G. David Felt

Thanks to a very cool science project that proved air quality in Diesel School buses was not just bad, but terrible as the science project proved that Diesel CO2 fumes in buses were 10 times higher than the recommended EPA limits. As such Miami has applied to get their share of the State VW Diesel Gate settlement and will use it to start buying EV buses to replace diesel. The school districts admit that the cost is 2 to 3 times higher than Diesel buses up front, but that maintenance costs on EV buses are 80% less than Diesel buses. EPA lists that 350 ppm is normal, 450 ppm is acceptable and anything over 2,500 ppm causes adverse health effects. Testing on the school buses showed that concentrations were as high as 5,000 ppm which has adverse affects on young and old people. Current EV school buses take about 6hrs to fully recharge as they have a 100 mile range but tend to run less than a 50 mile route. EV buses allow the drivers to hear the students better and have a better driving experience with less to have to check and deal with compared to current Diesel buses. Charged EVs | Miami middle-school student inspires school board to electrify its school bus fleet - Charged EVs Latest JD Powers study on people who went from ICE to EV shows that EV owners will not go back to ICE even if their EV has not been the best experience as they still find greater customer satisfaction over ICE auto's. Chevy Bolt is rated #2 for Mass Market EVs, was surpassed by the Kia Niro EV last year. Tesla continues to hold the crown for Premium EVs. Survey shows EV owners will not go back to gas, brand loyalty is a bit ‘fickle,’ and Tesla leads (electrek.co)

BMW i4 EV sedan is in final tweaks for production and coming to market late in 2021. It would appear they want to return to a Ultimate Driving Machine. Be interesting to see what people think.

Excellent read on the EV cost versus CO2 benefits. They do clearly say that the high cost of EVs is an impediment to converting over when you compare the equal ICE version. You can even play with the carbon counter by filtering the results to see specific facts. As they state, for those that can afford the higher up-front cost of an EV, the carbon counter project allows you to visualize how the cost advantages pencil out over the years. https://www.carboncounter.com EV cost vs. CO2 benefit: Updated tool helps navigate the numbers for 2021 (greencarreports.com)

2021 should be an interesting year as multiple sites are talking about the points that have been stated by the new US administration. The following seems to be on tap and will be watched to see what all gets done. Quote of the Top 10 Auto Items: Rebooting Cash for Clunkers Expanding / Extending EV tax credits Revisiting Fuel Economy requirements Accelerate Public fleets to all-electric. Focus is to transition the US entire fleet of 500,000 school buses to EVs within 5yrs. Rapid build out of Charging infrastructure. Plan to add 500,000 rapid chargers coast to coast with feds working with local states. Reduce charging deserts and energy poverty through a National policy to update / expand the energy grid everywhere. Cleaner, sustainable and resilient energy grid. The focus is to invest in Americas Infrastructure to build a redundant greener electrical grid coast to coast. Expanding green energy production. EV-manufacturing transition through financial support to help transition the US manufacturing plants to cleaner EV manufacturing. Support for nurturing smaller US EV companies. This is making sure startup like Rivian, Lucid and Lordstown have access to intellectual guidance and as needed to financial means to ensure they can succeed in bringing their products to market. Return to tariff stability Wild card stated is the way Auto companies attempt to rewrite history as they now will have to deal with California CARB especially since half of the auto companies selling in the US sided with California in saying they could meet the requirements of CARB while the other half was divided into two camps with half saying they could not and half not taking a position. How the Biden presidency will accelerate change to electric cars: 10 talking points (greencarreports.com) Interesting times for sure in the auto industry. Interesting VW story on their new Trinity EV project, next generation platform that will allow for a even smoother and faster building of entry level to uber luxury EV auto's. On top of this, the Wolfsburg plant which was one of VWs largest ICE assembly plants is being converted to EV production to support increased EV demand in Europe. VW CEO teases Trinity project to rival Tesla, revamp Wolfsburg plant for EVs (greencarreports.com)

EV and ICE fans

OUCH Ford, Recalling 2006 to 2012 auto's for Airbag issues. $610 Million charge. Ford to spend $610 million to recall 3 million vehicles (cnbc.com) QUOTE: The impacted vehicles range from model years 2006 through 2012. They include Ford Ranger (2007-2011), Fusion (2006-2012), Edge (2007-2010), Lincoln MKZ/Zephyr (2006-2012), MKX (2007-2010), and Mercury Milan (2006-2011) vehicles. The recall will affect approximately 2.7 million vehicles in U.S. and approximately 300,000 in Canada and other locations, the company said.

Let's not forget he has his mom in a Kia on top of those two auto's he posted are not built in America last time I checked by Korea. Porsche has their less than $80,000 Taycan with the current battery pack, so prices are coming down. Mercedes's has the Cost of Diesel gate hitting the bottom line and as such has been cutting back everywhere both ICE and EV. Will be interesting to see how they do as right now they are more focused on China and Europe with additional delays in the US.

ICE fangurls After all you cannot have it one sided!

Very cool tech that I agree should be on every auto out there. Ford's Door Edge Protector Was A Brilliant Little Thing That Should Be Standard On Everything (jalopnik.com)

Interesting first and current reviews on the Tesla 3. At the start of production Tesla 3 was equal to Kia in the early 90's in fit n finish. Still has a long way to go, but getting better. Engineer Who Compared Tesla Model 3 Quality To 'A Kia In The '90s' Buys Another Model 3. Here's What He Found (jalopnik.com)

Sorry about that, I thought I had copied it when looking at the wilder metallic color. Seems a few are out there but everyone seems to take a picture in the shade or a rainy day, so no good picture of what this color really looks like. Agree that the others you state I think still have options that make this Cadillac a hard sale.

WOW, win a 2021 C8 Corvette and not realize they cannot deliver it cause the state lotto did not line up actually having one to give away. Georgia Man Wins C8 Corvette In State Lotto, But Dealers Won't Give Him a Car (thedrive.com)

Yes I admit the 6 figures cost to convert this from ICE to EV is crazy, but I do get the point of this person and the auto passion for a better driving car. James May’s MGB EV Restomod Drive Makes a Case for Electrified Classic Cars (thedrive.com)

Thanks for posting, they did an outstanding job as a cover band. Great start to the morning! 4 men playing to the soul of all those that love music. Multi-Cultural Greatness! Compliment to @A Horse With No Name Cover band by the same group, excellent way to get the blood moving as you start to work. Just learned this, very cool family. The name REO brothers comes from their names. all five of them have first names that starts with R. Reno, Ronjoseph, Raymart, Ralph and Roymark. E is for their middle name. Evasco. and O for their family name, Otic. thats why its REO brothers. Thought i'd comment this here for those who were wondering why REO brothers.

This is probably the best I have ever seen a Tesla Look, a customer built 2 door Tesla S sedan. Tesla Model S is turned into 2-door convertible and actually looks good (electrek.co) @A Horse With No Name Here is a very green travel Van for you! The vanlife electric: Nissan e-NV200 Winter Camper concept (greencarreports.com)

Last old dealership for today.

Capital Hill Dealership here Old Ford Dealership from Downtown Seattle. Museum of History and Industry here in Seattle has started to put online their database of the auto industry in Seattle and the Auto Shows that were done here.

@ccap41 I like that color Wilder Metallic in Sport mode which actually makes this auto look much better to me, but at $74,000, WOW for what they have as an interior and the blah exterior. I did find one that is at a dealer a little over 1000 miles away. Sad part is the person who took the actual photos took them in the shade so it does not show off the actual color. 2021 Cadillac XT6 | Vehicle Listing Details | Vehicle Locator

This is too funny of a park employing mowing and the worlds largest Salt water Croc decides he wants that ICE machine.

religious zealots

@oldshurst442 Any further info on the box on back.

So then this XT6 or a Grand Cherokee L? ?

Seems the 2021 Cadillac Escalade Reviews are coming out and they say Cadillac has taken back The Standard of the World for Luxury SUVs. Cross shop it with the Mercedes brand and Cadillac wins. ? Quote I can totally agree with: Drivetrain-wise, I think it's time to make this truck electric. Big V8s have plenty of power and this particular 6.2-liter works well with GM's 10-speed transmission, but I now wonder how much faster, quieter and efficient it could be if it cribbed from that new GMC Hummer EV's playbook. 2021 Cadillac Escalade Review: The Standard of the World Takes Back the SUV Crown (thedrive.com) The question and answer section had a good question about comparing Cadillac Escalade to GMC Yukon Denali. Here was the response from the writer. Quote The Cadillac gets metallic switchgear where the Denali does not, and indeed most (all?) of the other switchgear in the interior is different. The climate controls are completely different and have nothing in common with any other vehicle on the platform, and the Denali doesn't get an infotainment controller like the Cadillac does. Really, it's hard to spot similarities between the two, besides the steering column which I mentioned previously. Really, the more I look for similar areas, the less I find. Heck, even the glovebox is different on the Cadillac, something I would expect to be carried over. It's not even worth trying to say what's still the same, because so much is different. And for the record, It doesn't feel like a cheap car from the inside, so changing all of this stuff really does pay off. The seats are also much nicer in the Escalade, especially with the optional leather.

Daimler brought back Maybach as a stand alone model before killing it again due to poor sales and then making it a package option on stretched S class sedans.

VW has released their 2020 PHEV/BEV sales showing a tripling of sales over 2019. Volkswagen brand triples deliveries of all-electric vehicles in 2020 | Volkswagen Newsroom (volkswagen-newsroom.com) This is an overview of passenger car deliveries. PM_Volkswagen_brand_triples_deliveries_of_all-electric_vehicles_in_2020.pdf Seems the VW CEO is wanting to battle with Tesla CEO Musk over Electric market share.