Are ICE uncool, EV cool with Millennials and Gen-Z ????

[whynot]

So ... at a family gathering on Boxing Day at one point I was sitting around with nephews and nieces (ages 17 to 33). Just having a chat and catching up with them. Lots of chat about computer games, uni, work, etc.

And then at one point the conversation in the group turned to cars. One of the nephews had just bought an i30 (sensible given his needs). Another nephew pipped up that he was saving up for a Tesla. Then two others mentioned they wanted a Tesla as their next car. And then the conversation went in the general consensus that an EV would be their next car.

Maybe this was all wishful thinking in the group of Millennials and Gen-Z. But it got me thinking. When I was their age, what I really wanted was a V8 Falcon with all of the fruit. However, the car of desire for the next generation is, apparently, a Tesla???????

If this group of nephews and nieces is anywhere near a representative sample of future buying habits, the traditional ICE manufacturers have some serious pivoting to do.

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by whynot

So ... at a family gathering on Boxing Day at one point I was sitting around with nephews and nieces (ages 17 to 33). Just having a chat and catching up with them. Lots of chat about computer games, uni, work, etc.

And then at one point the conversation in the group turned to cars. One of the nephews had just bought an i30 (sensible given his needs). Another nephew pipped up that he was saving up for a Tesla. Then two others mentioned they wanted a Tesla as their next car. And then the conversation went in the general consensus that an EV would be their next car.

Maybe this was all wishful thinking in the group of Millennials and Gen-Z. But it got me thinking. When I was their age, what I really wanted was a V8 Falcon with all of the fruit. However, the car of desire for the next generation is, apparently, a Tesla???????

If this group of nephews and nieces is anywhere near a representative sample of future buying habits, the traditional ICE manufacturers have some serious pivoting to do.

The days of kids pining for an 8 cylinder car are long over - P plate vehicle restrictions pretty much took it away from younger kids for the past circa 15 years.

Now it's back to power to weight ratio in VIC but the damage has been done.

What's attractive to modern young adults is something with all the fruit with electronic gadgetry, Tesla's are chock full of this stuff and Elon Musk is a bit of an eccentric character who leverages social media to the hilt.

[Bossxr8]

Originally Posted by Franco Cozzo

The days of kids pining for an 8 cylinder car are long over - P plate vehicle restrictions pretty much took it away from younger kids for the past circa 15 years.

Now it's back to power to weight ratio in VIC but the damage has been done.

What's attractive to modern young adults is something with all the fruit with electronic gadgetry, Tesla's are chock full of this stuff and Elon Musk is a bit of an eccentric character who leverages social media to the hilt.

Makes you wonder if tesla’s are banned for p platers?

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by Bossxr8

Makes you wonder if tesla’s are banned for p platers?

Banned in VIC, NSW, QLD and SA

But approved in TAS, NT, WA and ACT

I assume the ones it's banned in have other vehicle restrictions for P platers and the ones it's not banned in don't.

[jpd80]

Originally Posted by whynot

So ... at a family gathering on Boxing Day at one point I was sitting around with nephews and nieces (ages 17 to 33). Just having a chat and catching up with them. Lots of chat about computer games, uni, work, etc.

And then at one point the conversation in the group turned to cars. One of the nephews had just bought an i30 (sensible given his needs). Another nephew pipped up that he was saving up for a Tesla. Then two others mentioned they wanted a Tesla as their next car. And then the conversation went in the general consensus that an EV would be their next car.

Maybe this was all wishful thinking in the group of Millennials and Gen-Z. But it got me thinking. When I was their age, what I really wanted was a V8 Falcon with all of the fruit. However, the car of desire for the next generation is, apparently, a Tesla???????

If this group of nephews and nieces is anywhere near a representative sample of future buying habits, the traditional ICE manufacturers have some serious pivoting to do.

When you mentioned V8, did they make a face like grandpa farted again?

[whynot]

Originally Posted by jpd80

When you mentioned V8, did they make a face like grandpa farted again?

Nope. I kept my mouth shut and just listened to the conversation.

[Falcon SXR8]

From all the young ones I know im actually shocked at how many are not interested in electric cars and teslas specifically as there for " old rich guys " as they say. They all want 4wd's, jdm stuff or au falcon skid pigs.

The other area to watch is the younger youtube car channels. There is still a lot of love for the humble ice vehicle and the ones I see with teslas treat them as a bit of a sideshow freak, just something they take their mates in for a few pulls then they go in the corner and you never see them again. I guess the problem with teslas and making money from " youtube content " is you cant really modify them like they can with a traditional ice vehicle.

I honestly don't think its all doom and gloom from the younger ones, go to a car show and there is still heaps of young people enjoying some good old fashioned ice propelled transportation.

[Sprintey]

Originally Posted by Falcon SXR8

From all the young ones I know im actually shocked at how many are not interested in electric cars and teslas specifically as there for " old rich guys " as they say. They all want 4wd's, jdm stuff or au falcon skid pigs.

The other area to watch is the younger youtube car channels. There is still a lot of love for the humble ice vehicle and the ones I see with teslas treat them as a bit of a sideshow freak, just something they take their mates in for a few pulls then they go in the corner and you never see them again. I guess the problem with teslas and making money from " youtube content " is you cant really modify them like they can with a traditional ice vehicle.

I honestly don't think its all doom and gloom from the younger ones, go to a car show and there is still heaps of young people enjoying some good old fashioned ice propelled transportation.

This is Gen Z in our country area, in a nutshell. All about 4wd rigs, there's been flavours of Falcon and Commodore and V8s. The mates are hanging to have a drive of the manual Sprint. The tradey boss is early Gen Y and drives a massive V8 Ram now he has family responsibilites! Our Gen Y fam in WA lean to the dark side, and lean hard - there's a VE GTS, 1000hp VF SS ute, all sorts of motorcycles and 4 wheelies, and even a custom dirt racer chassis for doing the races down the dry river beds...

[Itsme]

Not much in the V8 range these days but there is plenty of rev heads and bogans still getting around bagging up on the roads with their s*** heaps.

Have not come across any young ones wanting electrics; mostly Indians I see with hybrids & EV's.

[thefargo]

may be something of a red herring, but I was looking over a friends TESLA and was surprised at the number of power leads he carries. 'this one connects me to the battery at home, this one for the charger at the garage at work, this one for the charger...' all with different fittings.
Is that usual? took up a bit of space as well. cool factor? pulling out 5 different leads until one fits the plug? not as cool as pumping your own fuel...lol

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by thefargo

may be something of a red herring, but I was looking over a friends TESLA and was surprised at the number of power leads he carries. 'this one connects me to the battery at home, this one for the charger at the garage at work, this one for the charger...' all with different fittings.
Is that usual? took up a bit of space as well. cool factor? pulling out 5 different leads until one fits the plug? not as cool as pumping your own fuel...lol

I've got jumper leads and various toolkits in all my cars and diagnostic scanners in two of them, but that's probably more because all my cars are ****boxes

[Dr Terry]

Originally Posted by thefargo

may be something of a red herring, but I was looking over a friends TESLA and was surprised at the number of power leads he carries. 'this one connects me to the battery at home, this one for the charger at the garage at work, this one for the charger...' all with different fittings.
Is that usual? took up a bit of space as well. cool factor? pulling out 5 different leads until one fits the plug? not as cool as pumping your own fuel...lol

There are several different EV charging plugs, they haven't standarised yet. There are even different leads for normal charging & rapid charging on the same car.

Also as usual The US, Euros, Japanese or Koreans don't talk to each other yet.

One of my customers has 2 Teslas, one several years old & one relatively new model. He liked how the new one charged so quickly with its new cable, so he went to Tesla to purchase a new rapid charging cable for his older car. I believe that the new cable was soooo expensive (4 figures) he delayed its purchase.

Dr Terry

[DTFRMONT]

The Euro brands (BMW/Audi/VW/MB) are also popular with the younger crowd, especially as used examples are much more accessible than in the past. V8's are seen as Boomer/Gen X cars.

As others have said, 4WD's are popular, especially with COVID disrupting the traditional overseas & interstate backpacking trips, and gap years are almost a thing of the past ATM.

[nitro50th]

Over the Christmas break, my nieces partner showed interest in my XD 351 and was keen to go for a spin. Thought it was great.

He was also keen to show me his Focus RS, and mentioned his desire to one day buy an early 80's Porsche to tidy up into a week-ender.

He may be outside the norm, but I'm sure there are still younger generation kids out there that are interested in older cars.

[jgmdat]

All is not lost, today I saw two XP Falcon's being driven by blokes in their late 20's.

[Giant Cranium]

they sound like they are not into cars and also realistic to what is coming.

im 34, massively into cars, im also building a new garage next year and will provide enough power to it or ev charging

out of friends i have outside of the car world i only have 2 that are into cars and one who thinks they are.

normally im asked what car do i recommend like a rav 4, then i give better options like skoda octavia rs, they then want to show me the rav 4 that they just bought

[Top_Ghia]

Originally Posted by whynot

So ... at a family gathering on Boxing Day at one point I was sitting around with nephews and nieces (ages 17 to 33). Just having a chat and catching up with them. Lots of chat about computer games, uni, work, etc.

And then at one point the conversation in the group turned to cars. One of the nephews had just bought an i30 (sensible given his needs). Another nephew pipped up that he was saving up for a Tesla. Then two others mentioned they wanted a Tesla as their next car. And then the conversation went in the general consensus that an EV would be their next car.

Maybe this was all wishful thinking in the group of Millennials and Gen-Z. But it got me thinking. When I was their age, what I really wanted was a V8 Falcon with all of the fruit. However, the car of desire for the next generation is, apparently, a Tesla???????

If this group of nephews and nieces is anywhere near a representative sample of future buying habits, the traditional ICE manufacturers have some serious pivoting to do.

I’m in the country and every young male drives a modded 79 series. There’s simply no inferstructure to charge EV’s here. There’s one public charger in town and I see a few Teslas and the odd Merc charging there. They’re always there for hours and always driven by middle age folk. One bloke I talked to was tired of waiting and was going to get his Troopie so he could carry on his journey.
The one customer we have with an EV absolutely loves it. She has a lot of solar so pretty much drives for free. Where she lives there is zero charging stations so she certainly needs to be organised.
Interestingly it takes 4 days to charge from a standard 10 amp domestic power point.
Looking at the holiday traffic the demand for EV’s should be low. There is thousands of 4wd’s and most are towing huge caravans or boats and loaded to the hilt.
Sure sure the F150 lightning could do that and I’m sure someone will mention the Rivian(which will never arrive). But they won’t be here any time soon, if at all.
If you look at what motivates people to buy new cars it certainly isn’t the false belief in emitting zero emissions.
People now buy new cars because they want their phone to pair to it. Or the want room for their dog. Or they want to tow their 3 tonne van around and go touring.
In 25 years in the automotive industry nobody has ever asked me how much co2 a car generates. Ever.

[whynot]

Originally Posted by Top_Ghia

I’m in the country and every young male drives a modded 79 series. There’s simply no inferstructure to charge EV’s here.

Yeah, I think that is understandable (and sensible) given the operational needs and what plant is available. Just in my street alone, there are three young tradies and they all have heavily modified Landcruisers + camping trailers that looks like they are ready to tackle Simpson's Desert.

I shake my head in wonder at how they can afford to drop $100K on such kit at such a young age. I certainly never could afford to do so when I was on the tools.

Still ... in the the group I was listening to, one wanted a Tesla because it was fast, another wanted a Tesla because it was cool, and the third wanted to save the planet.

Regardless of one's personal views about Tesla and EV, there are some basic concepts in advertising including "brand awareness". It took decades for Hyundai to become established in the market, and it has only been in the last 20 years that their reputation for reasonable quality has been established.

In the automotive land time, Tesla has come out of thin air in the last few years and pushed some well established brand names to one side in some people's thinking. That is impressive.

All in all, it was instructive to just sit and listen to the conversation. Certainly the positive discussions around EV took me by surprise.

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by whynot

Yeah, I think that is understandable (and sensible) given the operational needs and what plant is available. Just in my street alone, there are three young tradies and they all have heavily modified Landcruisers + camping trailers that looks like they are ready to tackle Simpson's Desert.

I shake my head in wonder at how they can afford to drop $100K on such kit at such a young age. I certainly never could afford to do so when I was on the tools.

Still ... in the the group I was listening to, one wanted a Tesla because it was fast, another wanted a Tesla because it was cool, and the third wanted to save the planet.

Regardless of one's personal views about Tesla and EV, there are some basic concepts in advertising including "brand awareness". It took decades for Hyundai to become established in the market, and it has only been in the last 20 years that their reputation for reasonable quality has been established.

In the automotive land time, Tesla has come out of thin air in the last few years and pushed some well established brand names to one side in some people's thinking. That is impressive.

All in all, it was instructive to just sit and listen to the conversation. Certainly the positive discussions around EV took me by surprise.

With Hyundai, their turning point was the i30 in the mid 00s - that was when their cars took a big turn around from the 1990s/early 00s stuff.

[T3rminator]

Not just the "young" ones. Even some of my mates, in their late 30s, who were formerly passionate V8 people, have gone off them. They are now going on and on about their small capacity, fuel efficient, force inducted, putt putt machines, and how they can keep up with V8s on their 0-60kmh runs and pay a fraction of the fuel cost. EVs will be the next logical step for these people.

Times change. What people read, see and hear influences their daily decision making.

[DJM83]

I appreciate EV cars ill be honest.
But i have no interest in buying one, not to mention where i live theres little to no infrastructure to charge them.
With the possibility of building a house with in the next few years, there will be space for a couple of extra cars, none will be EV.
Id rather spend 65k (if im lucky) on an F6 than a Model 3

[MITCHAY]

I'm 35 and have no desire to own an EV. You watched the races on the weekend and talked **** about it on Monday That is what I grew up around and still want a V8.

I'm guessing that would be almost non-existent in school these days as will be the new Commodore or Falcon models which meant the older ones filtered down.

I don't recall many if any getting new/near new cars when I got my Ps in 2003 like I see now.

[Top_Ghia]

Electric cars really haven’t arrived in Australia just yet. Sure Tesla has been around a few years but they’re a bit of an oddball. They have virtually zero dealer network and to me only make sense in our major cities.

But this will change in the next few years. All the big players will start landing real drivable electric cars and more and more chargers will get rolled out. With brands like Kia, Hyundai, Mercedes, BMW, Audi, Porsche and hopefully Ford bringing new EV’s they will become real alternatives to ice cars.
So in 5 years time there probably will be some cool EV’s that many younger drivers will want to be seen in.

[Itsme]

Originally Posted by Top_Ghia

Electric cars really haven’t arrived in Australia just yet. Sure Tesla has been around a few years but they’re a bit of an oddball. They have virtually zero dealer network and to me only make sense in our major cities.

But this will change in the next few years. All the big players will start landing real drivable electric cars and more and more chargers will get rolled out. With brands like Kia, Hyundai, Mercedes, BMW, Audi, Porsche and hopefully Ford bringing new EV’s they will become real alternatives to ice cars.
So in 5 years time there probably will be some cool EV’s that many younger drivers will want to be seen in.

Until you have supporting infrastructure where EV's can go anywhere in Oz they will be limited to a small market no matter how much the car manufacturers push these type of vehicles, ICE vehicles will be still around for a long time if any hybrids will be filling the gap.

[Pooka]

Tesla reminds me of when Apple released their i-Pod and i-Phone in the early 2000's. A s**t product that gained popularity by peer pressure. A popularity contest even. The young n' dumb at the time believed that they had to have it to be "popular", or to be in with the "cool" people. Same with Tesla now.

With the i-Pod and i-Phones, there was (and still are) much, much better comparable products, and generally at a lower price too. But the "I'm so cool because I have one and you don't" perception, really sucked people in. And it still does.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for EV's taking over from ICE. But there is, and soon will be even better choices than Tesla for an EV.

[thefargo]

I think this thread is the only place I have ever seen the words 'cool' and 'drive a TESLA' in the same sentence

[T3rminator]

Originally Posted by thefargo

I think this thread is the only place I have ever seen the words 'cool' and 'drive a TESLA' in the same sentence

Ever been in a Tesla though? They are pretty cool I must admit. The acceleration is annoying....annoyingly good. The most amazing gadget I found was that it could see the bins put out on the nature strips at night, and show it to you on the screen.

[thefargo]

Originally Posted by T3rminator

Ever been in a Tesla though? They are pretty cool I must admit. The acceleration is annoying....annoyingly good. The most amazing gadget I found was that it could see the bins put out on the nature strips at night, and show it to you on the screen.

yep, a work colleague had the use of one for the weekend. I took it for a long drive. I was surprised how little I used the brake, the car slowed down the instant I lifted off the accelerator.

Still, not my car of choice. still not cool. it was a nice shade of white, as is most.

[ozrunner]

Originally Posted by T3rminator

.......... The most amazing gadget I found was that it could see the bins put out on the nature strips at night, and show it to you on the screen.

You must be kidding . I don't know whether to laugh or cry at this apparent Tesla genius tech.

Think about it and where we are apparently heading. So a Tesla genius thought never mind that you have two freaking eyes that should be looking at the road ahead, you can now look down and across to check for bins on the verge.

Surely this must be one of those video games that Tesla incorporated that they now have to erase and you presumably got points for every bin you demolished or is the truth out that a Tesla is actually a garbage truck in disguise.

The mind boggles. Maybe they can erase this crap during the current 500,000 Model 3 recall.

[fiestaz]

Originally Posted by ozrunner

You must be kidding . I don't know whether to laugh or cry at this apparent Tesla genius tech.

Think about it and where we are apparently heading. So a Tesla genius thought never mind that you have two freaking eyes that should be looking at the road ahead, you can now look down and across to check for bins on the verge.

Surely this must be one of those video games that Tesla incorporated that they now have to erase and you presumably got points for every bin you demolished or is the truth out that a Tesla is actually a garbage truck in disguise.

The mind boggles. Maybe they can erase this crap during the current 500,000 Model 3 recall.

I think you’ve missed the point on the car spotting wheelie bins. It forms part of the driverless tech where the car picks up everything around so it can drive for you (for the most part). It isn’t there for us to just look and rely on a screen.