G. David Felt

This is so freakin Funny! Don Wilson review of DT. Donald Trump's 'Lifetime Of Lies' Exposed in Don Winslow's New Video: "Stop Supporting This Liar" (msn.com)

That is just it, Ford, GM and VW have all committed to having multiple charging stations at their dealerships, but are depending on EA, EGgo, Chargepoint, etc. this is no different than Mercedes also depending on these 3rd party companies including Tesla Supercharging stations. At best Mercedes will be like all the others, have charging stations at their dealerships but nothing else.

Evidence has already been supplied by me that NO CONSTRUCTION has started yet in Mexico, it is now at the earliest 2026. This on top of the fact that global economist are now looking to 2024 to be a recession year. This is 'the end of the beginning' of the battle against inflation, economist says (msn.com) Things are slowing down and with the new Tesla 3 supposed to be shown later this year, people will hold off on buying the current version to wait for the new version just as a recession hits. China is slowing down, Europe is the only place where between 2 to 3% growth is happening but is expected to level off. Tesla is not going to dodge the recession and still grow, they will have to slow down justl like everyone else.

NO Regrets, Live your life to the fullest my friend. We all might miss out on a specific auto that we would have loved to own and drive, but no regrets on the life we have as there are always those with a worse life than us. I would have loved to own a mid 80's Monte Carlo SS Aero in Burgundy, but not meant to be. Now I will move forward with EVs.

Looked up the VIN and yes, the auto was flooded and cleaned, at this point it is NOT worth $78K or even the minimum bid of $26K. Garbage unless you want a project to rip out all electrical and put in new on top of the motor, trans, diff needing to be gone through. Report 1GKS2DKL3MR470885 GMC YUKON 2021 WHITE GAS - price and damage history (bidhistory.org)

Nothing now by Benz and 2,500 at some point in the future is a joke compared to other networks not including the massive Tesla Supercharger network. If Benz truly cared about the experience, then why not commit to 10's of thousands of charging points?

I like the idea of a modern luxury touring version of the Thunderbird as an EV. https://www.carscoops.com/2023/07/2028-ford-thunderbird-should-the-iconic-t-bird-rise-from-the-ashes-as-an-ev/

The first of the German auto companies has fallen inline with the Tesla NACS charge port, Mercedes-Benz made this Announcement late Friday night. This is a major change as news had been reporting that VW was in talks with Tesla and the expected first German auto company to support NACS ports, now we know that Mercedes-Benz will be that first company moving from CCS to NACS. Mercedes made the following points in their press release: Mercedes-Benz to integrate North American Charging Standard (NACS) in its electric vehicle line-up – introduction in North America starting 2025 Mercedes-Benz drivers gain access to more than 12,000 Tesla Superchargers across North America beginning in 2024 Mercedes-Benz to simultaneously expand new Mercedes-Benz Charging Network with more than 2,500 high-power chargers in North America to provide a best-in-class charging experience First Mercedes-Benz High-Power Charging sites to open in Q4 2023 for both Mercedes-Benz and non-Mercedes-Benz drivers Starting in January 2024 all Mercedes-Benz will come with a CCS to NACS adapter to allow existing EV customers to get a superior charging experience at Tesla Supercharger stations according to the press release. Starting in January 2025 all EVs will then be built with NACS ports and the following quote was made by the Chairman of the Board of Management Mercedes-Benz Group AG. "Our strategic priority is clear: Building the world’s most desirable cars. To accelerate the shift to electric vehicles, we are dedicated to elevating the entire EV-experience for our customers - including fast, convenient, and reliable charging solutions wherever their Mercedes-Benz takes them. That’s why we are committed to building our global Mercedes-Benz High-Power Charging Network, with the first sites opening this year. In parallel, we are also implementing NACS in our vehicles, allowing drivers to access an expansive network of high-quality charging offerings in North America." Ola Källenius, Chairman of the Board of Management Mercedes-Benz Group AG Andre Cornelia, CEO of Mercedes-Benz HPC North America had the following to say: “With the development of Mercedes-Benz’s new North American High-Power Charging Network, we are ready to redefine the electric vehicle charging experience. We’re building on our strong brand promise here by leveraging the renowned quality, reputation, and customer focus for which Mercedes-Benz has been known for well over a century. With its own charging network, Mercedes-Benz will set a new standard for EV infrastructure, enabling a convenient charging experience in terms of fast, safe and green charging of electric vehicles.” It will be interesting to see how this works out for the German auto companies and who will be next, will it be BMW or VW/Audi/Porsche to join the NACS port club. Press Release View full article

I so agree with the various stories on Toyota battery break through should be taken with a grain of salt when they have been pushing Hydrogen and then all of a sudden have a major solid-state battery breakthrough! BS on Toyota. Toyota's battery tech needs to be taken with a grain of salt (qz.com) Gotta have the Alpha side of every relationship. Here is a good one!

Nothing wrong with Taco loving Taco!

Way to be a horse with blinders, she said that in relation to the Bolt, a second generation EV. She also said that there is no reason to not have a replacement for the Bolt and other executives have stated that the Bolt will move to Ultium where they do expect to make profits on their EVs. In regards to making 400,000 EVs a year, lets be clear, Mary stated that they would push this to early 2024 due to startup/ramping delays at their new battery production facility. GM Pushing Back 400,000-Unit EV Production Target To 2024 (gmauthority.com) Quote: Barra says that the 400,000-unit EV production target has been pushed back six months to early 2024. According to Reuters, the slower EV production ramp-up was attributed to a “slightly slower launch” of battery and cell production. In regards to the $25-$30K Tesla, try 2026 to 2027 at the earliest. There are no announced official model, prototypes, etc. On top of this, the news is now reporting at the earliest, Mexico will open in early 2025. Tesla's Gigafactory Mexico opening pushed to early 2025: Report - Drive Tesla (driveteslacanada.ca) Yet as the news is also stating, due to higher labor costs, poorer than expected existing infrastructure and a lack of proper locally sourced supply chain, that they have not even broke ground on the Mexico site yet. This will tend to be a 2026 mass production site I believe at the earliest. In that time frame, many companies will have their EV production up and running in the U.S., especially GM.

QUOTE: “GMC is giving customers the ability to forge their own path within the premium off-roading space,” said Duncan Aldred, global vice president, Buick-GMC. “GMC Sierra LD and HD AT4X AEV Editions delivered what customers were looking for in the off-roading space and now we’re applying that same formula to the next-generation Canyon.” Welcome the 2024 Canyon AT4X AEV edition. AEV was first introduced in the 2023 GMC Sierra 1500 and now today GMC has completed covering the full GMC truck lineup with the AEV Edition brought to the Canyon, delivering premium, advanced and authentically capable trucks in North America. Building off the strong AT4X foundation, AEV Edition takes capability even further with additional 1.5-inch lift, 35-inch tires and upgraded hardware Enhanced off-road capability matched with signature GMC premium appointments 2024 Canyon also includes upgraded technology features across the lineup So what does GMC mean by taking the Canyon to the next level you ask, simple as GMC has pursued the goal of offering the most capable premium off-road focused mid-size truck in the segment. The Canyon AT4X AEV offers an assertive stance, enhanced hardware and further upgrades to the vehicle chassis that include the following: 35-inch Goodyear Wrangler Territory MT tires with an additional AEV in-bed vertical spare tire mount Updated front fascia and larger fender flares to enable larger, wider tracks and ultra-high, best in class 12.2-inch ground clearance1 4.5-inch (114mm) factory-installed lift — 1.5-inch (38mm) more than the Canyon AT4X Heavy-duty, AEV stamped-steel front and rear bumpers with heavy duty recovery points and winch capable front bumper Five ultra-high strength, hot-stamped boron steel skid plates (positioned along the radiator, steering gear, transmission and transfer case, fuel tank and rear differential) for optimized underbody protection The addition of three standard auxiliary control switches which enable the integration of off-road and overlanding accessories. Exclusive AEV beadlock-capable Salta wheels AEV branding across the vehicle, including on bumpers, embroidered head restraints and all-weather floor liners The 2024 Canyon AT4X AEV edition now has a 38.2 degree front approach angle. A 26.9 degree breakover angle and a 26 degree departure angle. Bumpers front and rear have been designed for the serious off-road enthusiast featuring heavy-duty cast recovery points and front winch capability as a dealer or 3rd party option. To quote the GMC press release in regards to advanced technology, "Canyon’s Baja drive mode — available exclusively on the Canyon AT4X and AT4X AEV Edition — has been enhanced to include a new launch control feature, which allows drivers to press the brake and accelerator pedals at the same time, and then release the brake pedal, resulting in improved acceleration on- and off-road. This smart launch control feature learns the driving surface and can adjust engine speed and torque accordingly to improve subsequent performance on future launches." All 2024 Canyons are built on GM's Ultifi platform allowing new features and software updates over time with OTA service. The Canyon 2024 is produced at GM's Wentzville Assembly in Wentzville Missouri. The Canyon AT4X AEV Edition is expected to be available for customer orders later this year. View full article

What PROOF do you have that GM ramp up is not as fast as Tesla? GM has more battery capacity coming online this year in the U.S. and will exceed Tesla Battery production here by the end of the year. GM as well as Ford already know how to build more autos faster than Tesla. Proof is in the Trucks where each company has a truck coming off the assembly line in seconds. Tesla cannot do that yet. Cox article is historical and while sales have surprised the industry analysts, all it takes is the recession that the investment community sees coming by the end of the year to kill off those sales. Tesla DOES NOT have any $25-$30,000 EV. GM does and it goes on sales this summer. Also you have no proof that GM which says they can make a profit on the Equinox and Blazer EV that they are not making any profit. Tesla showed their Cybertruck in 2019 with promise to have it out in production in 2021. Now we are in 2023 and they are having so many engineering problems with the Cybertruck that they will not really have it out other than a few special production units this year. 2024 is now the more common time frame to have that truck out, 5 years after showing it off and at 6 figure prices first. GM as does Ford and Rivian has their trucks out and are working to ramp as battery production comes online. All of what you stated above is MUSK KOOLAID drinking and no actual facts.

Doug Field was a Leader at Tesla before being hired by Apple to lead their EV program. In 2021 Ford hired Mr. Field as their new CTO to lead Ford into a new future of "Subscription Services". At the latest investor event Doug Field pointed to a pile of individual computer driven sensors and talked about how a central processor running software written by Ford will change fundamentally how people use their autos. In this interview with the Associated Press, Ford's CTO talked about the coming transformation to electric vehicles and the change that is happening not only to EVs but to ICE autos. As of today in 2023, the Ford F-150 Lightning EV and all internal combustion F-series pickups now use a central computer and have software defined sensors. Here is some of the Q&A: Q: How far along is Ford on moving to this central computing system? A: The transition has happened where we designed the hardware and the software for the immediate user interface, the center screen. That’s gone into both the F-150 Lightning EV as well as the internal combustion F-Series. The next step is with our next generation of electric vehicles (coming in 2025). We’re expanding to control the overall vehicle and control over the autonomy system. There will be software in parts that comes from suppliers that is appropriate. The reason for that is to make it as fast as possible. A great example is firing the air bag. We don’t want that coming back through the central passage. Q: As a driver, why should I care about this? A: The car’s a robot, which means the interaction with the software includes pieces of hardware. So something like an Amazon interface where you know a delivery is coming. A one-time code opens the trunk. Doesn’t open the rest of the car. They get to drop it off. That requires an interaction between centralized software and what today is a locking-unlocking module. There also are sensors that we don’t have access to the information. An easy example is an autonomy system that’s supposed to keep you in the lane. There’s a camera. We can’t say to the customer that we’re going to give you a dash cam for free or for a subscription where it’s always running. And if we detect any kind of a bump or anything like that, you’ve got a 30-second recording. We will be able to do that. We talked a little bit about our ability to predict if the car is heading toward a failure or a wear-out situation. I want to count wiper strokes combined with how much water is coming down and where it’s being driven and how dirty it is. Maybe develop an algorithm that knows exactly when your wiper blades are wearing out. Q: How do you come up with something that’s compelling enough to get me to part with my hard-earned money and subscribe? A: The model is already transitioning from ‘you check a box when you buy the car’ to ‘you can get a free trial.’ You only part with your hard-earned money after you are on the road trying it and say, ‘this is pretty great.’ A big part of how I try to guide the engineers is you must earn the right to collect money. You’re going to come up with things, you’re going to try them. Q: You’ve shown the bear cam, where a Bronco parked at a campsite recognizes a bear nearby and may honk the horn to scare it away. How important is security? A: We are going to build a whole set of services around this. The car is the most sophisticated sensor that you have in your life, and the number of accelerometers and microphones and cameras and things on it will allow it to be not only something that protects you when you’re in the car, but it’ll actually be useful when you’re not there. Even acting as a remote sentry if there’s stuff going on outside the house. Q: Does having a centralized computer open you more to the possibility of hacking? A: Anything where you are allowing the car to be software-updated opens you to that possibility. You need to have an architecture where that has been really carefully thought through. And the more you go toward things like firing the airbags or controlling the steering, the more that becomes a pretty involved process to actually update your access. Q: How long will Ford still be selling internal combustion vehicles? A: There are a number of applications where it is going to be near impossible for an EV to perform the same mission. There will be many, many places where EVs are a slam dunk. There will be ones where it’s going to take a lot of work to get battery technologies to the point where it could serve that mission. There are ones we see now that the ICE engine needs to be a part of it. Maybe we partially electrify it, but they’ll be out there. The incremental value to the world of getting those last ice engines out versus the value that they provide to an ambulance in Alaska. That will take a very, very long time. Q: Affordability has become a big issue. Ford has gotten out of cheaper cars in the U.S. Is there a $20,000 EV coming? A: I don’t want to talk a lot about what we’re doing here. It is possible, with the advent of EVs, to make step changes in the way vehicles are built and sourced. Yes, I believe very low cost EVs are possible. I also believe the way the business model is changing is going to require it. If you are in the software business, what you want is installed base. How many people can I sell software to? To do that, you need affordability. GM moved to a central processing system a while back and have had their ICE and EVs running this way. It would seem that Ford is now making this move and as such, the change in how autos are built and programmed is on the move to make things simpler for the builders. Simplification on top of Service Subscriptions is where the Auto Companies are hoping to increase their profitability while offering auto owners new features that they believe they will want based on a trial period. This will simplify the building process of autos and increase based on what a person is willing to pay for on the features they get. The question to ask is how much is too much subscription service versus check the box of what you want in your auto, pay for it and have it with your car payment versus car payment plus subscription service monthly fee. How do you the individual retail customer think about this subscription service approach to features enabled, disabled on your auto? View full article

The global economy is not as sound as you seem to think and while they have had sales by cutting prices, I admit that many, myself included, are surprised by the global sales. With that said, GM roles out multiple EVs this year and has the ability to ramp up production. Yes sales will come from some companies, but while Tesla will stay solid, I do not see them ramping to the moon in sales as much as you do. Here is one of many stories that foreshadow the upcoming depression. Electric vehicle production set to surge in 2023 despite low sales | Reuters Then we have news stories like this that also put water on how hot you think the EV market is. EV sales slowing in 2023. Why are more Americans unlikely to buy one? (usatoday.com) Need to look at the large picture of everyone selling. Numbers are interesting. https://www.coxautoinc.com/news/cox-automotive-forecast-june-2023-u-s-auto-sales-forecast/

I wonder how much CO2 is pumped into the atmosphere from these massive planes?

@smk4565 Take a step back from the Musk Pipe and realize that they have major problems. Basic engineering is a problem for them and the Cybertruck. Do not expect any quantity but a few till 2024 and even then it will be triple digits as Musk has stated he will start at the top end of production order quality. These are $150,000 trucks and I doubt we will ever see anything below $50,000 from them any time soon if ever. Leaked Tesla documents shed new light on why the Cybertruck is taking so long - The Verge

Will start this off with a surprise siting, a GMC Savanna full size van with AWD. Did not know the latest versions could be had in AWD and conversion format. In regards to spotting, my friend in Texas sent this to me that he saw over the holiday weekend.

Ouch, guess Geely delivered on auto and electrification separation! ?

Yet you continue to ignore the move to U.S. manufacturing to gain the full 7500 rebate. Just accept that Tesla time will change by next year as more options come on the market and Korean manufacturing gets going to build EVs here. Yet the bulk of those sales are in Lemming China and Europe, not the U.S. and yes style and interior does make a difference. The last two quarters will show a more truthful picture as U.S. manufacturing gets going of EVs by the Koreans and GM.

Seems the Cyber truck could be delayed yet again to 2024. Seems, braking. Suspension, weather sealing and more issues in leaked documents have many in the industry shocked at how bad Tesla is at the basics of auto engineering. https://www.thecooldown.com/green-business/tesla-cybertruck-ev-delay-exposed-leaked-documents/

The one time I tried Nexus, it sucked for me as did the Pixel and I ended up using the Verizon trade in program after a few days and went back to my Samsung that has never let me down. Yes, I admit that maybe the lower end phones suck, but never had my Note 6, Note 9 or Galaxy 22 Ultra fail me.