[markomalley]

I don't know about their batteries, but I've owned a couple of their trucks (and one old Z-car ;>) which weren't bad. IIRC, the Japanese company you don't want building your car parts is Takata, of "exploding-parts-that-kill-you" fame...

Back in the 80s and 90s, I really liked Nissan but their quality went to crap and so I switched to Toyota as my go-to.

I remember one time talking to a cab driver in DC complaining that the company bought a fleet of Leafs and the drivers had to charge after almost every fare because the range was so crap. This was during the Obama days and the company had some arrangement with the District government to cover most of the costs of the vehicles so the only ones that got screwed were the drivers.

[struggle]

>I remember one time talking to a cab driver in DC complaining that the company bought a fleet of Leafs and the drivers had to charge after almost every fare because the range was so crap.

They’re working on mini-cassette solid state batteries that you can multi-insert (4 cassette batteries per car) and just pull and change out the dead batteries, kind of like the Ryobi etc batteries for tools but on a larger scale.

They have a goofy minicar in Japan that can move 4 people and float in water that use those cassette batteries and its definitely trending that way, but the tech is still too young. You can’t get more than 100 miles in one without all the cassette batteries going dead.

[Who is John Galt?]

I remember one time talking to a cab driver in DC complaining that the company bought a fleet of Leafs and the drivers had to charge after almost every fare because the range was so crap. This was during the Obama days and the company had some arrangement with the District government to cover most of the costs of the vehicles so the only ones that got screwed were the drivers.

I knew some folks who moved to the Atlanta, Georgia area, maybe 6-8 years ago. They said about three-quarters of the houses on their block had Nissan Leaf EVs - not because they were good cars, but because there were enough federal, State and local or company rebates/incentives to make the cars cheap & attractive. In short, I guess you can pay some people enough to take one home.

And as my good friend Captain Obvious said many years ago, "Electric cars might make sense for some people who live in metro areas, but in rural areas they suck!"

;>)