New EV forum section - your help required

[Ben Lowden]

Since creating a Tesla forum and placing it in the American Cars section, it has become apparent that what we may actually need is a new forum section for EVs/alternative fuels altogether with the way things are going. But what forums shall we have in it?

• This forum could become General chat
• Tesla
• Polestar
• Charging
• Any others we should consider?

Or do we just collapse the Tesla forum back into here and leave as is?

[emperorburger]

Why would you treat Tesla differently to any other marque on pistonheads?

Tesla, Polestar are both worthy of their own sub forums. Makes sense to stick them under an EV section, but equally they could go in other marques.

[Dave Hedgehog]

emperorburger said:

Why would you treat Tesla differently to any other marque on pistonheads?

There are loads of marques that have their own forums

Creating the Tesla forum killed it stone dead

[emperorburger]

Dave Hedgehog said:

There are loads of marques that have their own forums

Creating the Tesla forum killed it stone dead

I'm confused. Are you saying you want pistonheads to actively promote Tesla chat above other marques. Place it front and centre, so to speak?

Sites like Electrek seem to have captured most of the Tesla nutjobs, although I think there maybe be a couple still lurking in PH

Just to add, I think calling the main section Volte-Face might be apt

Edited by emperorburger on Thursday 13th May 11:00

Edited by emperorburger on Thursday 13th May 11:05

[raspy]

Have an "EVs are crap. I would never buy one" forum, for all those people with ICE vehicles who've never even driven an EV, yet seem to think all EVs are rubbish and are doomed to fail. That would help to clean up normal EV threads where more balanced conversations can take place :-)

[Knock_knock]

I think the reason the Tesla forum is struggling is because it's still fairly niche, and because it appears much further down the page than the EV forum.

Perhaps the EV forum could become a "general EV discussion" forum, with "Tesla" and any other brands as subsections of it?

Oh, and bung hydrogen/LPG/squirrel sh!t 'alternate' fuels into another subsection too!

[liner33]

raspy said:

Have an "EVs are crap. I would never buy one" forum, for all those people with ICE vehicles who've never even driven an EV, yet seem to think all EVs are rubbish and are doomed to fail. That would help to clean up normal EV threads where more balanced conversations can take place :-)

So an EV "safe space" ? That's the opposite of a balanced forum that's a circle jerk echo chamber. Balanced means hearing opinions different to yours , and everyone is entitled to theirs

[JonnyVTEC]

Whats wrong with this area?

[SWoll]

JonnyVTEC said:

Whats wrong with this area?

They moved Tesla threads out due to complaints from other posters who needed a safe space. It's now been realised that approach isn't driving traffic like it was i assume and a different tact required with more and more EV threads turning up?

[caseys]

I'd agree that this thread could become the EV equivalent of General Gassing (General Volting?... or something..)

Either need to break it out by marque, or by type? We can see Rivian bringing trucks, there's SUV / 4x4 EVs

Otherwise if not marque, why not my regions?

American EVs (Tesla, Rivian)
European EVs (BMW, Renault, Peugeot, Citroen, MB, Porsche)
Asia-Pac EVs (Nissan, Toyota etc)
Charging / Modding / Electrifying old ICE cars / Technical section (diagnostics etc)

Not sure if lease deals / general EV buying advice requires a different section to the standard one there is now?

[Ben Lowden]

CheesecakeRunner said:

I'd put Tesla and Polestar under the Other Marques section. It makes no sense for Tesla to be classed as 'American Cars' but Ford 'Other Marques'. You could argue Ford is the definition of 'American Cars'.

The issue with putting the likes of EV only brands like Tesla and Polestar under an EV section is then it differentiates them from other manufacturers who produce both EV and ICE. This reinforces the belief that EV drivetrains still aren't part of the mainstream.

They're all just car manufacturers. Treat them all the same. Otherwise are you going to move them all to the EV section in nine years time?

To my mind the EV and Alternative fuels section should be for discussion of technology, advocacy, and use of, EV and alternative fuels.

This is a very good point.

[Jacobyte]

Give the established EV marques their own subforum in Other Marques, but to ensure they get traffic there should be a sticky redirect to each of them at the top of this EV and Alternative Fuels section.

[JonnyVTEC]

Reality is might even want a charging zone for discussion on home charging, installation and rapid chargers. deffo one way to drive traffic for people new to it all.

[Frimley111R]

I don't think we need to do anything. This is the general EV chat and if you have, say, an Audi EV, you just post about it in the Audi page. Otherwise we are splitting things up by the type of fuel.

New brands should have their own section, so Tesla, Polestar, etc in just the way any other new brand should.

[page3]

I don’t think this is a static thing.

For now I’d like to see an EV section with sub forums such as “general chat”, “charging infrastructure”, “Tesla” and some of the other major players having sub forums.

In a couple of years things will be different and the brand sub forums could go and be merged with the main brand forums.

I do think right now having an EV section makes sense.

[aparna]

The logical place for Tesla is under 'Other Marques' with the other 'dull' brands. And then EV for general EV chat.

TMC has about 25 active threads per day in the UK section. I suspect the problem is more cultural than structural.

[ds666]

The great thing about moving Tesla out of the general ev forum is it now means that every thread doesn’t degenerate into a “but , Tesla “ debate .
The Tesla forum now just seems to discuss the fact that they aren’t as good as people make out , and that’s from actual owners . The most recent debates a bolt falling out of the front wishbone of one model .

Edited by ds666 on Thursday 13th May 21:34

[aestetix1]

Dave Hedgehog said:

There are loads of marques that have their own forums

Creating the Tesla forum killed it stone dead

Of course, most of them are only here to fellate Elon Musk in public and once they couldn't tell everyone else how wrong they were for not joining in they lost interest.

[Aunty Pasty]

In a market where choice and variety is rapidly expanding it makes sense to move Tesla to it's own forum under "Other Marques". There was a time when EVs basically meant Tesla or G-Wizz but that's no longer the case.

As a potential EV owner in the near future I'd like to come here and get a more balanced and unbiased perspective of EVs in general without having to wade through the usual fanboy rhetoric.

btw I'm not suggesting that all Tesla owners are fanboys but from watching YouTube I get the feeling that there is a "Us vs Them" mentality about. Either that or they've bought into Tesla shares and are trying to talk it up.

[Ben Lowden]

Thanks for the input everyone. It seems the general consensus is to move it to Other Marques, so that's what we'll do