G. David Felt

VW EV News Due to sell out demand of the VW ID.4 1st Edition SUV for the US market, management has decided to add another batch of this auto for sale. This is VW first Global EV built on their all new MEB platform. ID.4 Electric SUV will start at $39,995 which will be available starting at the end of 2021 while the 1st edition ID.4 is now shipping to dealers for delivery to the early buyers who had reservations. 1st Edition started at $43,995. VW also has the ID.5 to 7 comping over the next 18 months. VW makes new batch of ID.4 1st Edition electric SUVs for the US - Electrek VW roadmap: Expect an electric Kombi in 2022, followed by electric mini cars (thedriven.io) As they say, Common Sense is NOT SO COMMON as I see in your own posts.

EV Charging News EVBox Group has announced that even with the Pandemic, they doubled their EV charging stations from 100,000 at the end of 2019 to 200,000 at the end of 2020 and planted 100,000 trees. In Q1 of 2021 EVBox will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. They have a focus and are on track to have 1 million charge ports up and operational by 2023. EVBox Group 2020 highlights EVBox Group platform, Everon, launched its new EV Charge App—a white label mobile app packed with useful features to help businesses attract EV drivers EVBox entered into new agreements with delighted customers and partners, such as Scania, Carrefour, The Mobility House, Solar, Severn Trent, Unilever, PSA Group, Flashparking, Momentum Groups and many more EVBox presented its new generation of DC fast charging solutions EVBox announced a new American manufacturing site in Libertyville EVBox delivered the first 20 DC fast chargers to customers in the state California The EVBox Lab Space officially opened, dedicated to flexible vehicle testing EVBox Group HQ moved to a new office space in Amsterdam EVBox optimized its supply chain to prepare for future growth Continuous investment in EVBox Group’s R&D department EVBox announced plans to become a public company via a business combination with TPG Pace Beneficial Finance and initial investors BlackRock, Inclusive Capital Partners, Neuberger Berman Funds, and Wellington Management EVBox Group consolidates its global leadership by reaching the milestone of 200,000 installed charge ports worldwide | EVBox Newsroom Rivian News Rivian had in 2019 raised $1.3 billion from Ford, Amazon and Cox Automotive group in funding. In 2020 they raised another $2.5 billion from existing investors and T. Rowe Price. Now in 2021, Rivian according to Bloomberg is planning on expanding way beyond their current single factory as they look to be a global player in personal and commercial auto's. What the exact amount is they are looking for is unknown at this time, but the early talks has Rivian valued at $25 Billion dollars. Ford by comparison currently is valued at $33 Billion. Going to be an interesting year. Rivian is closing in on more financing at massive $25 billion valuation - Electrek

EV Controller News Already we have seen talk of the Volvo EV's having bi-directional chargers and concepts from Japan and Korea as well as here in the US talking about the ability to have EVs give back to the grid if power was needed. Yet at the end of 2020 we still had single direction Power Controllers. January 5th 2020 Bel Power Solutions announced their new Bi-Directional on-board charger that will allow auto's hooked up to reverse the flow of power from the battery pack to what ever source is needed. This opens up a wide range of uses for the EVs battery power pack. Charged EVs | Bel Power Solutions announces bi-directional on-board charger - Charged EVs

EV news for the State of NY. NY is starting with $2.5 million to buy EV school buses and $16.4 million to buy EV public buses and charging infrastructure. This money is coming from the settlement that VW paid to NY under the Diesel gate scandal. Charged EVs | State of New York announces transit and school bus electrification initiatives - Charged EVs MOSFETs have been used in auto's, specifically ICE auto's for decades, but they have never had to deal with the power requirements of EVs. Nexperia has now tested and will take to production MOSFETs that can support 1 Billion cycles of high energy use. This will benefit for longer term life both existing ICE auto's but more importantly support the move to EVs where charging cycles and power across a wide range of voltage and temperatures will be needed. Charged EVs | Nexperia's new AEC-Q101 MOSFETs tested to 1 billion cycles - Charged EVs

More EV News: European Truck makers have pledged to Phase out internal combustion vehicles by 2040. Diesel / gas will be dead in new auto purchases. CEO's of Daimler, Scania, MAN, Volvo, DAF, IVECO and FORD have all signed the Pledge to phase out all combustion engines from new auto purchases by 2040. The focus moving forward will be all R&D dollars spent on Hydrogen, battery tech and clean fuels such as CNG. Charged EVs | European truck-makers pledge to phase out internal combustion vehicles by 2040 - Charged EVs I will have to totally agree with the following statement: QUOTE: The industry leaders seem to believe that different use scenarios will require different propulsion technologies: battery-electric for inner-city delivery vans, hydrogen for long-distance haulage, and biofuels for short-term reduction of emissions. “There is no silver bullet,” said Henriksson. “It won’t be that one technology will rule everything, there will be parallel technologies over time. They will come [at] different paces, but if we sit and wait for the perfect technology to emerge, we will burn the planet.”

In EV News, some exciting stuff going on: FISKER Yes FISKER is planning to go into production with a full size EV Truck in 2023. We already have the Fisker Ocean EV SUV going into production with a 300 mile range battery pack as base for a starting price of $37,499. Fisker CEO Henrik Fisker says currently everyone is taking on the Luxury level in features and price. Fisker wants to give access to EVs to the average person as to why the Fisker Ocean SUV will be priced for the middle income level buyers. Fisker electric pickup: Super-efficient "radical" truck coming in late 2023? (greencarreports.com) Yes the Mach-E does have a Frunk. Plenty of pictures showing you can Tail Gate out of the Frunk. Something ICE cannot do in this way. Usable Frunk at that since it can hold a full size ICE Chest.

Sarcasm still has not improved I see! Seems you started the Year with Flashing your cache memory as you Forget how many times @Drew Dowdell has posted the basics of EV ownership change and how adaptable it can be. Clearly Apartment living Tesla Owners are not having a problem planning to use their Tesla Supercharging stations to refill their battery packs. Nor are apartment Nissan Leaf Owners having a problem with finding work or public charging stations. Plenty of people are taking advantage of local electrical rebates and subsidies to install a 220V charger at home or just use the slower 110 recharge option. If you really want to drive an EV, you will find ways to ensure your auto is charged up. You will embrace change, you will embrace learning 21st century new habits. I accept that you would rather huff COAL and live in the dark than joining the light of the 21st century. I am very Thankful that you tested Negative for Covid-19 and hope you do not have to deal with being sick this year as I am really hoping 2021 is better for everyone over 2020. Wrong again buddy boy!, EVs do not have all the mechanical large stuff taking up space like an ICE auto has. Clearly some differences in the power train that does affect the shape.

While normally I would agree with you as Ford did not include a spare tire, they have the air compressor there, charging cord and other accessories, so the space is used differently. Both have the dual floor height and the same adjustable covers, etc. Just the EV has what seems to be a better laid out storage area IMHO. @ykX @Robert Hall In the picture comparison above, you can see that the Escape opening is noticeably smaller than the Mach-E opening. Sides of the storage area are also straight on the Mach-E compared to the Escape all leading to the Mach-E seeming to hold the luggage more efficiently I think.

Funny you mention that as this review from Autoblog of a 2021 Ford Mach-E Luggage test shows the benefits of interior space in the Mach-E over an Escape since they are on the same size wheel base. While the Escape is stated to have 3 cubic feet more space, clearly the design that went into the Mach-E gave it more usable space even though it is rated 3 cubic feet less space than the Escape. They also compare the Audi E-Tron and others showing how EVs have more usable interior space. Interesting read. 2021 Ford Mustang Mach-E Cargo Capacity Tested | Autoblog Ford Mach-E Luggage fit Ford Escape Luggage fit True, but then no competition till this year. I expect the competition to end up pushing Tesla into much faster updates of style and hardware. The faster changes will come in software feature changes that allow you to do more. Tesla has been very fast in changing all software changes in over air updates. Something you cannot say about ICE. The ability to improve battery pack performance, controllers and the EV power train via software updates is huge.

Nio will have two sedans, one that does compete with the Tesla 3 and one that is to be a high end Tesla S or BMW 7-series. NIO Day is next week, here's what you need to know - Money Midnight Nio To Launch Two Back-To-Back Sedans In A Challenge To Tesla Model 3 (msn.com) I think having two sedans in a global auto sales market that hit low and high should work for them.

Yet TECHNOLOGY is also why it can and in some countries will succeed. We make technology obsolete every 90 days. Course due to the cost of an Auto, that is not possible, due to the long loans. Yet Technology in EV's does allow updates to happen much faster than in an ICE. As such, improving EV's will happen at a much faster break neck pace than ICE has done. 2030 will be a challenge, 2035 a bit less, 2040 very doable for many, especially smaller countries, 2045 I would expect a majority of 1st and 2nd world countries to have moved to full on EV mode. Just IMHO.

Dig Dug

Yes, I am looking forward to vaccination of the world so we all can get back to enjoying life with family, friends and travel. Road Trips Big Time!!! I miss my bi-yearly visit to Fairmount Hot Springs in Canada and exploring Banff National Park. Fairmont Hot Springs Resort Fairmont Hot Springs, British Columbia, CA - Reservations.com Banff Travel Guide - Canadian Rockies Activities - Banff National Park Banff National Park (pc.gc.ca) YES, Ski season has just started. We need MORE SNOW, MORE COLD. But for those that like warmth, enjoy the south.

Man this burger looks awesome! ? https://www.instagram.com/p/CJpb4rao2rt/?igshid=1wlmmaabvc74r

We need the ? drool emoji in the instant ones. That looks Da Bomb man. YUMMY!!!

Nope no love for this ugly over chromed auto.

This is AWESOME, a little EV cheer to start the new year off in 2021 in the Random thread. Walk down memory lane for this funny movie.

LAUGHING MY ASS OFF, seems an employee who was fired at the end of 2020 by Mercedes-Benz decided he did not like it. As such he stole a Caterpillar front-end loader, drove it 13 miles to the plant and went on a destruction destroying spree. Ex-Employee Breaks Into Mercedes-Benz Plant With Caterpillar Loader, Causing $6M in Damage (thedrive.com) Ultimate Diesel Powered Off Roaders from Russia. Russian Off-Roaders Crossed 2,000 Miles of Siberia to Reach One Of The Most Isolated Cities On Earth (thedrive.com) Pretty cool story and lots of cool pictures of the auto's.

Interesting news for the Auto Industry. PSA and FCA is NOT a merger of equals. PSA gets 6 of the 11 board seats and the CEO and Chairman has the tie-breaker vote, so FCA will only get 5 seats showing the advantage goes to PSA. Firstly it seems that where heavy PSA/FCA auto's overlap, a consolidation will happen first this year with death of brands as PSA focuses on pushing their brands over FCA brands. Thoughts are Italy will loose it's last little bit of auto industry manufacturing. As stated in the story, FCA has been a money loosing company in Europe especially the wasted Billions on attempting to rebuild the Alfa product line and the ancient Maserati brand. Both needs billions more invested and especially in Hybrid / EV tech. Current tech they have is already a decade plus behind the Germans, Asians and Americans. Interesting is that Italy has 1.5 million auto building capacity, but currently builds less than 200,000 auto's a year for global consumption. Even before the Pandemic, FCA has all factories on rolling short-term layoffs due to lack of any real demand for Italian auto's. PSA has already announced that 50% of engineering sites across Europe will close. Also PSA review shows an excessive glut of auto manufacturing in Europe and as such will need to close many plants, but no details have come out yet. Engineering of US based full size trucks, SUV and mid size SUV's which do not sell well or at all in Europe and other global markets will keep the Auburn Hills site going. Yet all Compact and subcompact auto's will move to PSA platforms as well as any cars they choose to continue to sell under the Dodge/Chrysler name plates. Seems leaks are coming out as PSA reviews what they need to do to bring their brands to the US and what of FCA needs to be killed off and the first on the list is the DEATH of Chrysler. Cannot blame them as it was starved of product, never really given updates except the MiniVan and as such, slow death into the grave. Stellantis has the following major problems, excessive production plants and excessive overlap of models in Europe, weak sales in the Asian rim where now global auto sales make up 45% especially in China and old products for some American label brands in North America. Cuts likely as Fiat Chrysler-PSA tie-up nears approval (apnews.com) For Mario Kart fans, taking a Tour of Tokyo dressed up as your favorite character was a dream come true, but seems the days could be limited if the continued legal law suites go Nintendo's way which seems it is going. Surprise, Surprise: Judge Rules Real-Life Mario Kart Tour Violated Nintendo’s IP (thedrive.com) Would be kind of cool to drive around the streets like in the game.

Dolls

I have no problem with junk yards that do serve the local community for used parts. My issue is as I stated, the VAST amount of steel just sitting out on land across America rotting and in most of those cases, they did not drain the fluids so as time takes a toll and they rust out and then dump their toxic fluids onto the earth that causes other problems for both animals and humans. We have all seen people that just junk up their property as they are too lazy it would seem to properly dispose of their auto. While not as many as you, I have only owned American Auto company auto's and as far as I have been able to tell only assembled in the US.

Muppet Sing Along

Prune Juice

10 years ago I was lucky enough to be invited to do a very rare form of travel. Private rail car from Chicago to Seattle. I found on the days that it was a very relaxing and fun way to travel. I also discovered the thousands of auto's, tractors and trucks parked out in fields in Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota and Montana. The amount of steel left out rotting was very surprising to me and while I did think of all the cool auto's, tractors and trucks that could be restored, I also thought how dirty it was of all this steel rusting out in fields and why is it not recycled? I get that some have a passion for saving everything, but everything has a life and eventually comes to an end. As such, we could so clean up America and reduce having to rip up mother earth but just recycling the millions of tons of steel left sitting around. Yes, I acknowledge that this will get me down votes, but I truly believe as stewards of the earth, we have a responsibility to do our best to keep it clean and agree with @oldshurst442 that eventually if someone does not come along that wants an older auto, then we move to the next phase of recycling it to get it back into use as new products. This does not mean we have to get ride of everything and I have great respect for those like @balthazar who has space and desire over years to work on his passion of bringing back an old auto to life. Yet, not everyone is willing to do that and society moves forward. So ENJOY the restored, projects auto's that people have and keep, but also lets realize the need to keep our planet clean and recycle for the future of our kids, grand kids and the rest of our Multi-Cultural Society. IMHO Wishing everyone here a GREAT START to 2021!

February 14th ?