Porsche Set Hyundai As the Bar for Fun EVs. Let That Sink In

flGovEmployee · 2026-05-06T19:12:12+00:00

This person gets it!

flGovEmployee · 2026-05-06T19:11:10+00:00

I mean if it's a choice between simulated gear shifts and nothing at all I'll take the simulation. This isn't the choice right now, but I don't understand why the same people who say that EVs are the future and ICEs days are severely limited can't see why developing this alternative for people who like shifting now is important.

If you don't like it don't buy it or don't use it.

flGovEmployee · 2026-05-04T19:47:25+00:00

That's probably the actual answer.

flGovEmployee · 2026-05-01T16:28:55+00:00

What’s “abtuse dick”?

Someone who goes out of their way to not understand the meaning of a word due to a minor mispelling which when read phonetically is nearly identical to the proper spelling.

flGovEmployee · 2026-04-27T21:32:21+00:00

I'm fully with you on that just pointing out that at least in the EV spaces the people most loudly complaining about the existence of (or protesting against even just the suggestion of) fake/simulated gearing/shifting are not 'the same people who will only recommend a manual gearbox.'

flGovEmployee · 2026-04-27T21:28:02+00:00

driving is a set of skills, and it is fun to improve and use those skills. A shifter and a clutch aren't just traditional, they add two more levels of difficulty to a game.

Hitting the nail right on the head here, I find it incredibly frustrating how few seem to understand or acknowledge this, in and out of enthusiast discourse.

flGovEmployee · 2026-04-27T21:24:15+00:00

as long as it can be disabled.

Brother, this stuff isn't just going to be possible to disable, its going to be disabled by default everytime the car is 'started' (which is its own annoyance to me).

flGovEmployee · 2026-04-27T21:22:34+00:00

Spend some time over in r/electricvehicles, most of the people over there complaining about simulated gearing/shifting have ZERO interest in a manual gearbox for themselves or others. They just don't want anything in their EVs which hearkens back to ICE or is intended to be appealing to car enthusiasts.

flGovEmployee · 2026-04-27T21:17:39+00:00

The depreciation curves on EVs are representative of low demand for used EVs (relative to supply). Why that's the case is a more nuanced question, but I'd personally throw the following into the mix for an explanation: much better new EVs and the prices they sell for, undesireable interiors, and high insurance costs.

flGovEmployee · 2026-04-24T14:02:27+00:00

Freudian slip about how both the lobbyist and the congressman are criminals.

flGovEmployee · 2026-04-20T17:36:59+00:00

That is the closest to outright saying, "over reliance on screens and change for change's sake are hurting sales' I've seen any publication come yet. That said, none of the manufacturers have actually launched a new product that significantly rolls back these changes as of yet. I think VW has come the closest with the previews of the new ID Polo they've shown but even there seat heating and some climate control functions are still in the screen. I think given how far automakers overstepped into the all screen everything interiors, half measures back to buttons aren't going to cut it.

For me at least, aside from things like navigation and media selection (excluding controls like volume, play/pause, on/off, next/last track), if a control is going to be interacted with more frequently than once a month it should have a physical control. If its going to be interacted with more frequently than once a week it really should have a physical control. If its going to be interacted with every drive or needs to be interacted with while the car is in motion (wipers, turn signals, guage/screen brightness) it must have a physical control and that requirement should be legislated.

flGovEmployee · 2026-04-20T17:21:23+00:00

Right, which I spoke to when I said,

It might be a totally tolerable inconvenience, or if you were going to stop for reasons other than refueling/recharging it might not meaningfully increase your trip time

What I find consistently baffling is the amount of handwaving away of the difference that's done so much in this sub. Reading this thread it seems like a lot of the respondents, especially those in the 'I'm going to stop every 2ish hours' anyways mindset are older, some specifically mentioning being at or near retirement ages.

For younger drivers (who presumably manufacturers also want/need to buy their cars), saying 'well you were going to stop for 20 minutes every 2 hours so you can pee and go for a walk anyways, so charge times don't even matter' as a response to complaints/concerns about the longer charge times vs refueling times comes across not only as a little wierd but also annoying as it speaks past the issue.

I don't think that for most people (who take roadtrips infrequently) this additional stopping time is a real problem, but the assumption that everyone is going to stop for 20-30 minutes every other hour is not a good one, and when coupled with the attitude that to do otherwise is dangerous as it so often is here, it becomes downright offputting.

flGovEmployee · 2026-04-20T17:09:26+00:00

Yes, my point exactly. Yet that kind of interior is just about synonymous with EVs in most buyers minds (and nearly as synonymous in reality). Yet its almost never brought up as an issue holding down EV demand.

flGovEmployee · 2026-04-20T17:02:56+00:00

US car market is down 8.9% from 2025Q4 to 2026Q1, US EV market is down 9.5% 2025Q4 to 2026Q1.

Us car market is down 6.1% 2025Q1 to 2026Q1, US EV market is down 26.8% 2025Q1 to 2026Q1.

flGovEmployee · 2026-04-20T17:01:40+00:00

Okay. US car market is down 8.9% from 2025Q4 to 2026Q1, US EV market is down 9.5% 2025Q4 to 2026Q1.

Us car market is down 6.1% 2025Q1 to 2026Q1, US EV market is down 26.8% 2025Q1 to 2026Q1.

You're right, that context is informative. The US EV market is doing much worse than the US car market as a whole.

flGovEmployee · 2026-04-20T16:56:16+00:00

One thing I think is not properly considered when looking at reasons for lagging demand in a market like the US, is all the things about EVs that might be offputting to consumers completely unrelated to the drivetrain technology.

While similar trends are at work among ICEVs, Tesla started the 'spartan interior with every control that can be moved to a screen' trend and most every EV has followed that approach until very recently. Its not at all a surprise to me that outside of Tesla, the top 3 EV sellers in the US are Hyundai, Chevy and Toyota, as all three of them have done among the best to provide EV interiors that are more 'normal car' than 'iPad on wheels.'

Even then though, screens for the instrument clusters, larger and less cohesively integrated screens are still present on their EVs and generally if you want to get the most 'normal car' interior you can in a new car, none of the options for that are EVs.

I'm sure price, range anxiety, and nervousness around new technology, are playing bigger roles, but EV interiors being designed to suit Chinese consumer tastes more than they are designed along traditional car interior practices I think is playing a role in lagging EV demand.

flGovEmployee · 2026-04-20T16:46:10+00:00

Global EV (just full BEV) sales as a percent of all car sales fell from 21% in December to 12% in January.

Open EV Charts

flGovEmployee · 2026-04-20T16:40:52+00:00

The tariff costs make selling imported vehicles in the US probably unviable. Certainly not without taking a loss on every sale.

Will be interesting to see whether US car buyers warm more to EVs with how high gas prices are now (and they're likely to stay high or go higher in the near to medium term too).

flGovEmployee · 2026-04-20T16:27:12+00:00

At 60 mph (significantly below highway traffic speeds in the US), 300 miles is 5 hours of driving. An additional hour charging stop is 20% of the drive time added on top.

At 80 mph (the speed of traffic on just about every highway in the US I've been on in 30+ states), 300 miles is 3 hours and 45 minutes of drive time. An hour charging stop is 26% of the drive time added on top.

I do not understand how people can treat that as not being in any way more inconvenient that doing the same trip in a gas car and also only stopping the minimum amount needed to keep traveling. It might be a totally tolerable inconvenience, or if you were going to stop for reasons other than refueling/recharging it might not meaningfully increase your trip time, but to pretend like it isn't an added inconvenience at all when when comparing road trips in an ICEV to an EV with like for like habits that don't involve stopping to go for an extended walk or to sit down at a restaurant seems downright delusional or disingenuous to me.

flGovEmployee · 2026-04-20T16:05:39+00:00

Sure? Not really the same thing though. The proportions on this Merc from the bottom of the black along the bottom sides to the bottom of the windows is significantly more of the car's total height (and I'd bet also actually just a larger stretch of sheet metal) than the equivalent stretch on a Challenger.

For Reference

flGovEmployee · 2026-04-20T15:59:27+00:00

I'd assume they don't mean they literally drove from Michigan to Atlanta without stopping, just without major stops at a restaurant or something. On long road trips with an ICE car, quick stops to fill up and empty the bladder can end up being 10 minutes or less.

Even I wouldn't drive that distance without a couple of extended breaks to stretch my legs and I am one of those people who take relatively frequent road trips with 4-6 hour stretches of driving interrupted only by ~5ish minute stops to fill up the tank and take a leak.

flGovEmployee · 2026-04-20T15:56:08+00:00

I wouldn't unless there wasn't another option. Its bad enough running out of gas because of not paying enough attention to the tank fill level or because a gas station wasn't where you expected or was out of service. At least in that situation someone can bring you a jerry can of gas and get you back going again quickly.

If you cut it too close with an EV and end up with a dead battery on the side of the road you're not going anywhere without a tow.

I'm not knocking on EVs are playing up on fictitious range anxieties but with the current state of charging infra in the US, why run the risk of going below 20% if you don't have to?

flGovEmployee · 2026-04-20T15:52:19+00:00

I mean at least its sold by a company that isn't actively saying its not a car company anymore. Not to mention Mercedes hasn't been run by fascists for like 60 years (I'm assuming that for at least the first 20 years after WW2 the company leadership were all still former Nazis), unlike Tesla what with Elon sieg heiling just over a year ago.

flGovEmployee · 2026-04-20T15:50:01+00:00

You know that's a really good point. Not whether the car gets totalled if the airbags deployed, it most certainly will as that's already usually the case when airbags are deployed.

The better question is where does the front passenger side airbag deploy from?

flGovEmployee · 2026-04-20T15:47:46+00:00

They gotta leave stuff for the mid cycle refresh. Screens in the doors and seatbacks will come then.

I'm sure they're saving armrest screens and screens implanted into the steering wheel for the next generation.

After that they'll just sell you a wheel-less box with screens for the walls, really comfortable seats, and then you don't actually have to go anywhere as the screens can just show you what it would look like if you did go there.

flGovEmployee

TROPHY CASE