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Old 04-07-2026, 02:37 PM   #8537
EvoFire
Los Bastardo owned my ass at least once
 
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I was in Shanghai and rode on quite a few EVs for ride share and also taxis while there. None of the taxis have ICE anymore, anything below at Camry size is most likely going to be electric. The vans that we hailed were all gas or gas hybrid. There are EV vans but they weren't that common, and overall vans weren't super common there.

Here's the observation from riding in a bunch of them, NVH engineering is not there yet. The asterisk being that I mostly got rides in lower end vehicles as they were being used for ride hailing, but without a rumbling ICE in the front, I expected them to be smoother/quieter. Shanghai roads are mostly quite nice, imo, better than Vancouver roads. It goes back to the manufacturers trying to wow customers with fancy screens and tech, but the actual car itself is a bit meh.

I did not go into a dealer, despite walking by two separate Zeekr shops. I just wasn't really interested in just sitting in one without driving it and I won't be driving one. There are some interesting designs and the SUV craze isn't there in China it feels. There are quite a few wagon and hatchback designs that are quite nice.

When the EVs come, the base tier cars here would be in a world of hurt. Things like Toyota Corolla/Nissan Sentra/Mazda 3s of the world would mostly likely go extinct unless they can evolve substantially, and also the entry luxury like MB CLA/Audi A3/BMW 2GCs. I don't think they are at a point where it threatens the more established luxury cars like 5 series/E class level cars.

The Rav4 and CRV would soldier on easily just on name and reputation alone, but everything else would be hard to compete.
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