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Comment by darkwater | Hacker News Reader

/me scratches VAG cars from a possible new EV purchase.

I hate Elon as much as the next guy, but Tesla is still playing the API game way better than the rest of the pack (even with the "not so new" Tesla Fleet API change)

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Volvo is also doing pretty good with offering an official API

But Volvo does not have cheap models with a reasonable range, unfortunately. I'm seeing right now on their Spain's website 40k EUR for a single motor EX30 with 337km WLTP which is ridiculous

EX30 in Spain starts at 29K small battery version, and 36 the large battery version. The dealerships make a huge discounts to be honest.

I was dealing with this 6 weeks ago!

Yeah this surprised me. 40k is for a vehicle ready to buy immediately from their website. At the same time they have an ongoing campaign for 29k for a financed EX30 + charger installation.

But I hate to deal with car dealerships, they are the worse kind of salespeople out there, trying to sell you what they need to sell rather what you need to buy. You need to go there with a very, very well informed opinion about it. But then they will play the discounts card...

Volvo also has the fully mandatory requirement of a consumer Google Account to use the vehicle now due to how tightly integrated Google Automotive is.

You can still use the infotainment without signing into a Google Account. The only thing that's locked out is the Play Store and 3rd party apps (which you need the play store to download).

Even Google Maps is usable without an account.

Can you use android auto? For the normal person your phone is a better place to get all that anyway. The few people driving as a full time job will find the cars built in stuff better but for most your phone had everything the rest of the time so you want to use that.

Yes it also has android auto and carplay

I ask because my GM doesn't despite having android automotive. I have to give GM a don't buy unless you drive as a job because of this, even though the car is nice otherwise.

And, does the Volvo community have something like TeslaMate built upon the API? It's not sine qua non factor but it will move the scale a LOT in favor of a brand.

Probably not yet, so far all I've done as an owner was generate an API key and set it up in an integration in Home Assistant so I can track my state of charge over time. I'm sure more software will come!

Volvo isn't Volvo anymore either. They are a brand label now owned by the Zhejiang Geely Holding Group since 2010.

If you want a real Volvo get an old one.

Fleet api kinda sucks, but esphome via ble is solid. Even managed to connect $10 macropad so kids in back can control music.

That's pretty brave.

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