After so many delays and the latest round of feature cancellations, we had a lot of time to think, and sort of felt this weird conviction. Like, with all the climate issues, it sort of felt weird to bring into existence a new car that wasn't an EV. Ended up ordering a Tesla and cancelling the Defender. However stoked I am about the Tesla, it's offset by being super bummed about the Defender. But gosh... I don't know... did you guys go through that decision matrix at all? EV vs Defender? I know they're like polar opposite ends of the enthusiast spectrum. I'll keep maintaining and loving our Discos as long as there's gas to drive them, but I think we sort of landed at those Discos being the last ICE cars we purchase.

 

Where do you think gas is going to go?

If we stop pumping crude, the entire world around you would disappear. Almost everything you use, touch, and look at is made from crude oil. 40% of a barrel of crude oil is gas.

We're pumping enough gas out of the ground to circle the Earth 4x per year stacked side-by-side in standard barrels.

Gasoline has no other use. Prior to the ICE, it was burned as waste. Is that the answer or do we just pump it back into the ground?

 

I don't think it's going anywhere any time soon either. I'm sort of unsettled by the financial decision of spending money on a new car that that's gas-powered when so many automakers and governments are winding down ICE production very soon, AND the personal, ethical conviction of adding another ICE car to the global pool of new cars. My heart wants a Defender, but my brain pushed me toward an EV.

And again, I have two old Discos that need ample amounts of gas to move, so I do hope it's around for a long while. Gas in CA is $5/gallon and has been around that mark for the last 4-ish months, and I don't expect it to overall decrease in price. There might be bumps down, but with the overall trend line still increasing. I'm just not going to invest in the ICE platform any longer. It's what's right for me, but not for everyone.

 

No, not even a little bit.

And no a few governments announcing deadlines that might change or might mean nothing means very little to me.

Regardless I think ICE will be around for a long time still.

 

Haha, fair enough. Welp, at least I free'd up a spot in the production queue so those waiting on here will get their Defendy that much quicker.

 

On that note, I have heard these people are working on an auto start/stop eliminator for the Defender.

It may only have been a rumor but the same person told me they were almost done with the Bronco version and that just became a reality! A guy can dream.


https://www.autostopeliminator.com/collections/ford/products/2021-ford-bronco-autostop-eliminator

 

I considered the Rivian, which I think is the most similar comparison for an EV to the current defender, but the timeline was too far out....

 

I actually went back and forth on this a lot. For several years I had thought that when I replaced my old car (2010 Subaru Outback), it would be an electric. I had ordered a Ford Mach-e that was available this summer (but didn't purchase).

Pre-COVID, my wife and I both drove about 18K miles per year and needed each of our cars to do a little bit of everything, so we both had multi-purpose crossovers (Outback and Mazda CX-5). But now that we are commuting significantly less, we decided it makes sense to have shared cars that serve different purposes. One larger car for road trips, hauling stuff and people, driving through bad weather, getting beat up, and taking off road. And then a smaller, quicker car for commuting and driving through the city. I kind of stumbled into the Defender, and it was a perfect fit for the first. And now our intention is to trade in the CX-5 for an electric car (looking at the Volvo C40 or XC40) to meet the second use case.

If in the next few years we get something electric that fills a similar function to the Defender, but can also cover longer road trips (road tripping in a non-Tesla is not practical today), I would swap out the Defender. But for now, I think we landed on the best balance given our needs.

 

No not at all... Im old enough to never expect to own an EV..... Im just hoping that I will get my Defender before I croak!!!!
I dont have a California mindset and I’d rather have less Govt interference in my life .

 

I wouldn't get a Tesla, but that's maybe partially attributable to my personal distaste for Elon Musk. That being said, an electric doesn't work for what I need right now. I want a vehicle I can take on long road trips that I can refuel quickly. 30 minutes is not "quick" to me... I usually do a fuel / bathroom stop that takes under 10 minutes, and a "lunch" stop that adds 10 to grab the food. I also don't like the idea of getting caught in a charger line which is happening at peak travel times in some areas (think Thanksgiving). I'm not anti-EV, but those things alone kill it for me. Add in the lack of storage density to get off-road for any period of time and that's the final nail in the coffin, and while I'm not going to rock crawl, I want to venture out into the large national parks of the southwest (and really everywhere), and electric won't get me there and back.

A true hybrid would be fine with me, and I'm hoping the tech advances to the point where an electric can really do it all for me. Clearly oil isn't the long-term solution if we don't want to boil away the oceans, but getting China to ditch coal would probably have a greater impact at the moment... sadly shareholder value requirements and cheap price requirements won't make that happen very soon.