Alternative Fuels & Propulsion RANDOM

[G. David Felt]

Seems GM has announced they are hiring 1,100 people for their battery plant in Northeast Ohio.

https://media.gm.com/media/us/en/gm/home.detail.html/content/Pages/news/us/en/2020/nov/1105-ultium.html

Those interested in the various jobs can apply at their web site.

Ultium Cells LLC Website

[G. David Felt]

GM has instituted a voluntary recall of the nearly 70,000 Chevrolet Bolts built to date due to a potential fire issue. To date, 5 Chevrolet Bolts have burned down. This affects all battery packs built in Korea by LG Chem. The 2019 Models which started mid year and the 2020 model Bolt uses battery packs built in Michigan and do not exhibit this issue. They can continue to charge to 100%, but the rest will have a cap put in at 90%. 

Tesla did this with their early model S & X according to the story when they hit issues that would cause over heating and fire.

What you need to know if you are a 2017-2019 Bolt Owner:

• There have only been 5 fires out of almost 70,000 cars on the road over 3.5 years
• GM recommends that you don’t park your car in a garage at full state of charge
• GM recommends that 2017-2018 Bolt owners set “Hilltop” state of charge or 2019 owners manually set to 90% when charging. Instructions are below. Some 2019 Bolts were made from LG Cells manufactured in Holland MI and those aren’t affected by this recall.
• Chevy Dealerships will put a 90% top limit on the amount of charge (There is no OTA) until there is a long term solution found

https://electrek.co/2020/11/13/gm-recall-chevy-bolt-evs-potential-fire-risk/

https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1130299_fire-concern-prompts-2017-2019-chevy-bolt-ev-recall-owners-asked-to-charge-to-90-for-now

In support of moving forward with eventual long range Semi Class 8 trucks where they refuel during required driver down time. An initiative is being done to bring about MegaWatt fast charging that would in the same time frame for Diesel refueling allow EV Semi's to recharge.

Quote: The ultimate goal of the MCS task force is to develop a system that could charge a truck’s massive battery pack in half an hour.

https://chargedevs.com/newswire/task-force-to-develop-megawatt-charging-system-for-heavy-duty-evs/

[ocnblu]

On 11/12/2020 at 3:37 PM, David said:

solution

*rolls eyes*

[balthazar]

I'm still waiting for the (Star Trek) Replicator. Where's the work being done on that??

[ocnblu]

[G. David Felt]

17 hours ago, ocnblu said:

So like compliance EV's less than a 100 miles! Got it, Thank you for playing the game and realizing early ICE auto's had limitations too. 5.7L V8 with just 140 HP, single digit fuel economy as to why it needed a 26.5 gallon fuel tank.

[ocnblu]

*ZOOM...*

Right over your head LOL

[balthazar]

2 hours ago, David said:

single digit fuel economy as to why it needed a 26.5 gallon fuel tank.

You realize gas then was like 25 cents per gal.
Cadillacs in the mid-century got surprisingly good mileage. Early 50's cars could get up to 20 MPG... but back in the late '30s, gearing was higher to offset the lower power-weight ratios of the day. At least (from a MPG standpoint)- they were all manuals in '38.
Of course, MPG was of no concern then in general, and especially to Cadillac owners specifically. Much like a 15-MPG mercedes was in 2015.

[G. David Felt]

Mercedes-Benz has announced that their EQA EV will be pushed to late 2021 for production and delivery while showing more of what the actual CUV will look like along side a heavily camo'd S-class EV car.

 

https://electrek.co/2020/11/16/mercedes-benz-eqa-less-camouflaged-electric-crossover-delays-launch-2021/

[G. David Felt]

Ford showed off their latest update of the EV family with the Mach E, Transit E van and F-150 E that is showing aggressive tires, front skid plate and other tid bits that has the media asking if the F-150 E truck will have an FX-4 package for off road?

More details at the link below.

https://www.autoblog.com/2020/11/12/ford-electric-f150-teased/

[A Horse With No Name]

 

 

 

Since 'blu went there with vintage Cadillacs...I will see you one and raise you one. 

 

 

This Chevelle is wild...

 

[A Horse With No Name]

I want to see this in actual steel and glass....I think it will be badass. 

Older ICE vewrsions getting pricey. 

https://classics.autotrader.com/classic-cars/1982/volkswagen/vanagon/101399854

I guess that vW Westy is a hybrid, it has been converted to Subaru power. 

Or just combine the steam thing and the VW thing...

 

[A Horse With No Name]

One more from Leno...

 

 

[A Horse With No Name]

Battery pack upgrade...

 

Interesting Review. 

 

[ocnblu]

8 hours ago, David said:

FX-4 package for off road?

How is it going to go off-road with that big, fat belly hanging down like a pregnant dachshund?  LOL

[G. David Felt]

Mercedes-Benz brought out their EQC, their first EV from the ground up and slowly put it on sale in Europe while holding off in North America markets.

As it would seem, it was a good thing. Mercedes-Benz Press Release

The EQC originally was released in Europe with a 7.4kW charging controller onboard so that home charging from 10% to full took 11hrs at 240V. The 2022 Model that will hit North American shores next year will have an upgraded charging controller of 11kW which means that same 10% to full is now done in 7hrs 30 min. This is a huge boost and more in-line with GM and Ford charging controllers along with Porsche for AC charging of the 80kWh battery pack.

Mercedes-Benz delivered 45,000 EV and Plug-in Hybrid auto's during the 3rd quarter of this year in Europe and China.

According to the latest ACEA report, Petrol was 47.5% of new auto sales in Europe, Diesel was 27.8% and EV/HEVs made up 22.4% and alternative fuels made up the rest at 2.3%.

https://www.acea.be/press-releases/article/fuel-types-of-new-cars-petrol-47.5-hybrids-12.4-electric-9.9-market-share-t

BMW Mini division showed off a new MiniVan concept for Mini as an EV Urbanaut mini minivan. 

https://electrek.co/2020/11/17/bmw-mini-electric-van-concept-autonomous-future/

[G. David Felt]

Nissan has announced that they will sell EVs only in China by 2025 and will then look at the rest of the world for EV sales after that.

https://chargedevs.com/newswire/nissan-to-sell-only-electrified-cars-in-china-by-2025/

Workhorse EV company has secured another 500 order for their commercial delivery van.

https://chargedevs.com/newswire/workhorse-receives-order-for-500-electric-delivery-trucks/

Lordstown Motors has announced they have secured 50,000 orders for their AWD in-wheel hub motor crew cab pickup truck that will be in production and delivery summer of 2021.

https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1130319_lordstown-motors-claims-50-000-orders-for-electric-pickup-arriving-fall-2021

[A Horse With No Name]

 

 

 

[A Horse With No Name]

 

 

[A Horse With No Name]

 

[A Horse With No Name]

On 11/5/2020 at 8:18 AM, David said:

Interesting how one comes into  this thread which was on Alternative fuels and starts calling California Commies or specifically calling them commiefornia and I respond to his remark and he says I started the politics. ?

So back to our Alternative Fuel Propulsion thread. Greece is working with VW to change over to pure electric auto's and renewable power starting with the island of Astypalea in the south Aegean Sea. This will be the start of the country converting all areas to clean renewable power and transportation reducing contamination from the environment by petrol.

The current 1,500 ICE auto's on the island will be replaced with 1,000 EVs as well as all municipal and commercial auto's. Public transit is very limited as such the island will be setup as a sharing service for private EV use.

VW did not confirm or deny that this is related to their diesel-emissions scandal, but this does mirror other settlement programs with other European governments and looks like what Renault also did with an island off France and another off Portugal where their own issues were settled out with those governments.

https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1130195_vw-project-to-transition-greek-model-island-to-electric-vehicles-renewable-power

We need to start converting entire cities in the United States of America. 

ICE in the EV thread...
 

[A Horse With No Name]

Interesting take from an actaul Tesla owner. 

Another long term take...

https://electrek.co/2018/07/17/tesla-model-s-holds-up-400000-miles-3-years/

 

Range is really getting in line with where I could see owning one. 

https://electrek.co/2020/06/15/tesla-upgrades-model-s-402-mile-range-wheels/

[A Horse With No Name]

Fantastic Video, comes with VW electrics being built in Germany...

 

 

 

Edited November 18, 2020 by A Horse With No Name

[A Horse With No Name]

Yes, I am post slutting today....but would love an electric VW bus. Neat video. 

 

 

Excited to drive one myself...

 

[A Horse With No Name]

Review of Basic electric car. As more and more people sturggle to survive in the USA I could see cheap electrics like this catching on. 

 

 

 

Lucid....

 

 

 

More Rivian...

 

[Drew Dowdell]

54 minutes ago, A Horse With No Name said:

More Rivian...

 

I could totally see myself driving a Rivian truck to supplement my Avalanche in 5ish years. I won't get rid of the Avalanche, but I would like to slow down the number of miles I'm putting on it. (5,000 so far and have only owned it since August!)

[A Horse With No Name]

Just now, Drew Dowdell said:

I could totally see myself driving a Rivian truck to supplement my Avalanche in 5ish years. I won't get rid of the Avalanche, but I would like to slow down the number of miles I'm putting on it. (5,000 so far and have only owned it since August!)

I could see myself owning one also. 

[A Horse With No Name]

Electric DeLorean 

 

[A Horse With No Name]

Converted Ferrari's, time to convert more vintage a specialty cars to EV!

 

[G. David Felt]

As Rivian moves closer to full scale production of their R1T and R1S for the North American market, CEO R.J. has stated that they will begin taking orders for their full size truck and SUV in Europe (2022) and Asia (2023). Yet the real growth will come from building smaller size EV's that more than meet the roads and cities of Europe and Asia. Medium and small size EVs are on Rivian's road map along with production in those two areas.

https://www.autonews.com/china/rivian-ceo-eyes-smaller-electric-vehicles-china-europe

Video of the CEO comments on Europe and Asia for EV sales.

https://www.autonews.com/video/first-shift-rivian-plans-smaller-evs-europe-china

[G. David Felt]

Wow, Idiot driver, smoked pot, drove his Tesla 3 at 100 mph and destroys the auto by breaking a power pole and trees, but runs away from the scene and is caught 3 blocks away and arrested.  Surviving shows Tesla did a good job engineering the car to survive. 

Battery pack did get scattered all over and into surrounding homes as the battery pack got ripped apart in the crash.

https://www.autoblog.com/2020/11/19/tesla-crash-100-mph-scatters-burning-batteries/

[A Horse With No Name]

 

Before any snowflakes loose their shit, it's a replica. 

[A Horse With No Name]

3 hours ago, David said:

As Rivian moves closer to full scale production of their R1T and R1S for the North American market, CEO R.J. has stated that they will begin taking orders for their full size truck and SUV in Europe (2022) and Asia (2023). Yet the real growth will come from building smaller size EV's that more than meet the roads and cities of Europe and Asia. Medium and small size EVs are on Rivian's road map along with production in those two areas.

https://www.autonews.com/china/rivian-ceo-eyes-smaller-electric-vehicles-china-europe

Video of the CEO comments on Europe and Asia for EV sales.

https://www.autonews.com/video/first-shift-rivian-plans-smaller-evs-europe-china

I could see this being what the Ranger gets traded in on in five or six years. A midsize truck from Rivian would be killer. 

Notice the Benz and the Nissan and the Porsche in for EV conversion as well. Apparently in Europe and other places a lot of ICE are being converted to EV. 

 

[A Horse With No Name]

Of course, we won't throw ICE out of the garage, this is cool also. 

 

[A Horse With No Name]

 

 

[A Horse With No Name]

Best owner review I have ever seen in terms of people who have owned a Tesla long term. 

 

 

[balthazar]

October 2020 EV West conversion cost: $50,000. I wonder how many folk will ultimately be willing to put 50 grand into a 5 grand car. And we thought putting 2 grand of rims on a 2 grand car was nuts.

[G. David Felt]

46 minutes ago, balthazar said:

October 2020 EV West conversion cost: $50,000. I wonder how many folk will ultimately be willing to put 50 grand into a 5 grand car. And we thought putting 2 grand of rims on a 2 grand car was nuts.

I look at it this way, buy a new Suburban spending $80K or convert the one I have which is in excellent shape and I love for half that price.

I will take the conversion route as a fun project for me to do. Gonna wait and see what GM wants for the AWD Connect and Cruise EV kit.

[balthazar]

Just saying- it’s all fun & games looking at million dollar plus homes online, but you can’t force everyone to buy one. And putting $100/SF granite countertops in a $50K apartment likewise, makes no sense (on a grand scale or individual). 

I think it’s fine for an individual to do what he wants automotively, but the ‘Jehovah’s Witness door-to-door hard sell’ that this is for everyone is fantasy.

[G. David Felt]

23 minutes ago, balthazar said:

Just saying- it’s all fun & games looking at million dollar plus homes online, but you can’t force everyone to buy one. And putting $100/SF granite countertops in a $50K apartment likewise, makes no sense (on a grand scale or individual). 

I think it’s fine for an individual to do what he wants automotive, but the ‘Jehovah’s Witness door-to-door hard sell’ that this is for everyone is fantasy.

Put in the Mormon door to door hard sale too as well as every other religion hard sale.  

I will say that both the JW's and Mormons are a nuisance and I wish they would just stop coming. Even with a sign by my front door they still bloody knock.

[balthazar]

whoosh.

- - - - -
 

[G. David Felt]

8 minutes ago, balthazar said:

whoosh.

- - - - -
 

Where did ya get this pic from?

[balthazar]

I think it was a GM investor meeting. Somewhere roamin’ the ‘web.

[ocnblu]

33 minutes ago, balthazar said:

I think it was a GM investor meeting. Somewhere roamin’ the ‘web.

It's quite a turn-off.

[balthazar]

^ It'd make an interesting project for a crate 6.2L retro-fit.

[G. David Felt]

Amazon Prime first EV delivery van from Rivian out in the wild working.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CHx910HHpVU/

 

[G. David Felt]

GM has officially put Tesla on notice that it is going to be #1 in North America with 40% of their auto sales here being EV's with 30 model options and on par with ICE costs by 2025.

https://jalopnik.com/gm-has-fighting-words-for-tesla-1845719732

[G. David Felt]

Not Everyone got invited to the live Barclays 2020 Automotive Conference, but there is the PDF press release you can get all the juicy details on GM over the next 10 years of what they wanted to announce here: https://investor.gm.com/static-files/66b83c73-17f3-426a-9618-393cea479c19

The Chart set that has additional cool details is available here: https://investor.gm.com/static-files/6e4732bd-c07d-43c0-80e8-9e2294b903fc

Cool part is that multiple auto sources were there on the Video concall and did screen captures of EV's they talked about.

Example is the TEASE of the all new Chevrolet EV Pickup Truck. The Silverado pickup will have a 400 mile battery pack and higher options as well.

https://electrek.co/2020/11/19/gm-teases-electric-pickup-truck-prototype/

Here is the full screen image grabbed by Electrek that shows the Hummer by GMC SUV and what is a Chevrolet CUV EV.

https://electrek.co/2020/11/19/gmc-hummer-ev-suv-version-first-peek/

[ocnblu]

6 hours ago, David said:

40% of their auto sales

Barra has slipped a disc in her head if she thinks that 40% will be anywhere near today's 40%.  She is effectively saying she expects overall sales to PLUMMET.

[ocnblu]

7 hours ago, David said:

Amazon Prime first EV delivery van from Rivian out in the wild working.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CHx910HHpVU/

 

Cool, is it waiting for a diesel-powered tender truck to come and switch out the battery, or tow it in?  Also it's so CUTE... what sort of manly drivers does Amazon hire who want to be seen in this cartoonish little fella?