G. David Felt

That is freaking Awesome, Guess someone in Engineering did not think to test that. New QA Test Case please! Probably needs approval to test it from Musk.

This is what REAL LEADERSHIP looks like, So happy I work for Dell. I hope and wish for everyone here at Cheers and Gears to be safe and that you can have the same Multi-Cultural experience where ever you work. I realize that there are those of you that have to go into work to do your job and I hope that you continue to stay safe and healthy and do not have to deal with the Covid-19 infection. Wishing all the Best in this time of thinning patient's and that you can find your Zen where ever you live!

meters

GM had a Volt Plug in way before anyone did in 1980, GM Silver Volt Station wagon with an 80 mile range on pure lead acid batteries. https://cartype.com/pages/7109/gm_silver_volt__1980#:~:text=GM Silver Volt %3A 1980. The Silver Volt,minimum of 40%2C000 miles of driving before replacement.

1966 Electrovair II 1966 Pontiac Banshee Concept 1966 GM Electrovan 2019 Buick Riviera Plug-in Concept

Freightliner's Battery Powered Semi Trucks have logged over 300,000 miles of Real World Use and aim for 1 million miles as the medium and heavy duty trucks go into production in Mid 2022. Heavy duty truck has 730 HP and 230 mile battery pack. Medium Duty truck has 480 HP and a 184 mile range. Future is EVs as we move towards them, city air will improve as will the quality of life for people. https://www.thedrive.com/tech/35305/freightliners-battery-powered-semi-trucks-have-logged-over-300000-miles-in-the-real-world

Detroit Free Press covered the annual GM Analysts call this week and with the second quarter results it showed that GM has lost $800 million in the quarter but over all North American Earnings were breakeven and this was with 8 weeks of shutdown. Over all the Stock beat wall streets estimates and yet still sold off in large numbers during the pandemic closure. Analysts had plenty of questions for GM with a major question of will GM consider spinning off their technology arm which would include electric vehicles operations into a stand alone company? The idea of a stand alone GM Tech company is to recognize the advanced tech GM has over other auto companies and to unlock what Analysts see as considerable shareholder value. This new entity would allow access to cheap new capital to keep the old GM going till the new GM would replace it as a cutting edge tech auto company with what is seen as future strong growth. GM has reinforced it's future of all electric auto's, self driving auto's and what it expects to become a zero emission company with 20 new EV auto's on the market by 2023, the first being out in Q1 of 2021. The group of Analysts has suggested the new company be called Ultium based on GM's new battery tech. The CEO responded that GM is evaluating many scenarios for the future of GM. She had nothing further to say other than the board and executive team will consider all options for what is best for driving long-term shareholder value. Quote: "Nothing is off the table." Analysts have since added notes to their research suggesting that GM could already be considering this since so many start ups are valued more than GM such as Tesla, Nikola, Rivian, etc. The Billions of cheap dollars that could help drive GM long term into the future is hard to ignore. Some analysts say that to split the company would kill off the baby, meaning the EV side would die after the money was harvested from the stock sale as you only have the Chevrolet Bolt and the new company would have to follow Tesla in going back to the market for more and more money. This is based on what some analysts see as only a US/Canada interest in EVs compared to the rest of the world needing ICE. That being said it does show a clear line between those Analysts that see Europe and China leading in new tech with a change to EV's versus those Analysts that are more inline with the oil industry and imply that there is little to no interest in EV's. End result is WHAT WILL GM DO? I suspect GM will stay the course of using ICE auto's to fund the change to an all EV world. 50 years from now, people will be wondering why it took so long to dump ICE auto's in favor of EV's. What are your thoughts on this? https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/general-motors/2020/08/01/gm-electric-vehicles-mary-barra/5549426002/

According to the Detroit Free Press, GM has moved ahead with a $75 million investment in Lordstown Motors EV auto company. This is a $25 million cash and $50 million non-cash investment of plant and equipment of what was owed to GM for the plant. This allows Lordstown Motors to move forward with a IPO offer that "I Believe GM can cash in on." Lordstown Motors in their IPO paperwork is showing presales of 27,000 trucks so far and what will be a use of GM / LG Battery packs for their trucks if I am reading the vague details right. https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/general-motors/2020/08/03/gm-invest-ev-maker-lordstown-motors/5571007002/

insecure

Seems there is a list now of the 25 best buys from the Hertz bankruptcy sale. https://www3.forbes.com/lifestyle/these-are-the-best-blowout-deals-in-used-hertz-rental-cars-vue/

Yamaha has moved beyond Electric motors for small sub subcompact auto's and Motorbikes. They have released their first 150kW motor for use in full size auto's. Have to say they have built a very good looking future motor. This is expected to be used in an AWD configuration, one in front and one in back. Each motor is equal to 201.15 HP, so an AWD auto would have 402.3 HP. Instant Torque, though they do not mention how much. Considering the torque that is being brought from Zero, I would expect these motors to be equal to if not double or triple the HP numbers. Having looked at multiple math sites, it would seem that one motor unit would have 1000lb ft of torque from zero, so 2000 lb ft of torque for an AWD setup. Yamaha has also now stated they have a 200 kW motor in the same housing which is equal to 268.2 HP or 536.4 HP in AWD. As available crate motors it will be interesting to see who uses the motors first. Interesting that they are using an Alfa Romeo 4C. Makes one wonder if FCA / Stellinous is going to use them in an EV option. Using the math calculators online, it would seem 1400 lb-ft of torque for the 270HP unit, or 2800 lb-ft of torque in AWD. Talk about crushing performance. More info at the link below. https://global.yamaha-motor.com/business/e-motor/ https://electrek.co/2020/08/03/yamaha-extremely-compact-electric-motors-electric-motorcycles-cars/#more-143086 Volvo over the last couple years has been doing proto type testing of Electric heavy duty trucks in Southern California. Starting in 2021, leasing will begin on these electric trucks for delivery use around southern California. https://chargedevs.com/newswire/volvo-trucks-pilots-vnr-electric-truck-at-california-dealership/

Makes me think it is returning from the depths of Hell.

Jelly

Kandi, the Chinese auto company will open up the order books August 18th for people to purchase online their EV auto's. The Kandi K27 will be the first auto to go on sale in America with a starting price of $20,490 before the $7,500 federal tax credit. The K27 will end up costing almost $2,000 less than the current frugal champ the 2021 Chevrolet Spark at $14,790. The biggest question is will people buy a subcompact with only 100 miles of range for a commuter auto? The second auto in the line up is the K23 which will start at $29,999 with 180 miles of range. With the federal tax credit this makes the K23 $751 less than the 2021 Mini Cooper SE which has a 110 mile range or the Nissan Leaf S that starts at $32,525 with a 149 mile range or the Hyundai Ioniq EV with a starting cost of $34,020 and a 170 mile range. Kandi bought in 2018 a Texas based importer company called SC Autosports to handle all North America Distribution. No details have been released yet on how the auto's will be serviced and supported let alone sold state by state other than one can order up an EV starting August 18th on their web site. https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1129057_kandi-electric-car-open-to-us-orders-august-18-with-20-499-starting-price

Seems the incompetency of DC leadership is finally being checked. The IG of the EPA is starting an in-depth review of the process that the current administration took to relax emissions and MPG on the auto industry as it would seem it did not pass the required law for transparency as well as due process. As such, the changes at the EPA could all be rolled back to what they were before the changes were signed by Potus decree. https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2020-07/documents/_epaoig_notificationmemo_7-27-20_fuel-efficient.pdf

Mac n Cheese

Interesting to see how people seem to think there are no lower priced EVs when there are. The big issue is that most people do not want the base EVs, they want the fully loaded all the bells and whistles and as such, we are not seeing those sell. I agree that as the charging networks expand and prices come down, that we will see more adoption of the lower maintenance longer lasting EVs over the high maintenance ICE auto's. I also agree with you that the whole push for ICE auto's with 3 banger motors is a joke. Turbo all they want, the life of those engines are going to be short.

Duck Burger

Amazing how many spiders are out this year around my house. What Long Legs you have said the Spider to the Hopper!

Pinacol

Q: What is Covid-19 Really called? ? ? ? A:The Boomer Remover! I have convinced my grandma that the baby boomers are as dependent on technology as us. When she said " you millennials are so addicted to technology" I quickly glanced at her life support. That was the last time she said it.

Yes reality is complex and prices are high as most people focus on them, but there are EV options that cost less, but people want everything, they want all the bells and whistles as to why it seems humanity ignores the lower priced options. 2020 starting prices of on sale EVs from Edmunds. Prices before rebates https://www.edmunds.com/electric-car/articles/cheapest-electric-cars/ 2020 Mini Cooper SW - $30,750 2020 Nissan Leaf - $32,535 2020 Hyundai Ioniq - $34,000 2020 Chevrolet Bolt - $37,495 2020 Tesla Model 3 - $41,190 2019 BMW i3 - $45,445 2020 Jaguar i-Pace - $70,875 Plug-in Hybrids 2020 Hyundai Ioniq Plug-in - $26,300 2020 Toyota Prius Prime - $28,555 2020 Kia Niro Plug-in - $30,610 2020 Subaru Crosstek Plug-in - $36,155 These are the cheapest starting prices for the models and there are still more but not covering the higher priced models here. Edmunds did a good job for those looking for an EV.

Ran out to pickup lunch from Sparta's and saw this Cherry Datsun in the parking lot. Way better looking than anything on the Mercedes-Benz lot next door.

That is no different than an ICE auto especially during say a NJ or Texas ICE Storm and you have no access without chipping at the gas lid to get it open when you are out of gas and need to fill cause you did not fill it up the night before. Yes in places of harder winter weather there will always be challanges for EV or ICE. After all, if you get water in the tank you ICE Auto is not going to run very well a problem you never have to worry about with EV's. EV versus ICE Auto Revelations: REVELATION - ICE owners say they do not have range anxiety because of the sheer number of gas stations across the US. Even on some of the longest stretches of road you still can find a gas station within 150 miles of each other. Example is the I70 in Utah, one of the longest stretches of highway without gas service, 110 miles. On average, AAA states you can find a gas station every 50 miles in the US. If the gas stations also included EV chargers like what is happening in Europe, Fast DC chargers, an EV with even only a range of 100 miles could easily do a road trip, Sadly the gas industry has fought this as it would have disrupted the auto industry decades ago. Tesla has supercharging stations within 150 miles of 99% of the US Population and the Tesla's have far greater range than 100 miles. REVELATION - If you forget to fill up with gas, you in no better situation than an EV owner who forgot to plug in the night before at home and ends up leaving home in the morning with minimal charge. More than a CENTURY LATER, we still have people running out of gas all the time on the side of the road. So this is about Planning that is NOT attributable to the auto's range performance in any way. Range anxiety only happens when your on a road, 80 miles from the closest gas station or charging station and you only have 20 miles left of charge or gas. That is bad planning, even that excuse is no longer valid due to the number of Charging Stations including Tesla charge points available on all major highways. Statista says the US has 24,807 official charging stations as of March 3rd 2020 with 78,544 Charging outlets. This is also supported by our own U.S. Department of Energy. https://afdc.energy.gov/fuels/electricity_stations.html https://www.statista.com/statistics/416750/number-of-electric-vehicle-charging-stations-outlets-united-states/ We also have other source sites that break this data down for those of us that do not pay for the detailed access and publish it such as Electrek on how the stations break down across states. https://muchneeded.com/electric-vehicle-charging-network-statistics/ We also have options on how we charge which can be done so easily when we plan. REVELATION - IEA matches pretty much what Europe and Asia have stated that EV's / Plug-in Hybrids will rich critical mass by 2030 due to regulations and consumer preference in how ICE declines and EV's become the new standard. EV's cut CO2 emissions by Half even when you take into account Electricity produced by dirty energy means, AKA Coal, battery production compared to ICE auto's. Healthier air for all to breath and less noise pollution. https://www.iea.org/reports/global-ev-outlook-2019 Both Statistica and IBIS world report that the US has approximately 150,000 gas stations. Unable to get specific number as I do not have paid membership to either so can only go by their high level quote about their own report. Statistica says as of 2018 we have 273.6 million registered auto's. As such that means we have 1 gas station for every 1,824 auto's registered. Compared to the current 3,283,200 EV / PHEV auto's registered in the US. This would equate to 1 charging station for every 132 EV auto's. This would imply that it is easier to find a charging station than a gas station. So this cearly shows a 1 to 1,824 ratio for ICE and 1 to 132 ratio for EV. https://www.statista.com/statistics/183505/number-of-vehicles-in-the-united-states-since-1990/ https://www.statista.com/topics/4421/the-us-electric-vehicle-industry/ REVELATION - The median average range of an ICE auto is 412 miles which means that half of the auto's on the road cannot go 400 miles on a full tank of gas. This shows how impressive a 300 mile battery pack is for an EV. So what does all this mean? We are very close to a tipping point for the majority of auto buyers where ICE / gas will no longer be the pull one would expect and folks will be giving up their old way of thinking about range anxiety, charging stations concerns, stuck on the road with no power. After all AAA now comes to you with either gas or a charge to get you to the next station. Over all while most people do not really need 300 miles of range, we are at that point where people are not going to think about it and will just go with the low cost maintenance appliance to get from point A to B and back. Are we there yet? No but we will be in the next 5 years.

Panasonic has announced today their 5yr plan for the battery cells they supply Tesla and any other company that purchases the Panasonic battery cells. Currently Panasonic has started production of their new 2170 battery cell and set two mile stones for enhancing the battery cell. 5 years from now, Panasonic will have increased battery density by 20% as the 2170 will start off 5% more density than the prior battery cell. Panasonic also will be going cobalt free by then if not sooner. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-panasonic-tesla-exclusive/exclusive-panasonic-aims-to-boost-energy-density-in-tesla-batteries-by-20-executive-idUSKCN24V1GB