A Chinese electric car is coming to the US

I bought my used 2013 leaf at a sticker price of around ~9,500 USD before taxes and fees. A few months in, I began to experience an issue with the braking system. After depressing the brake pedal and slowing to a stop, the pedal would sink slowly, and the car could creep forward again until I applied more pressure. After enough cycles of this I'd have pushed the pedal all the way down, and there would be no way to hold the stop. I immediately set up an appointment with the local licensed Nissan dealer for maintenance, and began putting the car in park at intersections.

I noted that the brake fluid was very low, but not empty, when I brought the car in. I figured all it needed was to be refilled, but there were some other minor squawks I wanted to have them look at.

After service, the rep sat me down and explained that the part that balances brake force between the regenerative and friction braking systems "had failed", and this part was going to cost nearly $2000 to replace. He clearly represented to me that the maintenance mechanics had uncovered a problem with this part, that it was failed, and absolutely necessary to replace. I paid for the appointment and said I'd have to think about the replacement part.

I looked over the paperwork very carefully and there were no error codes in the testing results. I've been driving the car for over a year since with no issues. The problem with the brake pedal resulted from low brake fluid, which they topped off during the maintenance.

I've resolved not to take the car to the dealer for any issue unless I absolutely can't handle it myself, which I'm guessing means "never".

So I definitely give credence to the idea that the electric cars are a threat to maintenance revenue.

Interesting you should say that.

Virtually all dealerships actually run at a loss "selling cars" (front of house), and turn a profit from "fixing cars" (back of house).

Going back to your quote, there is no such thing as a profitable "Dealership business". There is only a profitable "fixing" business. I believe your prediction is correct, they will stop being in business.

I went to go look at a volt a few years ago when they were new because it was unclear from GM's (terrible) marketing of it whether it actually had limited range or whether it could run on gas alone.

The ads kept advertising its range, which I found odd if you could just refuel, and it wasn't clear if it needed some battery for the generator to work or not. It was early on so search results were inconclusive.

The dealer I went to didn't know anything about the car, if it could run on gas alone, how the generator worked, etc.

Tesla's move was smart - the dealership model won't survive the transition to autonomous EVs and if they don't go gracefully they'll probably take the old car manufacturers down with them.

Just look at GM - while they bought Cruise and have the long range (ugly) Bolt they've relegated the really great Cruise tech to only a few models with over complicated controls and they're not focused on the EVs. I'd guess somebody over there knows that this is an existential risk for them, but they need somebody at the top that understands it.

I have a Tesla Model 3. I work at a company that is heavily car involved, and you would be surprised at how many people don't realize it is all electric. There are people who still don't associate Tesla with cars!

Plus lets be honest, unless you own a Tesla your ability to take standard trips any petrol car can do is very limited and even with Tesla it gets limited in winter. I can see losses of twenty to thirty percent and I am just in the Southeast for temperature swings.

Yes dealerships will need to sell them but before that a large number of people need to want them. We haven't reached that point for many reasons, some include

1) cost 2) education 3) range (numbers are mild weather only) 4) not all vehicle types are represented 5) not much selection 6) the tech is barely ready 7) the charging system is not settled nor widespread

this list can go on and on and I am en EV owner/supporter.

as for the article, another company which hasn't gotten really to step 1 making declarations about the wonders that await us is nothing new, actually doing it will be the issue.

Seeing that Volvo has a lot of manufacturing in China it would be far easier to come in under a known nameplate but legacy brands have cost numbers well established and may be limited in how low they will aim

Are those bans really going to be that strict? I would hope that they'd exempt genuinely collectable cars. From a preservation/living history perspective, it seems wrong to force such drastic modifications.

Then again, I don't know what goes wrong with an EV, or what kind of maintenance it really needs.

Consumers will win on tons of fronts and a lot of dead jobs will be cut, and it'll be spun by a large contingency of people of increasing unemployment and hating the middle class more. That's generally what happens when actual pro-consumer stuff happens, and I expect this to especially be true regarding cars.

As seen in one of photos in the sohu link, the English spelling is Qiantu, not Dragonfly or Qingting.

Care to expand? Euro standards being crap, or manufacturer's?

I'd thought that one of the roadblocks for chinese products would be the lack of US/EU certifications.

EvoBus?

https://www.kob.com/albuquerque-news/art-buses-sent-back-to-...