We’re Loving the Lyriq, although it’s not perfect, of course. It gets nervous pulling in and out of the garage, and has activated the emergency braking a few times. Feels like you ran into a wall. Love the mix of manual controls and touchscreens. Efficiency is not great on Nokian studded Hakka 10s, but we’re just driving locally, so that doesn’t really matter. Matters more to be able to stop and turn a large-ish heavy vehicle in winter conditions. Cadillac did a really nice job on all the manual controls–nice finishes and feel, appropriately fluid feel on switches. The surround sound speakers in the headrests are pretty awesome! Fit and finish is beyond what I expected, actually, although we just saw a Bolt in the same color (boo). Cadillac DEFINITELY assumes you have cell coverage–OnStar is all cell, as are many of the car apps. Makes sense, but we have no coverage at home, so we have limited info on the myCadillac app, including state of charge at home.
Tesla is the same. We live in northern climates so have one of those big garage mats to keep snow melt contained and it hates that thing. It hasn’t activated braking but it makes a lot of noise. It did the same thing when we took it off road until I figured out an “offroad” mode that dials down the panicking of the car due to rocks and road cuts being so close to the side.
We live in the land of poor cell coverage but the Tesla must have a larger antennae as we have satellite maps, Spotify, etc in places our phones don’t have coverage.
Can you connect it to your home wifi?
It is connected, but we get tire pressures and no charge data. We can do various things via the app over wifi. I’m hearing we should get an OTA update soon. And honestly, it’s not that big a deal. You are generally charging to 80% overnight. Charge data will be important at public charging where there will almost always be cell service.
You usually fly, or sail, or surfboard/paddleboard/canoe. The last 3 are competitive races. There were plans for interisland ferries. The rental car companies and airlines lobbied hard against, agitated the local environmentalists and native populations with pollution claims. The ferry was blocked by small boats and paddlers. Cars for sale and household moves do get sent by the local barge company.
The nightmare (that of both the labor unions and industry) is that BYD and other Chinese auto manufacturers take most of the market away from American manufacturers (both GM/Ford/Stellantis but also the American plants of European and Asian manufacturers). They look at what the loss of the steel industry has done to traditional industrial centers like Ohio.
And it’s obvious the Lyriq is from a car company, not a tech company. Tesla has all kinds of screens that tell you about power. Rivian pushed an update at Halloween that showed adjacent vehicles as witches and dragons. You don’t get that in the Caddy. Much more conventional.
Completely true. I do know why people complain they are beta testers for the Teslas. Lots of cool stuff, but some things that need software fixes for. And I do love the trip power info: It tells you about how the head or tail wind is affecting the “mileage” as well as why your aggressive or fast driving style is killing it. Also, tell your spouse to turn down the heater and turn up the heated seats. 
I’m not sure how much of an obstacle it is, but most, if not all, the BYD EVs sold in China would not be street legal in the US.
The last domino has fallen:
Not that I expect anyone was really waiting around for a Chrysler EV. But hey, they’re the last big US automaker that hadn’t joined yet.
And for those of us who have older Teslas, the latest firmware release notes make clear that we will not be able to use non-Tesla DC NACS chargers. That is what I expected, but had some hope that non-Tesla DC NACS chargers might be compatible with older Teslas, but that will not be the case.
The DC charging controller on older Teslas only speaks Tesla language, but on newer cars it speaks both Tesla and CCS. Tesla chargers speak Tesla, and non-Tesla chargers speak CCS. Newer Tesla chargers speak both, which is what is allowing Tesla to open their charging network to non-Tesla cars.
Fortunately the upgrade for older Teslas is straightforward. The charging computer can be replaced by Tesla for $450, or yourself for about $200 in parts. The actual swap looks to be pretty easy.
Non-Tesla DC NACS chargers are very rare, so I don’t see any point in getting the upgrade right now, though it will also allow the use of DC CCS chargers. In a year things could be very different.
Our 2020 Hyundai Kona EV lease it up next month, so we just bought a new 2024 Kona EV, picking it up next weekend. These cars don’t get the $7500 tax credit, so Hyundai is just discounting all of their EVs by $7500. Between that and the state rebate that I’ll get, we got a pretty good deal.
Was watching 60 Minutes, which was mainly about China with an extended interview of the American ambassador.
They mentioned a Chinese company had made an electric car battery lasting 620 miles, though I am unsure what conditions it verification this involved. They also claimed there is an electric car where you can swap out the battery in 2.5 minutes instead of charging, and there are allegedly hundreds of swap sites where one can do so. Never heard of this (have not read entire thread).
Battery swapping was something tried by an American company called Better Place, but it failed. And even Tesla demonstrated quick, automated battery swaps but later stopped supporting the technology.
Yeah, Tesla ran a marketing test. They gave prospective customers a choice between a 5 minute battery swap and a 20-30 minute Supercharge. They found most people preferred the charge, and the ones that chose the swap spent ~20 minutes per stop anyway, buying snacks, in the bathroom, etc.
I definitely would not take 20 minutes as I have previously pointed out. I’ve actually timed how long the entire get-off-the-highway, get to a station, refuel with gasoline, then re-enter the highway process takes for me, and if there are no snags it takes 5 minutes on the nose even though it logically seems it should take longer. I would only take more than 20 minutes naturally perhaps once a day on long trips, either waiting for fast food to be cooked, or planning my travel, or an abnormally long bathroom break.
I haven’t timed how long it takes for me to pull in to a place (NOT counting getting to the place), refueling, and then taking a bathroom break, but I suspect it is way shorter than 30 minutes. I suspect 10 minutes is pushing it. Getting a pre-packaged snack from the counter would not add more than a couple minutes, and at any rate, if you make it a habit it would cut into the price of electric.
Whereas i don’t enjoy road trips. And when we had to do one regularly (driving from Princeton, NJ, to Boston, MA, we decided it was more tolerable if we split it up and took a meal break. We also bought gas, as a separate stop, and that was quick. But if we could have charged the car while eating, that would have been perfectly convenient.
Tom Scott did a video on swapping batteries a few months back:
If you like that sort of thing, this is a ten-year-old video of a Tesla demonstration of battery swapping in a Tesla Model S.
We took our first long trip in our Tesla, roughly 400 miles each way. On the way, since it is new to us, we stopped twice to charge but we realized we didn’t need the 2nd stop since we had destination charging. One stop on the way home was all it took. Since it is winter around here, there was more battery usage so during the summer, this will be an easy trip.
This is a trip we do several times a year. In our Subaru, it required three fuel stops: One on the way, one when we left (we inevitably drive while there), and then one mid-way back. With the Tesla it will be two stops since we’ll leave both directions full.
We were surprised at how fast it “fueled up”. By the time we had walked our dog, given him water and a treat, ate the lunch we brought with us, then bought a coffee so we could use the restroom (buying gas gets you a “free” bathroom - that doesn’t exist at the charging stations), the car was ready to go. No waiting around.
I could see if we were doing a 16 hour marathon drive to Cali (we do these sorts of trips occasionally) that it will add time, but we are getting old enough that I don’t see those happening much ever again. It would still be doable, particularly since this car is so much more comfortable than our Subaru.