14083 replies to this topic

[lanforod]

Ford has a PHEV F150 that makes way more sense for camping with, I have a friend with one. Can run the 7.2 kilowatt genny to power the trailer easily, the truck will keep it charged up with the gas tank. Its a slick setup - just very hard to find one with a front bench seat and its... very pricey.

Edited by lanforod, 17 April 2026 - 07:16 AM.

[Tony]

Are you maybe choosing not to pay for maintenance, and not knowing you should get them checked out? You should probably get them checked out and greased. Brakes are the most important part of a car, and I assume most people don’t consider what happens if they’re not regularly used.

What else do EVs require as part of regular maintenance?

My annual inspection includes checking for any brake corrosian issues as part of the service. I do use my brakes at times because I am informed

.Plus

Tires, Alignment & Suspension

Battery & High‑Voltage System Checks

12‑Volt Auxiliary Battery Check, yes there is also a 12v battery on my car.

General Safety & Chassis Inspection as done on any car

[Mike K.]

It’s not a visual inspection, it’s a required servicing of the brakes. You are skimping out on your vehicle’s maintenance, it looks like to me.

What you’re doing, is like checking the oil instead of an oil change at the required interval, and not doing the oil change because there’s oil in the motor.

[Victoria Watcher]

The brakes always operate (ie. the calipers clamp) at very slow speeds, or stop, no?  Now that's not going to take all the rust off the rotors, but surely that keeps the sliders in shape.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 17 April 2026 - 08:19 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Ford Motor Company is recalling approximately 144,000 Ford F-150 vehicles in Canada.

[Mike K.]

The brakes always operate (ie. the calipers clamp) at very slow speeds, or stop, no? Now that's not going to take all the rust off the rotors, but surely that keeps the sliders in shape.

The issue from not using them is callipers seizing. The lubricants also wear down from not being used, so the whole brake system needs to be lubricated. You can’t see that just by looking at the brakes.

Tesla nerds estimate the cost is around $150 to $200USD for this annual service. Some guy on reddit says it’s $400 in Canada. I dunno, I guess you can request a quote.

Anyway, it’s just brakes. It’s the acceleration that matters.

[Victoria Watcher]

Farley believes the next wave of American EV buyers wants pickups and SUVs priced around $30,000, not the $50,000 range where Tesla currently competes. That price gap represents both a challenge and an opportunity for legacy automakers willing to go downmarket.

Despite the criticism, Tesla's sales numbers remain dominant in the US market. According to Benzinga, Tesla sold 117,300 EVs in the United States during Q1 2026, more than all other EV brands combined.

The Model Y led Chinese sales in March 2026 with 39,827 retail registrations. CEO Elon Musk noted that the "limiting factor is production output in Shanghai" ahead of supervised FSD approval in China.

Globally, Tesla delivered 358,023 units in Q1 while BYD posted 310,389 battery-electric sales in the same period. The narrowing gap between the two companies underscores BYD's rapid ascent in the pure electric segment.

https://www.heygotra...on-q1-earnings/

[Mike K.]

Teslas’s stock has fallen after the company announced yesterday that despite its years of full self driving/autonomous promises for existing vehicles, four million Teslas lack the necessary computing power for FSD and will not be able to operate as Robotaxis or take advantage of full-on FSD.

[Victoria Watcher]

Teslas’s stock has fallen after the company announced yesterday that despite its years of full self driving/autonomous promises for existing vehicles, four million Teslas lack the necessary computing power for FSD and will not be able to operate as Robotaxis or take advantage of full-on FSD.

 

 

Elon Musk: Unfortunately, hardware 3 — I wish it were otherwise, but hardware 3 simply does not have the capability to achieve unsupervised FSD. We did think at one point, it would have that, but relative to hardware 4, it has only 1/8 of the memory bandwidth of hardware 4. And memory bandwidth is one of the key elements needed for unsupervised FSD. And it’s just generally a thing that’s needed for AI. If you’re doing order aggressive transformer memory bandwidth, it’s the [indiscernible] point. So for customers that have bought FSD, what we’re offering is essentially trade in — like a discounted trade-in for cars that have AI4 hardware. And then we’ll also be offering the ability to upgrade the car to replace the computer, and you also need to replace the cameras, unfortunately, to go to hardware 4.

So to do this efficiently, we’re going to have to set up like kind of micro factories or small factories in major metropolitan areas in order to do it efficiently. It’s — because if it’s done just at the service center, it is extremely slow to do so and inefficient. So we basically need like many production lines to make the change. And I do think, over time, it’s going to make sense for us to convert all hardware 3 cars to hardware 4 because that’s what enables them to enter the Robotaxi fleet and have unsupervised FSD.

 

https://www.insiderm...script-1744791/

[Mike K.]

Big muck-up for the Robotaxi promises. FSD is only used by 10-12% of Tesla owners so for the majority of people the upgrade won’t be worth their while.

[LJ]

After Ubering a lot around Washington DC, many of the Tesla Ubers used their iPhones for navigation.

 

Maybe the Uber app can't be integrated into the Tesla system?

[Victoria Watcher]

CATL resolved sodium-ion battery core manufacturing challenge, mass production to start in 2026, company’s Chief Scientist says

 

 

On April 21, during the CATL Tech Day event, CATL announced that its sodium-ion batteries will enter mass production by 2026. When the supply chain matures, CATL expects vehicles with sodium-ion batteries to feature a range of up to 600 km.

 

Wu Kai, CATL’s Chief Scientist and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, declared that the company has resolved core manufacturing challenges, paving the way for large-scale production by the fourth quarter of this year.

 

Unlike traditional LFP or NMC batteries, sodium-ion batteries perform well in freezing conditions, as sodium-ion cells can retain about 90% of nominal capacity at -40°C. Their price is expected to be about 30% lower than LFP, and they will help strengthen the supply chain as they don’t require lithium or other scarce battery minerals. A con is lower energy density.

 

https://carnewschina...-in-the-future/

 

 

 

 

CTO Gao Huan revealed that CATL has overcome four major industry hurdles: extreme moisture control, hard carbon gas generation, aluminium foil bonding bottlenecks, and mass production of self-generating anodes. The company said it has systematically addressed over 100 engineering challenges to enable commercial-scale production.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 26 April 2026 - 11:51 PM.

[LJ]

I'm sure glad I invested in the company, it's been a decent gainer.

[Victoria Watcher]

 

[Mike K.]

Not still lets, but just started letting in.

The revenues now will come via subscriptions, no?

[Victoria Watcher]

We once before let Chinese Teslas in.

[Mike K.]

Oh, I never knew that.

[Victoria Watcher]

Oh, I never knew that.

 

The tariff reversal comes roughly 18 months after Ottawa imposed the 100% levy, citing concerns about Chinese state-directed overcapacity. The policy had forced Tesla to reroute its Canadian supply away from Giga Shanghai — its largest and lowest-cost plant globally — toward its Fremont and Berlin facilities. That shift had a measurable impact: in 2023, Tesla's China-sourced deliveries had driven a 460% year-over-year surge in automobile imports through the Port of Vancouver, reaching 44,356 units.

 

Tesla's re-entry path is more direct than any of its Chinese rivals. The company had specifically configured Giga Shanghai in 2023 to produce a Canada-specification Model Y, meaning the regulatory groundwork — compliance certification, crash standards, emissions labelling — is already done for at least one model.

 

https://www.globalch...nese-ev-imports

 

Cheaper Model 3 variants, which are predominantly built in Shanghai rather than elsewhere, stand to gain the most from the tariff reduction. The refreshed Model 3 Highland and the updated Model Y Juniper are both produced at Giga Shanghai and were unavailable to Canadian buyers at competitive price points while the 100% tariff was in place.

[Victoria Watcher]

[Victoria Watcher]

 

 

 

^ Chery Tiggo

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 04 May 2026 - 03:03 AM.