dumbest EV (dumb in a good way).

I would suggest most people get a PHEV, like the Prius Prime though.

Yup, the Supercharger network is great. Last year my wife and I did a road trip up a down the east coast in our Model Y, and thanks to the superchargers and their integration with the Tesla navigation system we never had any issues.

Having said that, I’m hoping that the rollout of other NACS networks picks up steam. 5 or so years from now when I start thinking about a new car I’ll be taking a hard look at non-Tesla options for both vehicles as well as charging.

Honestly, because of the EPA regulations, it's difficult and expensive to make the small trucks that were so popular in the 1980s and 1990s. Tesla could have cleaned up with a simple single-cab electric truck (especially if it came with fleet purchase options). Because of the economics of the situation if it were priced in the 25-35k range it would fly off the manufacturing lines and become the new standard workhorse for local businesses (think plumbers going out to 5-6 calls a day and then charging overnight), plus it would have the added benefit of a "bring your generator to the worksite" stuff.

They'd just have to be willing to strip a lot of the fancy electronic stuff out for manual things (like manual doors, environmental controls etc...).

pretty standard power trip behavior from an exec,

Definitely not in public, and I doubt even behind the scenes is such behavior normal, despite most execs have psychopathic tendencies for powertrips, they usually have more self control than Musk.

Musk was not just being an asshole, he was being an outright idiot about his own company.

Regarding the Cybertruck, I believe it's a vanity project, because he wants to get rid of the woke image, as if that hadn't already happened.
He wants that psycho right wing macho image, that comes with a "brutal" truck.

Hell, Simone Giertz showed us with "Truckla" that an El-camino/Brat inspired pickup made from a Tesla sedan is more than enough. So the answer isn't all that far from business as usual.

Edit: or just mod a car from 1968 instead: https://www.evbuildersguide.com/electrifying-transformation-of-a-1968-chevrolet-el-camino-beloved-baby/

Yeah, if you've got a short commute, and some way to charge it at home, that's the way to go. I've heard second hand about people needing to add fuel stabilizer to their plug-in hybrid because they use so little gas.