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Cake day: June 19th, 2023

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  • I was gonna recommend a newer mazda (newer than 2014) as it is often best for the money from what I’ve seen lately, but if you are in the subcompact market, Crosstreks are pretty hard to beat. Been reviewing the market as well to maybe get a newer car in a year or so I’ve looked a reviews on a lot of drivetrains. I’ve heard of some issues with older crosstreks (mostly just issues with oil consumption, and some CVT fears), although if you are getting new/very slightly used they probably would be great choice (probably better with the 2.5l engine). I am a bit biased as my mother used to have a outback with an EJ engine (those would reliably blow a headgasket, or two in her case), which probably has tarnished my view of boxer engines for long term reliability, which is why I generally don’t recommend them.




  • That’s more medium duty, and yeah, that probably could be converted to electric fairly easily (albeit at a higher cost). I was mostly thinking about longer distance travel, where the main goal is the most amount of uptime and you can’t afford to park and charge for 3-4 hrs every 200 miles. And that is usually the most expensive model, with most getting less milage and/or taking longer to charge.

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  • Then what about trucking? Lithium is not nearly as energy dense, weighs a lot, and does take a significant longer time to charge than a diesel to refuel. If you don’t believe me, look up the eCascadia by Frightliner. They are probably the current best option if you wanted a heavy electric truck, but they only get to around 200 miles with a load (for reference, a standard turbo diesel one would go around 600-800 miles and only take 30 min to refuel).

    Currently in trucking, I’ve found that everyone kinda laughs at the idea of electrification (except on medium duty, that wouldn’t be too hard, just overly expensive). Current electric motors are fine, it’s just that the energy storage is nowhere near what is needed for actual use.

    Yes, for most basic ev consumers current lithium is fine from a usability perspective, but from a cost one this might provide a much more useful alternative (assuming the cost isn’t insane).