Rival: 2029 Xterra News & Previews

[timhood]

I definitely want a Bronco with no removable door and roof. And put it on the F series frame (shorter of course, don’t care for a bed)

The path to a fixed-roof Bronco is easier with the current platform. If Ford wanted to go the Hummer route and offer three sizes of Bronco, it could do an F150-based version. It probably would be larger than what you are imagining, though. It would be interesting to learn how many people would want that.

Sponsored

 

[Xterra2Bronco]

I had a 2011 Xterra. Still the only vehicle I ever purchased brand new.
Purchase price was 24k for a base model.
3 miles on the ODO.
Was a solid ride.
Had it for 50k miles, only things I had to do to it were tires around 36k & a battery at 40k.
It was "totaled" in an accident when a driver of a late 80s/early 90s Chevy 1500 slid across into my lane on wet roads.
I saw it coming & steered just enough to take the impact down the drivers side instead of head on.
Knocked me sideways enough to put it in a ditch.
I hit 4wd, crawled out of the ditch, got his insurance info & drove it home lol.

They were solid mechanically, reliable, affordable & rugged enough, with some cool styling.
For 2028 if they can do that for under 40k on a base model, they'll have no problem selling it.

Yep I had the same year. it was pushing over 190,000 miles without any issues. Would have kept it but since I have little ones, the amount of things that needed to be changed out in the last year of owning it was driving me crazy. I definitely got all it was worth out of it. The only major issue I had was that the exhaust manifold went, but it was still under warranty, but other than that it was problem free. I would have gotten another one, but sadly, they were not making them a year or so ago when I got the Bronco.

 

[Imaginary Friend]

Only in the US. The rest of the world is embracing EVs. It is what it is. 25% of new global car sales in the world were EVs in 2025, and Its going to increase exponentially soon with more countries now accepting very cheap Chinese EVs . I own 5 vehicles ( 3 SUVs and 2 motorcycles) , none of which are EV or hybrid, so I'm not some huge proponent of it, but it is what it is. Ford and GM pulling back to focus on the US market will doom them, unless supported by US Government funds, which never goes well.

Truth, although many don't want to believe it. Especially the last bit.

 

[not on the rug]

I do not understand the animosity toward electric.... It is far superior as far as instant torque, has dramatically fewer moving parts, Lasts considerably longer than conventional ICE and simply is an improvement.

The ONLY downside I see with electric is the weight of batteries.

Electric vehicles have serious recall issues only because of the complicated communications and infotainment systems manufacturers are using today. If simplified to driveline only electric propulsion is significantly more reliable and more durable.

I used to rebuild locomotives... They were a diesel electric hybrid. There is no way a diesel engine by itself could move the loads that the hybrid can move. The diesel engines were always the first thing that failed. The electric motors would only need windings replaced after 50 YEARS of continuous use.

You're not wrong.
Honest questions/thoughts though...
1-where does this magical electricity come from?
2-when does our power grid and infrastructure get replaced to keep up with EV need?
3-battery technology that has lousy range, takes too long to recharge and operates sub-optimally in extreme temps
4-something like 80% of the world's cobalt supply is mined in the Democratic Republic of the Congo using literal slavery. Not to mention the raping of the earth for the remaining metals required for lithium ion batteries.

I'm not anti electric or EV really, but as a global society we haven't even begun to address what needs to be done to kead up to large scale use of them.

 

[vrtical]

I just wanted to report I was out at lunch running around and spotted an OG Xterra, they are quite popular around here.

 

[Snacktime]

4-something like 80% of the world's cobalt supply is mined in the Democratic Republic of the Congo using literal slavery. Not to mention the raping of the earth for the remaining metals required for lithium ion batteries.

I work in mining, when the first cobalt battery Tesla came out each car represented 1 dead black miner. Can't forget Elon is from South Africa....

 

[vrtical]

I'm not anti electric or EV really, but as a global society we haven't even begun to address what needs to be done to kead up to large scale use of them.

Actually "we" have, there are a couple of fronts both on infrastructure and technology usage. Now don't get me wrong, the latest standing up large data centers should be concerning to some grid areas.

 

[not on the rug]

Actually "we" have, there are a couple of fronts both on infrastructure and technology usage. Now don't get me wrong, the latest standing up large data centers should be concerning to some grid areas.

Data centers are another massive strain and that sector growth is exponential. Why do you think Elon is going to blast the data centers into Earth's orbit? Free solar. No servicing them either. They go obsolete in 3 years, you burn them up and launch a new one.

 

[5GENIDN]

You're not wrong.
Honest questions/thoughts though...
1-where does this magical electricity come from?
2-when does our power grid and infrastructure get replaced to keep up with EV need?
3-battery technology that has lousy range, takes too long to recharge and operates sub-optimally in extreme temps
4-something like 80% of the world's cobalt supply is mined in the Democratic Republic of the Congo using literal slavery. Not to mention the raping of the earth for the remaining metals required for lithium ion batteries.

I'm not anti electric or EV really, but as a global society we haven't even begun to address what needs to be done to kead up to large scale use of them.

You are right... Those issues absolutely need addressed.
1.) Electricity is not "magical" I am sure you are aware of that but I just wanted to clarify for anyone else reading. Right now it comes from a mix of renewables, including the old reliable hydro, coal, gas and Nuclear.... Renewable generation is coming down in price so quickly it is actually becoming cheaper to generate. The drawback is that with many of the sources the generation is sporadic at best. On a small scale it is little bit of a problem, on a large scale it is a major problem. There are hundreds of different competing theories on how to deal with that. Many are already past the theoretical and operating in the field. Pumped hydro, gravity (in various forms of potential stored energy), Thermal storage, Batteries (often different from the typical car battery) like sodium ion. which does not have the energy density of the nicad but on this scale does not need to. Much safer, not a fire risk, but weighs a lot... Not a problem if you are just setting them on the ground. Hydrogen production is still in it's infancy but growing rapidly. These (and many others) are very good methods to leveling the renewable sporadic nature.

2) The grid is a problem... We need to invest in it. AI is a much much bigger issue than electric cars will ever be. Convert every single car on the planet to electric and you will not be a drop in the bucket of energy demands of AI.... AND that is coming whether you like it or not.

3)AND again... Battery technology is also in it's infancy. The amount of research and development is mind boggling. There are already solid state batteries that address many of your issues like temperature, dendrite growth, longevity, fire hazard and charging times that already have release dates because they already have gone through testing... Things are changing FAST.... Really fast.

4) That cobalt mining is a serious social issue... Nice thing is that Battery manufacturers are developing new batteries that do not use Cobalt.... Much of that is driven by pure capitalistic ideals, cost. That and simply higher energy density (so same power from smaller lighter batteries that last longer and charge faster).

 

[5GENIDN]

Data centers are another massive strain and that sector growth is exponential. Why do you think Elon is going to blast the data centers into Earth's orbit? Free solar. No servicing them either. They go obsolete in 3 years, you burn them up and launch a new one.

That and a big part of that is cooling.... That is a big part of operating an AI data center.

 

[not on the rug]

Yes...the energy to run and cool. My bad for leaving that out.

So many things need to happen quickly for any of this to be viable.

The AI/Data center growth rate is insane. Short of Elon's idea of launching them into orbit, I don't honestly think we can sustain global data center need in any safe or healthy way.

 

[vrtical]

That and a big part of that is cooling.... That is a big part of operating an AI data center.

How about a 100,000 NVIDIA GPUs center thats the going setup.

 

[crzyhawk]

Only in the US. The rest of the world is embracing EVs. It is what it is. 25% of new global car sales in the world were EVs in 2025, and Its going to increase exponentially soon with more countries now accepting very cheap Chinese EVs . I own 5 vehicles ( 3 SUVs and 2 motorcycles) , none of which are EV or hybrid, so I'm not some huge proponent of it, but it is what it is. Ford and GM pulling back to focus on the US market will doom them, unless supported by US Government funds, which never goes well.

While this may be true, use patterns for the rest of the world are different. As a culture, we drive everywhere. Long road trips are a thing. Public transportation is for peasants, because we take our cars everywhere. Since we do that, we need cars and infrastructure that can support that. I think our (Americans) use case is not the best for EVs...yet.

Now I think the hater crew goes a little over the top, but I don't think that EVs are the great solution that some folks think. They are A solution to some people's problems.

I think Ford and GM are likely not super competitive overseas anyways, and saving money in the near term to figure out how to make themselves competitive in those overseas markets is probably a smart play.

 

[crzyhawk]

You're not wrong.
Honest questions/thoughts though...
1-where does this magical electricity come from?
2-when does our power grid and infrastructure get replaced to keep up with EV need?
3-battery technology that has lousy range, takes too long to recharge and operates sub-optimally in extreme temps
4-something like 80% of the world's cobalt supply is mined in the Democratic Republic of the Congo using literal slavery. Not to mention the raping of the earth for the remaining metals required for lithium ion batteries.

I'm not anti electric or EV really, but as a global society we haven't even begun to address what needs to be done to kead up to large scale use of them.

I think these points cannot be emphasized enough. People pushing for EV everything haven't thought things through. Power isn't free, nor is it unlimited. The more EVs charging, the more strain there is on the grid. The more demand there is. Higher demand drives up the prices, so someone else's EV is costing me more to run my refrigerator at home.

Something you missed is that batteries have charge cycles. They're only going to charge and discharge so many times, and most people have no idea how to care for the batteries. They think they plug em in, fast charge em, and call it good.

Don't even want to start on how bad those batteries are for various societies and the environment. Out of sight, out of mind.

 

[GreyZ]

I have an Xterra along side my Bronco. The Xterra is my daily with 216k trouble free miles. Im obviously a 2010 era Nissan guy as much as I am a Ford guy so this has my interest.

The EV argument is far to political for my taste, but my hope is that the technologies continue to improve with respect to both total environmental impact and efficiency without compromising end user performance/experience.

Sponsored