I’ve got no need or interest in a dual cab, but we’ve got a BYD Seal and love it.
Chinese manufacturers are kicking arse, and making the usual brands look antiquated and overpriced.
byd seal looks amazing, the only thing I’m not sure on is the infotainment system, but I’m hoping by 2030 when I get my next EV the tech will have come along quite nicely
I use Android Auto so the “infotainment” system is pretty much just a screen for Android Auto to me. I’m sure it works fine under there though.
I have found that being slightly racist and doing a bit of a Chinese accent makes the BYD voice assistant understand me better 😬 I do not do this when other people are in the car because… well, obvious reasons.
I have found that being slightly racist and doing a bit of a Chinese accent makes the BYD voice assistant understand me better 😬
I want this to be true so bad. The idea of like having to put on a comedicly overwrought accent to make a machine understand you is 👌
The idea of like having to put on a comedicly overwrought accent to make a machine understand you is 👌
I’ve tried this to good effect before when I got my current motorbike helmet headset - the voice commands on default settings worked much better when hamming it up with an American accent like one was trying to audition for a part in a Western. Luckily though I ended up finding out that Cardo also trained a British accent option in the settings, and that works a lot better if you want to talk like a normal person.
Some of the Chinese EVs are impressive. I think a number of European and US brands are in denial.
Some are in big trouble and won’t make it.
Indeed, this in the FT yesterday
If Europe wants to see how Chinese manufacturers could affect its all-important car industry, it could do worse than look to Norway. Fully 94 per cent of cars sold in the Nordic country in October were electric, putting it on course to hit a target of no new fossil-fuel passenger vehicles next year.
Chinese carmakers sold no cars in Norway in 2019; this year so far, they have managed to take 11 per cent market share. Brands such as MG, BYD and Xpeng are common sights on Norwegian streets. Perhaps most telling is that Oslo’s main shopping strip Karl Johans Gate has only one car dealership on it: Nio, a relatively new Chinese brand.
The US and EU have sought to stem the rise of Chinese electric cars with tariffs, but Norway has pointedly refused to follow suit.
People are going to whine about the towing capacity, but can’t beat that price. I’m wary of being an early adopter, but I’m thinking of taking one for a test drive. Lightweight camper on the back, induction stove on board, should be tidy.
Pity it’s such a big vehicle, I’m not a fan of the chunky ute trend.
Australians expect to be able to punish their vehicles over harsh terrain and have it come back in one piece.
Oh please. The most off road the majority of dual cabs get is mounting kerbs in a drive through.
Some imported dual-cab utes struggle with the kerbs of drive throughs.
On the other side, I gladly take my Outlander off the beaten track. I took it through a river crossing last month that I probably shouldn’t have. It handled it like a champion, though.
I don’t know whether I’d take one of these through that same crossing.
… You wouldn’t take a Shark through a crossing that an Outlander can handle? :-\
Outlander has 190mm of ground clearance and a wading depth of 400mm, the Shark has 230mm of ground clearance and a wading depth of 600mm (or 700mm, depending on which website you believe).
It’s not a dig at the Shark, specifically. It’s my lack of familiarity with electric vehicles in general. I’ve never seen an electric vehicle drive through water.
The depth of the water was about the height of the wheels. Which I’m guessing is past 400mm. I probably wouldn’t have taken the car along that road to that crossing if I’d known about it ahead of getting there. I was already calculating the odds of getting across and what I’d do if I got bogged down in the water etc.
I’ve never seen an electric vehicle drive through water.
I’d be more worried about the ICE a Shark is carrying around then the EV part tbh
Those first two videos are a bit extreme - I obviously wouldn’t have attempted either of those in the Outlander. I doubt I’d have attempted it in the Teslas, either. Those were big risks with minimal rewards in both examples. Thought the second was obviously a planned “Is this possible?” crossing.
I’m equal parts impressed and horrified. I know enough about electrics to be horrified at what water can do if it gets in your motor. Would the vehicle be covered under warranty if you inundated your motor doing this?
Everything is sealed, and generally water proof in general. I’m sure you’ve seen sump pumps, aquarium wave makers, fuel pumps…
Electric is so much more reliable than combustion. Literally it’s only downside is the energy density of the batteries.
The depth of the water was about the height of the wheels. Which I’m guessing is past 400mm.
Hm. Better check your diff/transfer case oils just in case before things get expensive. Outlanders don’t have high mounted diff breathers so you might have got some water in there.
Whether they actually get used for it or not is immaterial. People like to believe they will go out bush with them.
We got a Dolphin recently and if they bring a 7 seat version (suv with 3rd row) of this I’m sold.
Gotta love a ccp spy bot
If I had to choose between this or a phev Ranger, it’s this every time.
Axe the rear seats and this is something my wife and I would likely love when the dogs have died.
We take our kona electric in some pretty silly places but I’ve nearly gotten stuck a couple of times in muddy gravel having only 2WD and lowish clearance restricting some of the paths we can take.
Hoping to do some long arse road trips across the desert in the next couple of decades.
The back seats serve a purpose: You can buy a ute through your business as it is clearly a work vehicle. If you want your business to effectively pay for your family car, you make a ute that can drive your family around.
That’s why tradies buy these. They don’t need the dual cab for work, they need the tray to justify buying the family vehicle through their business and expensing/depreciating it.
what does this have to do with what my wife and I would want?
I was saying they’re not likely to axe those seats. Sorry. 😀
