tinm
2020 Model S LR+ Owner
OT, mostly
Just one more small data point reinforcing the notion that Tesla is not just years, but light-years ahead of the rest of the automotive world. Today I attended the opening day of the New Mexico International Auto Show in Albuquerque. Here's a panoramic shot of the main exhibit hall as soon as you walk in:
Here's the exhibit area for Toyota. Numerous hybrids:
The Toyota rep was so meticulously well-rehearsed, polished, and ready for any potential attendee question, I wasn't sure if he was real or AI with a hologram display. It was like talking to the HAL-9000 computer or Data from Star Trek. Here's the verbatim conversation.
After searching his memory banks he went on, perhaps thinking of a way to sway me away from my obsession with electric vehicles and back to the bright future of "all future fuels," so he started to sing the praises of hydrogen and brag that Toyota now offered 39--count 'em, thirty nine!--hydrogen refill stations in California. Oh, and he tried very hard to explain that Toyota's hydrogen-powered vehicles are actually EVs, as the hydrogen energy is converted to electricity and powers electric motors. At that point I thanked him for the brilliant exposition which had expanded my mind greatly, but I spared telling him I drive a Model S.
It turns out the NM International Auto Show was so vast, it couldn't all fit in the main East Hall, so one had to exit the building, cross the street (cop watching carefully for jay-walkers) and enter the West Hall, where BMW/Mini, Audi, Porsche, Mercedes, Volvo, Lincoln, and Mitsubishi had some cars. Emphasis on "some."
The curse of trade shows everywhere: the second hall, the one only 10% of the attendees know about, despite all the signs for "MORE AUTO SHOW!" There were maybe a dozen (I'm being generous) people in this entire West Hall.
I met two people hanging around the Porsches. They were volunteers from Porsche Club of America - NM chapter. Very nice folks. I told them I run the Tesla Owners Club of New Mexico. "That must be a quiet group," one of them said, trying to make a snarky little anti-Tesla joke. "Well, we have almost 300 members, so it's not too quiet," I replied. They were shocked.
The West Hall had zero electric vehicles. Nothing. Nada. Zip.
. . . .
Okay, I lied. There wasn't just one EV in the entire auto show. There were five. See, tucked into one corner was the "KIDS AUTOBAHN" where kids could ride on little electric race cars around a track on the carpet. There were four electric race cars, two in use by two kids at the time I stopped by.
In a way it was so perfect. The future is owned by the kids. And the future is EVs. It was somehow so fitting that the trade show limited the gas-guzzlers to the adults, but it had to relent and put kids in cool little EVs. It is their destiny.
. . .
Anyway, that was the show. Like I said, Tesla is so light-years ahead it is just amazing.
Just one more small data point reinforcing the notion that Tesla is not just years, but light-years ahead of the rest of the automotive world. Today I attended the opening day of the New Mexico International Auto Show in Albuquerque. Here's a panoramic shot of the main exhibit hall as soon as you walk in:
- Why, there must have been dozens of attendees. Okay, maybe two dozen attendees. But hey, it's a work day. It'll be fuller this weekend, honest.
- The show is sponsored by one entity: the New Mexico Automotive Dealers Association. The very thugs who have enshrined their business model into state law, thus ensuring that Tesla's direct sales/service model is kept out of the state. We continue to fight them, and won't back down. Meanwhile, this is their pride and joy. And nobody's here.
- I went to every single automaker's exhibit, and asked every single one of them: do you have any pure battery electric vehicles on display this year? "Uh, no" was the usual reply, or, "no, but we have a hybrid over here!"
- There was one--count 'em--one EV in the entire exhibit hall. A Nissan Leaf. That's it.
- The GM/Buick/Chevy exhibit lacked a Bolt or a Volt. "We're concentrating on what the market wants in New Mexico," I was told.
- The feeling in the show was, hey this is gasoline-loving New Mexico, what climate crisis? Carbon? Yeah I have carbon, on my spoiler, check it out dude!
Here's the exhibit area for Toyota. Numerous hybrids:
The Toyota rep was so meticulously well-rehearsed, polished, and ready for any potential attendee question, I wasn't sure if he was real or AI with a hologram display. It was like talking to the HAL-9000 computer or Data from Star Trek. Here's the verbatim conversation.
Me: So Toyota doesn’t yet have any EVs does it?
Rep: We did in the 90s, and then we did in 2014. They were limited runs, they were known to be bought in bulk by the government and *crushed*. (Snorts.)
Me: Okay. (I fear he is thinking of GM's EV1, but I didn't say anything.)
Rep: So we did a partnership in 2012 with Tesla.
Me: Right, the RAV4.
Rep: RAV4. but it was the 2012 body style. So it was the hatchback...
Me: I remember.
Rep: They made 1500, the range was 103, and they sold well. But then they didn’t make them anymore. Now, from Corporate in Plano (TX) last year, we asked them, “What is the future of EV?”
Me: Right.
Rep: And the Corporate answer was, "Toyota has their hands on all future fuels." That being said, there might be a longer range vehicle on the horizon. But as product specialists we are trained and drive current products. They don’t tell us.
Rep: We did in the 90s, and then we did in 2014. They were limited runs, they were known to be bought in bulk by the government and *crushed*. (Snorts.)
Me: Okay. (I fear he is thinking of GM's EV1, but I didn't say anything.)
Rep: So we did a partnership in 2012 with Tesla.
Me: Right, the RAV4.
Rep: RAV4. but it was the 2012 body style. So it was the hatchback...
Me: I remember.
Rep: They made 1500, the range was 103, and they sold well. But then they didn’t make them anymore. Now, from Corporate in Plano (TX) last year, we asked them, “What is the future of EV?”
Me: Right.
Rep: And the Corporate answer was, "Toyota has their hands on all future fuels." That being said, there might be a longer range vehicle on the horizon. But as product specialists we are trained and drive current products. They don’t tell us.
After searching his memory banks he went on, perhaps thinking of a way to sway me away from my obsession with electric vehicles and back to the bright future of "all future fuels," so he started to sing the praises of hydrogen and brag that Toyota now offered 39--count 'em, thirty nine!--hydrogen refill stations in California. Oh, and he tried very hard to explain that Toyota's hydrogen-powered vehicles are actually EVs, as the hydrogen energy is converted to electricity and powers electric motors. At that point I thanked him for the brilliant exposition which had expanded my mind greatly, but I spared telling him I drive a Model S.
It turns out the NM International Auto Show was so vast, it couldn't all fit in the main East Hall, so one had to exit the building, cross the street (cop watching carefully for jay-walkers) and enter the West Hall, where BMW/Mini, Audi, Porsche, Mercedes, Volvo, Lincoln, and Mitsubishi had some cars. Emphasis on "some."
The curse of trade shows everywhere: the second hall, the one only 10% of the attendees know about, despite all the signs for "MORE AUTO SHOW!" There were maybe a dozen (I'm being generous) people in this entire West Hall.
I met two people hanging around the Porsches. They were volunteers from Porsche Club of America - NM chapter. Very nice folks. I told them I run the Tesla Owners Club of New Mexico. "That must be a quiet group," one of them said, trying to make a snarky little anti-Tesla joke. "Well, we have almost 300 members, so it's not too quiet," I replied. They were shocked.
The West Hall had zero electric vehicles. Nothing. Nada. Zip.
. . . .
Okay, I lied. There wasn't just one EV in the entire auto show. There were five. See, tucked into one corner was the "KIDS AUTOBAHN" where kids could ride on little electric race cars around a track on the carpet. There were four electric race cars, two in use by two kids at the time I stopped by.
In a way it was so perfect. The future is owned by the kids. And the future is EVs. It was somehow so fitting that the trade show limited the gas-guzzlers to the adults, but it had to relent and put kids in cool little EVs. It is their destiny.
. . .
Anyway, that was the show. Like I said, Tesla is so light-years ahead it is just amazing.
