Guest EXPAT Posted March 9, 2012 Posted March 9, 2012 Name one thing that any manufacturer hates most? Having your product completely not work in the presence of Consumer Reports. OMG PR nightmare to the max. Quote
Members JKane Posted March 9, 2012 Members Posted March 9, 2012 Damn it, I hate it when cool electric cars get bad press! Especially since the job Top Gear did on the Tesla was a hatchet job... Quote
Guest FourAces Posted March 9, 2012 Posted March 9, 2012 Name one thing that any manufacturer hates most? Having your product completely not work in the presence of Consumer Reports. OMG PR nightmare to the max. LOL Yep a huge PR nightmare for not only the company but electric cars in general. Quote
Members JKane Posted March 10, 2012 Members Posted March 10, 2012 LOL Yep a huge PR nightmare for not only the company but electric cars in general. Yep! But the Fisker's kinda sucky as electric cars go, pretty, yes. But heavy, expensive (even for an electric), and not exceptional mileage. New Tesla should be cool, and eventually the BMW i8 (car from last mission impossible, minus the BS nav-system). Quote
AdamSmith Posted March 10, 2012 Posted March 10, 2012 One structural problem for U.S. car biz is that Singaporean and Korean firms own most all the viable battery technology at present. For U.S. manufacturers, licensing it imposes extra cost layer on top of an already expensive product. Detroit is in a mad scramble to help U.S. universities and tech startups bring our lithium-ion and successor battery technologies up to scratch, but Motown's longtime blindness to much of anything but gas-guzzling trucks put it way behind Asia and Europe in this and so many other ways. I do think, with the winnowing of deadwood personnel during the industry rescue/downsizing, GM and Chrysler each have a decent chance now. Ford too, thanks to farsightedness of Bill Ford (notwithstanding his deficiencies as an operating executive) and the really extraordinary Alan Mulally. Quote
