This is gonna be stupid heavy. My Toyota Avalon is 3,638lbs and would just get pulverized in anything more than a parking lot fender bender. For reference, the current-generation Escalade can weigh up to 6,217lbs and the Hummer EV, which the Escalade IQ might be based off of, is 9,063lbs (as mentioned in the article). This thing is going to kill people.
A 200kWh battery pack to get 450 miles of quoted range. 2.25mi/kWh. I understand it’s competing for the attention of people who would otherwise buy a gas Escalade, but that’s still a little crazy.
Isn’t it normal to have between 15-20km/KWh, that’s 4-5 times less efficient. Our car obsession is showing how wasteful we are.
Not to mention that if this tank goes into an accident, the force experienced by the passengers in the other car would be a couple of times higher compared to the force experienced in the passengers of the IQ, practically making this a road kill machine.
Eh, that’s a bit disingenuous in terms of consumer cost though. Where I live, gas is $3.90 per gallon and electricity is $0.19 per kWh. That puts gas at $0.11 per kWh. That still puts the Escalade IQ at 58mpg, but it’s getting awfully close to some (admittedly much smaller) hybrids. And that’s not to mention that that’s the price for home charging - public charging is closer to $0.40 per kWh. That still puts it around half the cost per mile of a gas Escalade.
With a starting price of $50k more than the gas model you’re talking 300,000 miles to break even (assuming 100% home charging).
My comment wasn’t necessarily addressing cost as opposed to how to calculate efficiency. Cost gets much weirder. Nobody can accurately determine the price that anyone else pays for electricity unlike gas, because solar and time of usage exists not to mention the percentage of time home charging comes into play. Washington Post ran a pretty good article on this recently.
Either way ignoring cost, the EV will always be more efficient. That doesn’t mean it will always be cheaper.
You’re stating a different point that I’m making. I’m consistently saying “I’m not talking about price”, then you go back to price. The initial OP stated that the car obsession is showing it’s wasteful, because it consumes a ton of resources. Someone corrected the OPs understanding of the average efficiency of electric cars. I provided the EPA agreed-upon conversion of MPG -> MPGe. You then decided that efficiency = cost. It’s not.
Yes, for most use-cases an electric car will be cheaper; you can read about that here. There are some use-cases today where it won’t be. But it wasn’t the point of my post. Whether or not it’s always cheaper, using an EV Escalade vs a gas Escalade will always be more efficient.
Crumple zones. I hate the look, too, but front impact crumple zones are very important, especially in such a monstrously sized vehicle. I just wish they could have sloped it to give better forward visibility.
I find it funny how the endless stream of “oh, but it’s so big” comments almost universally get posted when it is an American vehicle, but rarely do you see the same level of vitriol when it is a foreign brand.
The absolutely hideous BMW XM is not that much smaller than this Escalade IQ and yet where was the endless hate and comments about its enormous size when that was released? Or the Audi Q8 or Mercedes GLS? There is an anti-American bias and it is getting rather old. It is one thing if all larger vehicles got similar hate, but some people on here are showing their bias by specifically picking out American vehicles to bash.
Where is the data that Escalades - or larger SUVs in general - are the cause? What is considered an “SUV” varies rather wildly.
But take that one step further… your argument is the same as all these people who complain that companies pollute so much… They pollute so much because they are MAKING STUFF FOR US TO BUY. There is no different here. STOP BUYING SUVs if they are such a massive problem. I love smaller cars. I don’t like seeing roads clogged by massive SUVs, but at the same time, people are CHOOSING to buy them. People act like they are innocent here. I will absolutely guarantee that the same people brainlessly complaining about SUVs online either own one, or a close family member or friend owns one.
And my point still stands. You NEVER EVER see the same kind of hatred when some German piece of shit SUV is posted. They are within a few inches of this new electric Escalade and yet all the biased Lemmings come running out to bash it simply because it is American.
Plenty to complain about with regards to euro luxury car concepts so yeah weight takes a backseat when feature subscriptions are making headlines. The XM, Q8, and GLS should also are hideously excessive vehicles but the Escalade is going to sell significantly better and so when it comes to its size the societal damage will be greater.
Electric SUVs are no better than gas trucks. The weight and shape of the vehicle require an unsustainable amount of energy. Furthermore, they give rich people the moral validation that keeps them trashing the planet with a good conscience.
I don’t think VW, or any German Car brand for that matter, really wants to sell small (electric) vehicles anymore.
VW desperately wants to cancel the Up! in Europe in favour of SUVs, BMW cancelled the i3 a long time ago and only introduced either EV land yachts or giant EV SUVs since then. Mercedes just launched a new Smart EV (which is actually a Geely) but it’s not exactly small.
They don’t make them, how can you seek what you don’t make? They purposefully made less of them and said no one bought them so we’ll keep making giant (expensive) SUVs instead, plus those are easier to make due to the more lenient rules on large “utility” vehicle emissions
The forced people to buy models that could pass emissions regulations easier, which meant less r&d for few models that didn’t get much change, and they happened to be able to charge more due to size as well. Win/win/win for everyone other than all the dead kids that got ran over because Karen’s and Kyle’s can’t see past the football field of a hood and the grill is 5.5 feet tall
US vehicle size is currently driven by broken EPA rules regarding emissions per wheelbase which strongly encourages larger vehicles. It seems to be affecting EVs as well, but not sure why.
There are ups and downs. If the size gives increased passenger capacity that can be the difference between needing one or two vehicles for a trip.
Big vehicles means more weight though, which means bigger batteries to get range at even more weight. The Hummer EV for example weighs 4.5t with 1400kg of that being battery. That means extra wear on tires (as well at reinforced sidewalls), roads, and additional considerations for parking garages or bridges etc
How else am I going to get my family and my fat ass to Costco to get all my bulk foods and a pizza on my way out the door to save me multiple trips to different stores? Duh.
Yeah, and the weight of that behemoth means a tiny fender bender accident will do massive damage to everything involved. Wouldn’t be surprised if you could total itself with a 10mph impact.
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