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Originally Posted by SomeGeoffGuy
What you described is how the industry used to work. But technology is changing too fast to just do a "Top hat" on an EV platform you designed five or ten years ago. Even Tesla - with only five models - has multiple different platforms. The cyber truck was new because the Model 3 was old tech already.
What you are seeing in the market is that they develop a new platform and multiple models at the same time, but it doesn't mean that the next generation of those models is going to be based on the original platform tech - and it is not.
Ultium was engineered in the late 20-teens and will be old tech by the time the transition starts in 2028. That is all I am saying. If all the OEM's - Ford included with the eF150 - aren't working on new stuff for 2028 they are going to be left behind.
-Geoff
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Things are different, but not in the way you described. CyberTruck’s platform does not replace the Model 3 / Model Y platform. It’s an addition to Tesla’s portfolio. Because they want t build a full size truck, they needed a bigger platform than either the Model S / Model X platform or the Model 3 / Model Y platform.
What’s different is the tophat approach, which Tesla has not yet taken full advantage of, and the over-the-air (OTA) update approach which Tesla does in spades and most other OEMs are also adopting. All the Tesla models except CyberTruck are long in the tooth. Model S and Model X sales reflect that. Plus they’re higher priced, so they are gonna sell slower than Model 3 and Model Y. But Model 3 was new in 2017 and is just now going through the equivalent of a mid-cycle.
Model Y was new in 2020 and the mid-cycle on that is just now about to start rolling out in Australia and China. Probably not coming to the US this year. But yet, both Model 3 and Model Y continue to outsell practically everything in their vehicle classes (ICE and EV). Partly because Tesla continues to upgrade the vehicle content, features, and capability through OTA. They even managed to execute two product recalls via OTA, so owners never had to take their vehicles in to a dealer to clear a recall.
In other OTAs, Tesla added Side Blind Alert to vehicles already on the road. They also upgraded their Adaptive Cruise application (horribly named AutoPilot) to add in-cabin monitoring by simply updating the firmware in a camera already built into the car to follow driver eye movement. Because EVs tend to be more software laden than ICE vehicles, the new trend for staying on top of new tech is through OTA. It also serves to keep the owner in the vehicle longer. When owners get the same capability as new car buyers through the OTA upgrades, there’s less of a sense that the new cars do things the old cars can’t. Like when Camaro got camera mirrors in 2019 and some 2018 owners were trying to figure out how to retrofit.
Hyundai Kia and GM are the current “masters of the tophat” approach.
H-K: Ionic 5, Ioniq 6, Kia EV6, Kia EV9, Genesis GV60, and upcoming Kia EV7 are all off the same skateboard, different tophats.
GM: Lyriq, Blazer EV, Equinox EV, Honda Prologue, Acura ZDX, upcoming Bolt EUV replacement, upcoming Chevy Coupe and/or Sedan, eventual CT4/CT5 replacements are all of the BEV3 skateboard. And Hummer EV, Silverado EV, Sierra EV, and Cadillac Escalade iQ are all of the BT1 skateboard.
The pics below show all there really is to the BT1 skateboard.