G. David Felt

Seems Europeans are dumping public transportation to avoid Covid-19 chances of getting sick, so the used auto market has exploded which is bad as they say for the air and environment. Why you might ask, because many of the used auto's are diesel with no emissions control on them. Pandemic Motors: Europeans snap up old cars to avoid public transport | Autoblog I could so enjoy owning this Dodge Durango Hellcat! 2021 Dodge Durango Hellcat First Drive: The Three-Row, One-Year Wonder (thetruthaboutcars.com)

Seems the official Mustang Mach E EPA numbers are out and they run from 211 miles to 300 miles depending on model and battery pack. Ford Mustang Mach-E has 211 to 300 miles of range, depending on model | Autoblog

Auto Humor we all can love! https://youtu.be/wKiW5OYjels What ? You cannot use a decent Beer wiz to refill if ya have too? Some of these failures are just too funny!

Diesel Lovers can rejoice in that GM has donated $12 million in 2019 and 2020 3 L Diesel GMC and Chevrolet pickup trucks to various colleges and technical trade schools to insure the education of service repair mechanics on diesel motors is strong as they move forward. GM believes that the need for mechanics of Diesel and ICE auto's will still be very strong over the next 50 years as the company transitions to an EV portfolio. Quote: “This donation provides a greater opportunity for our up and coming technicians to learn on the innovative technology in our current model vehicles, providing hands-on repair experience and diagnostic skills,” said Eric Kenar, GM manager, Technician Environment and Service Technical College. “This will put those students at a competitive advantage when they graduate from GM ASEP and enter into the dealership or ACDelco Professional Service Center environment.” General Motors Customer Care and Aftersales Donates More Than 200 Diesel Trucks to GM ASEP Schools

Seems the EV pickup truck market will NOT have one from Nikola. According to GM, they will manufacture and supply Hydrogen fuel cell systems for Nikola Semi Class 7 & 8 trucks but will not take a stake in the company nor help with manufacturing the Badger pickup truck. Sad as I really liked the looks of the Badger Pickup truck. General Motors Signs MoU with Nikola to Supply Hydrotec Fuel Cell Systems (gm.com) GM cancels deal to build Nikola (NKLA) electric-hydrogen pickup truck after many controversies - Electrek

Interesting read on Diesel trucks and modifications in America. After the Diesel Brothers Discovery show was found and fined $850,000 for illegal modifications to diesel auto's, the EPA did research and reported on the roughly 15% of Diesel auto's that are running around with illegal performance modifications that have greatly increased the Toxic spew out of the tail pipe poisoning the local community in which they live. Interesting is that this study by the EPA focused on the last 10 years starting from 2010 and found that North Dakota has the highest number of illegal diesel auto's with removed emissions systems at more than 25% of the registered diesels in the state. This is compared to California that inspects yearly the emission systems and has only found on average 3% with deleted emissions systems. The study does point out how we have gone from high NOX emissions in the 80's to super clean today and when you remove the emissions system, we go back to being even worse than the 1980's and this is due to the power of the modern diesel motors and what they put out to produce such power. The need to burn up the toxic emissions. Very interesting read. ? Illegal emissions tampering on diesel trucks is rampant—and apparently a big business (greencarreports.com)

WOW, Just realized that Since last year, November 2019 I just did my first oil change on the SS and Escalade for the winter season here. This pandemic has really reduced my driving and maintenance. No wonder the service departments are sending out digital coupons to remind people to get service done. This has greatly reduced the income of the service departments. This is the longest time I have ever gone on an oil change. 1 year. ?

Welcome back my friend, great to see you post, been a long time. Hope all is well in your family and no one has been affected by Covid-19. Stay safe and well everyone. Sadly, I just learned my nephew who works for the FAA in Chicago and is a Type 1 diabetes had been moved to an administrative roll working from home when the pandemic started. His two room mates continued to work in the tower at Ohara airport. They brought home the virus and now Garrett is sick and had to go to the hospital as the virus does seem to affect those with health issues harder than without. Stay safe everyone, I would hate to have any of you deal with this virus.

Agree, I think Diesel gate will hold the Europeans back a few years and of course the current Pandemic is not helping to get people out and about safely. I do wonder about the Hybrids versus pure EV, but then we will by 2025 have various options and see how it goes. If GM does not cut corners and truly can show a real off road enjoyment auto with the Hummer by GMC, this could open up doors big time to people who want peace and quiet out on the trail with minimal noise. I like the modular approach GM is taking with the Ultium battery pack and see many options for it. Based on current information, you could easily have a 300 kWH battery pack under a GMC Yukon XL or Chevrolet Suburban that would cover 500 to 600 miles easily.

BeeGees

Hi Dwight, Always appreciate your take and input on this. 1) I will disagree with you on economic sense. If looking at the bigger picture of how much toxic exhaust to toxic chemicals current ICE auto's can drop into the environment as well as the affect an ICE auto has versus an EV auto on the same environment, for people who can afford them now, they would see the long term affect of having a 21st century EV auto as being cost effective. One cannot just take a black and white approach to EVs due to cost alone. The bigger picture of how auto's affect the planet's climate cannot be denied as they exhaust does have an affect and many people are taking that into affect. On top of this battery costs are being reduced greatly each year and I do expect by 2025 to be on par with ICE. 2) We have had this discussion @Drew Dowdell has pointed out the change in thinking many times and we are moving to get there with rapid charging and solid state batteries that can recharge in minutes. Currently you cannot unless it is an Econ box sub compact with a tiny gas tank of less than 10 gallons fuel all auto's in 3 min. Average fuel tank size on full size trucks and SUV's is 26 gallons. USA limits gas pumps to a maximum flow of 10 gallons a minute from the main tank if all else is perfect. With filters and multiple auto's fueling this rate is usually reduced to an average of 5 gallons per min based on the industry. That would mean for an average 26 gallon fuel tank your are taking from empty 5 to 6 minutes to fuel. Yet many people fill up from a quarter tank or due to limited funds only put in a few dollars and go. EV you can always just get enough energy to get home and then plug in and finish over night. EV's will cause a change in approach to how one fuels their auto due to options that never existed with ICE auto's. 3) Totally agree with you on this point, I think the existing OEMs will bring a far superior EV auto to market due to their experience in mass production that Tesla has FAILED to learn from. 4) I totally get this point and I think that is where Hybrids will come in for those that have a harder time changing habits with an EV. I do believe that the newest solid state battery designs that have been published and are going into production for auto's that will come to market in 2024 and 2025 will help greatly with this as we see increased energy density in the individual cells that will allow for smaller battery packs where needed or keeping the same size but drastically increasing range. Already GM has revised their Ultium battery packs to now have 450 miles of range. GM Ultium design of small cell packs allows for ease of replacement if a section has a bad cell or two. This does allow for repair rather than total replacement. Toshiba, LG and Samsung have all moved to a modular design for this very reason. Panasonic has stated they have battery change designs coming, but have not clearly stated what those changes are. Tesla seems to want to build excess cells in to off set the potential for a bad cell or two but has remained vague on this. It will be interesting to see the direction we go in how battery repairs / maintenance is done for EV auto's.

Watching this video where you see this bad boy in action, love the deep rumble. This is what a proper exhaust note should sound like not those high pitch turbo notes. This is good too! This is totally bad ass, love the history they do leading up to the 392 reveal! Awesome Commercial by Jeep.

This looks like Killer Fun!

Interesting review on how the Kia Telluride is still king after 18,000 miles especially over the Hybrid Highlander from Toyota. I will say that they mention the 2021 winner being the Land Rover Defender and after seeing the video @A Horse With No Name I believe posted about a review group who bought for long term testing a Defender and are on their 3rd one in only 200 miles, I highly question their 2021 Winner. I have not heard of the issues for the Kia compared to the Defender. 2020 Kia Telluride Long-Term Update: Still the King After 18,000 Miles (motortrend.com) Love write ups like this on cool Barn finds, but I do find it sad that someone bought it and just let it sit rather than enjoy driving it. Barn Find Cars, Chevy Camaro Edition: Featuring ’69 Z/28s and a Yenko Conversion (motortrend.com) I have started to wonder if BMW and their huge grill is them wanting to really be a Royal Royce Phantom as those auto's also have a huge freak'in grill. ?

Could we also stop the stupid over payment of money to these jocks and have the owners pay for their own stadiums rather than dump the millions on the tax payers. Just saying, stupid over payments to the jocks, stupid dumping of hundreds of millions of debt on the local tax payers, dumping of maintenance cost on the tax payers when the Billionaire owners can afford it themselves.

Boomer Music!

I would rather cook some yummy food and watch a movie with a bottle of wine than watch sports.

Bombastic

I have seen from name brand 9V to generic 9V batteries live a wide range of life. For smoke detectors, habit is every XMAS, Replace the 9V no matter what to insure it is fresh and strong. Cheap insurance I think that way.

It is very interesting to see what is posted by leaders of various battery companies. EV focused writeups on EV battery life, but they seem to deal with the same key details as every other type of battery. How Long Should An Electric Car’s Battery Last? (myev.com) Just How Long Will An EV Battery Last? (insideevs.com) Battery Lifetime: How Long Can Electric Vehicle Batteries Last? (cleantechnica.com) Electric Car Battery Life, Cost of Replacement, Recycling & Leasing | EDF (edfenergy.com) From hearing aids to laptop batteries there are a variety of interesting responses, but the consistent thread I read is that depending on consistency of charging, power surges, extreme use versus a consistent use will all affect battery life. Course cheaper designed batteries tend to not last as long as higher quality batteries. Life Expectancy of Unused Batteries Tom Begley Batteries 424 (audiologyonline.com) CEO of Ray o Vac batteries talking about hearing aid batteries. This is solid from Trip Lite, read for the details, but this is consistent. 1. Ambient Temperature 2. Number of Discharges 3. Age 4. Load Sizing 5. Maintenance 5 Factors that will Shorten the Life of Your UPS Battery (tripplite.com) APC, one of the worlds largest UPS builders and sellers has the following on their battery for life expectancy. What is the expected life of my APC UPS battery? Environment: All Three Phase and Single Phase UPS Models Cause / Resolution: Most APC batteries should last three to five years. There are many factors which affect Battery life including environment and number of discharges. Below are some guidelines to ensure optimum life expectancy: 1. Operating Temperature: The optimum operating temperature for a lead-acid battery is 20-25° C (68-77° F). Elevated temperature reduces longevity. As a guideline, every 8° C (15° F) rise in temperature will cut the battery life in half. A battery which would last for 4 years at 25° C (77° F), will only be good for 2 years if operated at 33° C (95° F). Keep in mind that the battery temperature inside your UPS will always be warmer than the ambient temperature of the location where the UPS is installed. 2. Battery Calibration and Deep Discharge: Only perform runtime calibrations on your UPS one or two times a year, if necessary. Some of our customers want to check their systems to verify that their runtime is sufficient. However, consistently performing these calibrations can significantly decrease the life expectancy of your APC battery. It is also important to remember that a UPS is not designed for constant deep discharges. We do not reccomend using your APC Smart-UPS/Back-UPS as a portable power supply that is repeatedly discharged/recharged (like on a portable equipment cart). These units are designed for emergency use during unexpected power outages or momentary loss of power. 3. Storage: Do not store APC batteries for extended periods of time. New batteries/units should be stored for no more than 6 months from date of purchase, as they ship from the factory at approximately 80% charge. After this period, the battery should be used or it will lose a great deal of its charge . It is not advisable to store batteries that have already been in use. Extended storage without periodic charging can result in shortened life expectancy and erratic battery performance. Temperature also plays a large part in battery degradation during storage: If the ambient temperature during storage is - 15°C to + 30°C (+ 5°F to + 86°F), perform a full recharge cycle at least every six months. In environments where the ambient temperature is + 30°C to + 45°C (+ 86°F to + 113°F), perform a full recharge cycle at least every three months. 4. Load: As the load increases on your UPS, the runtime decreases. It is not recommended that the load exceed 80 percent of the UPS unit’s rated capacity. In the event of a power failure, a UPS loaded to full capacity will discharge the battery very quickly and there is a potential that the life expectancy of the battery will be significantly reduced.

Reality sucks for some and will be hard for those that hate change. Hate is a strong word but is something that we all have to work on as we live in a Multi-Cultural world and really need to learn to accept the differences that drive us. We all cannot expect everyone to change to be like us otherwise the world would be boring, but we can accept to agree to disagree. I do not expect Bill to ever like the EVs that are coming, but I also would not expect him to give up loving ICE auto's. I hope he can eventually come to accept them being part of the auto industry. I hope we all can at least talk about the pro's and con's of EV, BEV, Hybrids, etc. and acknowledge all auto's have their place in society, some more than others. Wishing you all a great weekend.

Relaxation

I would agree with your assessment that especially in this case, there is profiting at the expense of the consumer. Tesla has done this big time. I have much higher expectations for Rivian as RJ, CEO seems to have a much more common sense and grasp on Reality than Musk. Time will tell and Auto batteries are on the EPA cycle certification so I would expect as Ford, GM and many others of the old OEMs join the EV race that batteries will have to last the stated life expectancy.

This is so much better than the Tesla X!!!