Thanks for your opinion, but I'll pass, thanks. Aside from the fact that your post looks like a paid advertisement for Tesla, you conflate the overall market with my wife's and my personal needs.
1) "Double failure modes" = A backup mode that both an ICE or BEV vehicle doesn't have.
2) Range is improving? Range doesn't improve on a car I've already bought, does it? Waiting until range is something I can live is the only solution here.
3) You don't know where I live or drive, Paul. Where I drive multiple times a year the charging network is very sparse and improving very slowly. That alone is a reason for a PHEV.
Similar to point (2). I buy a car for how I can use it today, not for hopefully being able to use it at a future date if infrastructure improves at a constant rate into the future.
4) I have enough money that I'm never going to need to lease my car as a robotaxi. I also don't see more than low single-digit percentages of Tesla owners letting their cars out as robotaxis.
5) I will never buy a Tesla as their build quality is low compared to competitors.
6) I will never buy a Tesla because Tesla (Musk) is fervently anti-union, and I am fervently pro-union (even though I own my own business with employees for 30 years).
7) "FSD" is vaporware. I'm an electrical engineer and systems designer for 35+ years. Musk has been promising (and fraudulently taking money for) FSD for 10 years. It still is shit software and will be shit software until AI improves by at least 2 orders of magnitude (which currently doesn't look feasible in the next 10 years).
We sold our second car years ago because we just don't drive that many kilometers every day. A pure BEV just won't work for us (3) today for for the foreseeable future.
A PHEV would fit our needs. The 2023 X3 xDrive30e would be great for us size wise (tiny bit larger than our 328xi - we have a small garage). I took one for a test drive. Awesome to drive. But, the battery pack takes up a significant piece of the storage in back. The looming change in technology says it is better to wait. Finally since we don't NEED a new car it makes no sense to spend money on something that depreciates 20% a year in any case, and when SS batteries hit the market there will be another huge depreciation hit.
Buying a BEV now would be hit by all the negatives of buying a PHEV now, and take an even bigger depreciation hit when SS batteries hit the market.
