NYTimes: TDIs Are Hot Commodity

[Daemon64]

Indigo,

I'm in Essex County MA. I've seen RUG @ $1.95 in many places, and diesel @ $2.7 in places.

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

Good to know. Hasn't happened here yet, but might soon.

 

[tikal]

Can we get back to the original subject of this thread please?

Yes we can change the title of this thread to: Gasoline SUVs and Trucks Make Yet Another Comeback as a Hot Commodity

 

[kjclow]

If this were normal times, I would say that once again oil prices have dropped to the point of stopping sales of more econimical forms of transportation. However, these prices are reflecting two major factors that effect pump pricing.
One: The Saudis are punshing the Russians with extremely low barrel pricing and flooding the market to keep the Russians out.
Two: The world is on lockdown. Even those going out are limiting the distance and time behind the wheel. Much less fuel getting burned, so stock piles grow. There will come a time in the near futrue where the refineries will start cutting back production becasue they have no where to put the refined fuels.
Either one of these has tradtionally slowed or stopped the sales of hybrids, diesels, or electric vehicles. Add them together and the market faces a downturn that we have never seen. The lockdown is having a similar effect on cars sales in general. I can't tell you how amny emails I've recieved the last couple of days offering full on-line purchasing with delivery to my door. I'm also seeing more zero percent financing for 5-6-7 years and VW is even offering no payment for the first six months.

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

I think we've been in a new car sales bubble for a while. Prices have been rising, and consumers have responded by extending loan periods. The sad news is that some (maybe a lot) of people are going to find themselves unable to afford the payments and with negative equity in their car or truck. It's not going to be pretty.

 

[Rrusse11]

Prices here in SE PA have plummeted, I've been paying $2.35/gal for diesel.
A pair of local gas stations seem to be having a price war that's been going
on for a couple weeks. Been a loooong time since I've seen prices that low
this neck of the woods.

 

[Lightflyer1]

GasBuddy just sent me a notice saying that they expected gas to drop in price by 30 to 70 cents a gallon. I've heard of a couple of places selling gas for right about a dollar a gallon. Things are changing fast due to the conditions in the world and the virus.

 

[LeeM]

Filled up in Woodsboro, MD at $1.99 for diesel last week.

 

[rix337]

Wow, ouch! Why is RUG so high still for you all. In Atlanta we are paying $1.72 this morning with no discounts...crazy how it varies so much around the country. Agreed though, Saudis have one game, and if they blow it, its over.

 

[Lightflyer1]

$1.34 at a station here. Somewhere had it for $1.01 the other day and sold out.

 

[rwthomas1]

Dunno if anyone else is driving much. I still will be, "essential services" job. You'll pry my ALH from my cold, dead hands. Buying cost (used), cost to repair, cost to operate, all are unbeatable from my perspective. IF I was in the new car market, and IF there was an EV commuter car for @$25K, with a 250 mile range, I might be interested. As a third car. Having just driven the length of the East Coast 4 weeks ago, EVs aren't there, not even close. In a Tesla, it would have added hours, maybe days to the trip. It ain't practical for long trips. Nor is paying the monthly freight on it. Since I, and many others, don't buy new cars, and hold cars for a long time, it'll be a long time before an EV is going to make sense. For me anyway. So yeah, I think there will be a pretty solid demand for TDIs until they are used up.

 

[Nuje]

$1.34 at a station here. Somewhere had it for $1.01 the other day and sold out.

I was shocked to see similar - $1.019 - for diesel here on Vancouver Island.
Of course, that's per LITRE, but still - 25% lower than it was last time I filled up.
(Doing the math - that's $3.80CAD/g = $2.70USD/g)

 

[Mike_04GolfTDI]

I thought the exact same thing about my Jetta TDI... until I discovered EVs.

They just installed a bank of twenty Tesla super chargers one block from my home! I thought that was great and I started thinking a Tesla might be a viable option.

Then I found out it costs more to charge than buying gas. No thanks. Fail.

 

[Nuje]

Whaaaaatt?
My wife just got home from going to pick up some eggs (free!) - about 12km away. She took her A3 e-tron and made it there and back all-electric. She asked me how much electricity it costs (deciding whether it was worth the trip for free eggs).

Max usable battery is ~6.5kWh, so at most, let's say 6kWh x $.12/kWh from BC Hydro = $0.72. No way we could make it 25km on 1L of fuel in a TDI, so even with diesel at $1.00/L, TDI is still more ~50% more expensive (albeit a lot closer than it was a couple months ago).

Is there a significant electricity surcharge that Tesla applies at those superchargers?

(Oh - side-bonus: I think we've found our pandemic egg supply. )

 

[Mike_04GolfTDI]

Yes, Tesla superchargers are expensive.

It varies slightly depending where you go, but the average works out to about $30 (Canadian) for 400km. Slightly more expensive than my TDI.

Now, I know someone is going to say “but you can charge it at home cheaper.” We’ll no, houses are millions of dollars here, so I have a condo instead. Nowhere to charge at home.

I would therefore be relying on the nearby superchargers. So for me, an EV doesn’t work.

 

[turbobrick240]

Even if the superchargers were free (they are for many Teslas), it would be super inconvenient if you couldn't charge at home. My sister's condo association just added a number of chargers to parking spaces after several residents requested them. My grandparents condo in Florida had charging spaces for golf carts 30 years ago.

 

[Smashed Ixnay]

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/30/...tion=click&module=Top Stories&pgtype=Homepage


I’m not a fan of this, but since they are going to do it, can we get TDI’s back?

 

[rhinorear]

I like where you going Smashed. If not then at least get the fix reversed

 

[turbobrick240]

I don't see how relaxing fuel efficiency standards could possibly help the prospect of tdi's re-emergence. On a somewhat related note, satellite images are showing how much our air has cleared up since people are driving much less during this pandemic. I expect a lot of good data will be collected.

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

What I've read is most of the pollution reductions are because of reduced use of aircraft and industry, not automobiles. Pollutants that autos emit are pretty much unchanged in LA so far, for example, although they are expected to fall in coming weeks.

 

[flee]

The air in the San Fernando valley has gotten steadily clearer over the past 4 weeks.
Prevailing winds have mostly been from the WNW which normally keep the airmass
bottled up. No smokestack industries in the area to speak of so I'm guessing it's cars.

 

[turbobrick240]

European cities are also seeing blue skies as a result of the NO2 emissions reduction. As much as we all want this pandemic to end quickly, it will be sad to say goodbye to the clean air.

https://mobile-reuters-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN21G0XA?amp_js_v=a3&amp_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQFKAGwASA%3D#aoh=15856856485831&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.reuters.com%2Farticle%2Fus-health-coronavirus-air-pollution-idUSKBN21G0XA

 

[kjclow]

Meanwhile the air in Charlotte is turning green. No not as in greener meaning cleaner, I mena the pollen bloom that's a month early and off the charts. Some days, you can see the crap in the air like fog. All vehicles are looking like my old cyber green beetle.

 

[tikal]

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/30/...tion=click&module=Top Stories&pgtype=Homepage

I’m not a fan of this, but since they are going to do it, can we get TDI’s back?

But modern CR TDIs emit both less CO2, less PM and less volatile organic compounds (VOCs) per mile driven than their counterpart gasoline vehicles (that do not have gas particle filters and are less efficient and have less torque).

I am not sure a more efficient TDI will be encouraged in this way (leaving aside the low cost of fuel right now).

 

[turbobrick240]

Tesla Model S converted to tdi power! :

https://insideevs-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/insideevs.com/news/407398/tesla-salvage-policy-model-s-diesel-engine/amp/?amp_js_v=a3&amp_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQFKAGwASA%3D#referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Finsideevs.com%2Fnews%2F407398%2Ftesla-salvage-policy-model-s-diesel-engine%2F

 

[atc98002]

Tesla Model S converted to tdi power! :

https://insideevs-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/insideevs.com/news/407398/tesla-salvage-policy-model-s-diesel-engine/amp/?amp_js_v=a3&amp_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQFKAGwASA%3D#referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Finsideevs.com%2Fnews%2F407398%2Ftesla-salvage-policy-model-s-diesel-engine%2F

Yeah, they got me on that one too. April 1st.

It's a Photoshop, and not too bad. Someone has posted there the real for sale link, and it's still Tesla powered.

 

[turbobrick240]

Yeah, they got me on that one too. April 1st.
It's a Photoshop, and not too bad. Someone has posted there the real for sale link, and it's still Tesla powered.

Doh! I must have been pretty tired not to catch that- it was way over the top . I'm not sure if it being fake makes it more or less funny.

 

[Daemon64]

hahahaha... I saw it and thought it was probably fake but in my head... "Please let this be real, please! I would totally try to purchase this if it was..."...... Could you imagine the look on a Tesla fanboys face if you pulled into a shell, and put a diesel pump where the electric fill-port is. Just the wide eye, jaw dropped double take would be totally worth owning this. Plus I imagine it would be a crap ton lighter.... funny either way...