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Here is a great no frills review of the ID.4 https://youtu.be/3oC9sUiwyL8 https://youtu.be/3oC9sUiwyL8 The TL;DR is even if its electric its not a serious com

Here is a great no frills review of the ID.4 https://youtu.be/3oC9sUiwyL8 https://youtu.be/3oC9sUiwyL8 The TL;DR is even if its electric its not a serious competitor to tesla. The UI is terrible as the drive is unable to find a charger while navigating to their destination. Electric car charging stations are going to look completely different the gas stations as they costs a few thousand dollars to install rather than a cool million for a gas station. So rather than having a bunch of high profile gas stations we're going to end up with somewhat ubiquitous electric charging stations of varying capacity. Enabling drivers to know where to charge their cars is a killer feature of Telsa and any company that wants to compete will have to make it as easy if not easier to ensure your car is always charged and that you are able to charge on long trips.

theshrike79 5y ago
> Electric car charging stations are going to look completely different the gas stations as they costs a few thousand dollars to install rather than a cool million for a gas station. So rather than having a bunch of high profile gas stations we're going to end up with somewhat ubiquitous electric charging stations of varying capacity. Yep, this is the big change people aren't yet getting. Every mom and pop store in a small town can get free advertising just by installing a $1k charger for their customers and having it be visible in charging maps. I have no interest in stopping to charge at Generic Gas Station #42 with the accompanying Franchise Fast Food Restaurant next to it when I'm on vacation or a road trip. I'll rather pick something interesting.
xeromal 5y ago
Hopefully they can update the crappy destination charging through an OTA update. If not, it's DOA.
jeffbee 5y ago
id.4 comes with Android Auto and CarPlay compatibility. You'd be a fool to rely on the OEM tech. Tesla loses big in this regard because they don't offer either and their built-in tech is garbage.
- TulliusCicero 5y ago
  Tesla's vertical integration means navigation + charging planning, plus the actual charging, is seamless. I doubt you'd see the same with an iOS or Android app. Every time I read about charging for other platforms, it sounds terrible.
  - jeffbee 5y ago
    With Android Auto I just announce "OK Google, find charging stations along my route" and it works as you'd expect. It is in fact completely seamless, and unlike with Tesla I get state-of-the-art voice recognition and navigation that works offline.
- hnburnsy 5y ago
  I park my phone on a magnetic mount right next to the screen in my Model 3, so I get all the Waze notifications and music from Spotify over Bluetooth. Best of both worlds.
jseliger 5y ago
I just bought (co-bought) a Model Y, and and the Supercharger network meant that other electric cars were non-starters. Hyundai and Kia, for example, have Model Y competitors, but when I was looking at them, both directed would-be buyers to PlugShare.com for for non-local charging information: I invite anyone to look at that solution, and then look at the Supercharger solution. I also live in an apartment building, and my building is supposed to install 240v chargers sometime in the next few months. Most of the buildings around me already have them, mostly operated by Chargepoint, but a few by Blink: the change from "can't own an electric car in an apartment building" to "most apartment buildings have chargers" is happening and happening faster than many thought. Once people get used to charging cars at home, as a primary solution, I doubt they're going to want to go back to gas stations. The best ads for electric cars are the cars themselves. Most of my local friends have driven mine.
- closeparen 5y ago
  Are they going to install chargers in the assigned spaces of all the tenants who want them, or a couple of communal chargers for tenants to fight over? Having to go back out to the parking lot every couple of hours to see if the charger is free, move your car onto it, or move your car off of it, is right down the middle of "range anxiety."
- rconti 5y ago
  We've got a 3, and I strongly agree. It's a lot of money (to me), and the car needs to be able to do normal-car things like roadtrips. It would be one thing to buy a $10k commute appliance with limited range, but at $50k, it damn well better be able to be the "nice car" for roadtrips as well as for commuting.
- flurie 5y ago
  What's interesting is that I did this recently and came to the opposite conclusion. Did you look at the situation when restricted to >= 250kW chargers? It's a completely different story, and that's with only one major CCS provider competing with Tesla. In the long run, those other chargers won't matter, and Tesla's expansion has been slow.
sib 5y ago
Well... Slow chargers (~20 - 30 miles added per hour of charging) may cost only a few thousand dollars each, but DC fast chargers (100 - 350 KW) cost much, much more than that. UBS estimated USD250,000 per station in 2017 (unclear how many actual chargers per station). Slow chargers aren't remotely comparable to gas stations. (Of course, I understand that, for people who can charge at home, the picture is very different - we own two EVs and no ICE cars and are lucky enough to have charging in our garage.)

theshrike79 5y ago

> Electric car charging stations are going to look completely different the gas stations as they costs a few thousand dollars to install rather than a cool million for a gas station. So rather than having a bunch of high profile gas stations we're going to end up with somewhat ubiquitous electric charging stations of varying capacity. Yep, this is the big change people aren't yet getting. Every mom and pop store in a small town can get free advertising just by installing a $1k charger for their customers and having it be visible in charging maps. I have no interest in stopping to charge at Generic Gas Station #42 with the accompanying Franchise Fast Food Restaurant next to it when I'm on vacation or a road trip. I'll rather pick something interesting.

xeromal 5y ago

Hopefully they can update the crappy destination charging through an OTA update. If not, it's DOA.

jeffbee 5y ago

id.4 comes with Android Auto and CarPlay compatibility. You'd be a fool to rely on the OEM tech. Tesla loses big in this regard because they don't offer either and their built-in tech is garbage.

TulliusCicero 5y ago
Tesla's vertical integration means navigation + charging planning, plus the actual charging, is seamless. I doubt you'd see the same with an iOS or Android app. Every time I read about charging for other platforms, it sounds terrible.
- jeffbee 5y ago
  With Android Auto I just announce "OK Google, find charging stations along my route" and it works as you'd expect. It is in fact completely seamless, and unlike with Tesla I get state-of-the-art voice recognition and navigation that works offline.
hnburnsy 5y ago
I park my phone on a magnetic mount right next to the screen in my Model 3, so I get all the Waze notifications and music from Spotify over Bluetooth. Best of both worlds.

jseliger 5y ago

I just bought (co-bought) a Model Y, and and the Supercharger network meant that other electric cars were non-starters. Hyundai and Kia, for example, have Model Y competitors, but when I was looking at them, both directed would-be buyers to PlugShare.com for for non-local charging information: I invite anyone to look at that solution, and then look at the Supercharger solution. I also live in an apartment building, and my building is supposed to install 240v chargers sometime in the next few months. Most of the buildings around me already have them, mostly operated by Chargepoint, but a few by Blink: the change from "can't own an electric car in an apartment building" to "most apartment buildings have chargers" is happening and happening faster than many thought. Once people get used to charging cars at home, as a primary solution, I doubt they're going to want to go back to gas stations. The best ads for electric cars are the cars themselves. Most of my local friends have driven mine.

closeparen 5y ago
Are they going to install chargers in the assigned spaces of all the tenants who want them, or a couple of communal chargers for tenants to fight over? Having to go back out to the parking lot every couple of hours to see if the charger is free, move your car onto it, or move your car off of it, is right down the middle of "range anxiety."
rconti 5y ago
We've got a 3, and I strongly agree. It's a lot of money (to me), and the car needs to be able to do normal-car things like roadtrips. It would be one thing to buy a $10k commute appliance with limited range, but at $50k, it damn well better be able to be the "nice car" for roadtrips as well as for commuting.
flurie 5y ago
What's interesting is that I did this recently and came to the opposite conclusion. Did you look at the situation when restricted to >= 250kW chargers? It's a completely different story, and that's with only one major CCS provider competing with Tesla. In the long run, those other chargers won't matter, and Tesla's expansion has been slow.

sib 5y ago

Well... Slow chargers (~20 - 30 miles added per hour of charging) may cost only a few thousand dollars each, but DC fast chargers (100 - 350 KW) cost much, much more than that. UBS estimated USD250,000 per station in 2017 (unclear how many actual chargers per station). Slow chargers aren't remotely comparable to gas stations. (Of course, I understand that, for people who can charge at home, the picture is very different - we own two EVs and no ICE cars and are lucky enough to have charging in our garage.)