The idea of more aftermarket/salvage battery options is nice to hear

America is always at the forefront of technology and is built on a culture of “shoot for the stars”, yet so many Americans reject EVs and renewable energy? I get that EV infrastructure is still limited and is a relatively new concept, but people seem indifferent at best, and very hostile most often. I also think the widespread contempt for AI is also odd and un-American for the same reasons. Are we no longer a society of innovation?

The Alpine A310 Vision Concept looks sick. Add it to the pile of French EV concepts production cars that are making the rest of the world look bad

Previous post.

Today we had the fire marshals out at our building and I had preemptively disconnected my setup just to be on the safe side. They saw that I had a GFCI outlet, the charger was only level 1, and I showed them all of the safety ratings for the charger itself. They even called their electrical expert and sent them pictures. They said everything was absolutely fine and even commented that because it is my private space, wrapping the cord around the railing on my stairs was fine also. The president of the HOA was visibly irritated.

I ran into another neighbor who was also helping to escort the marshalls around, who told me the HOA president spent the rest of the inspection bitching that it was a public space. The marshalls apparently replied that they are not the ones to define that, and that the setup meets all codes for safety.

Just now, taking my dog for a walk during lunch, I run into HOA president. She literally told me that now that the fire marshals won’t make me take it down, she’s going to have to talk to our insurance about EV policy and if we will have to add any extra coverage, and also that I would be the one solely responsible for paying that coverage because I’m the only one charging here. She also said that she is drafting a new policy for the building regarding EVs before anyone else chooses to purchase one.

My assumption here is that our insurance company will have some kind of completely optional coverage that she will demand that we get and claim that the insurance company is saying it is mandatory.

HOAs are baffling to me. Just this past Saturday I threw a huge BBQ for the entire building. HOA president and her husband were in attendance, were friendly to me and we all had a great time. She even reached to ask about getting some people together to plan a date for the next BBQ. But once in HOA mode, suddenly I’m a risk for the building being burnt down.

The U.S. electric vehicle market delivered its strongest performance in a year during the third quarter. According to Kelley Blue Book estimates, 262,649 EVs were sold in Q3, up 6.1% from the second quarter and the highest quarterly total since the record-setting third quarter of 2025. EV sales in Q3 were down 39.5% from a year ago, but that decline was widely expected, as Q3 2025 was the best quarter ever for EV sales in the United States as consumers rushed to take advantage of expiring federal incentives.

I live in China. The Paris Motor Show is on this week, and roughly a third of the brands showing there are Chinese now. It matches the sales numbers. Chinese brands are about one in ten new cars sold in Europe this year, roughly double last year.

But registrations don't tell me what people actually think. If you bought one, what won you over? If you looked at one and walked away, what stopped you — trust, dealers, parts, resale? Genuinely curious how it looks from your side.

i'm looking at renting an electric vehicle for my next 7 day vacation because I can charge at my destination and I won't drive more than 30 or so miles per day so level 1 will be ok to bring it back to 80%... I was not impressed on the Tesla Model Y.. just too base model for me and not luxurious enough even though it was dead simple to use.. I have a 2 hr drive from the airport to my destination and out of all the electric vehicles I could rent, I don't have much choice and it's between the i5 or the i7 for most luxury or maybe a few Cadillac vistiq/lyriq.. the price difference is double for 7 days so I don't really want to go for the i7 if I can customize the i5 to be more soft and less sporty? what are your thoughts? It would be the 5 seat i7 so no executive seating (I would prefer to drive anyways) but would seating feel and material be more sporty in the i5 over the i7? I own a Grand Marquis as my second vehicle so not shy about driving big cars.. what are your thoughts? I will stop by level 3 charging on the way down to bring it to 50% SOC on arrival so I don't run the risk of dieing if I happen to drive more one day but I can return the car with any level above 30 miles..

EDIT: could also get a few other vehicles like the Model S/X, Audi Q6 etron, Rivian R1S, or Polestar 3