G. David Felt

Question, I have not gone to look myself, but it would imply based on your post that you still have to have a TRD packaged version to get the manual. You cannot just get a base level truck with Manual Transmission, etc. like in the old days a decade ago. My neighbor has his truck base everything, manual windows, manual door locks, manual transmission and from what I see, you cannot do that anymore.

I also noticed that high maintenance cost and wish they would break it out to better understand what it relates too compared to the ICE version. It does go against everything Tesla has said as well as what real world owners post about such a low cost maintenance.

Hey William, the tires are clearly low profile. Are they run flat tires? Do you believe there is a chance for Rim damage by having the TRD handling package since you said you felt everything? What is the standard tire on this auto or is these the standard?

A face only a mother could love! ?

Usually I would agree with you, but what I have been reading and even heard from my own dealership I take my auto's to for service is that it is a huge improvement over the current BOLT as to why when GM realized they had leaked the next gen Bolt in a video covering other products, they took it down before too many people saw it on the GM web site. Sadly it does not seem anyone did screen captures. This was the teaser from a few weeks back that GM released. Which does go with the quick pic that was taken on the road when it was seen. Here is what GM Authority Mag believes it will look like based on the teaser above and the pic taken in the wild. Which I think is better than the current one. Even the new dash and interior is better than the old. https://gmauthority.com/blog/2020/11/gm-shows-glimpse-of-2022-chevy-bolt-euv-dashboard-video/

Next Generation Chevrolet Bolt caught in the wild in California as they were filming it. Very interesting break down of the actual cost of using a Tesla S as a police car compared to an ICE police car. Full detailed report is in the link below. https://electrek.co/2020/11/19/tesla-model-s-passes-test-police-car-fremont-fuel-cost/#more-155905

Right up your Amish alley!

Valid points, but I think especially in California where EV West does a ton of EV Conversions, people who are spending the kind of money we are talking about are also holding onto these auto's a long time. Case in point is my self. Bought New in 1993, my 1994 GMC Suburban SLE. Driven as is till 2007 when I had the V8 350 rebuilt at 200,000 miles into a custom built 402 and put another 60k miles on that before I then converted it to CNG since it required premium gas when it was hitting $5 a gallon here costing $250 to fill the rather large extended range tank on it. CNG fueling from my home took me to 83 cents per gallon and it is still there, but I am looking to do another auto project just like all of us auto enthusiasts and I see AWD EV Suburban being quiet as the wife likes about our Escalade ESV and powerful. So a Connect and Cruise AWD EV package is what I see as the perfect conversion. I will pull the 402 with custom built transmission and my custom differentials and sell them, then putting that money into the EV conversion. The battery pack is the most expensive part of this and I hope that by the time I get to doing this project, prices will as I expect continue to drop reducing the over all price. Nice part is that like your B59 Buick, I do not have to deal with airbags and all the rest of the electronic nanny devices since this is a 1994 auto. I do plan to have a backup camera as I love the benefit it gives to getting way closer to things than ones own eye can do from inside the auto.

Battery tech is moving away from precious rare earth elements and that is proven in a variety of new solid state battery production that comes online next year for a wide variety of EVs that will be produced next year and moving forward. No Charging Network, please state where you actually live as I am willing to bet there are far more charging options than you are aware of or willing to acknowledge. Cold weather issues have been made moot. How you will ask, easy just like ICE auto's loose MPG efficiency in cold weather, batteries do too, to offset this, we have Hydro thermal management and that has been proven well by Tesla and GM in their current EVs where people have lost some range but over all still have plenty to get out and about to work, errands, etc. You are right on it will take time and yet we have seen where properly motivated and supported, you can change the masses to embrace change. NORWAY leads the world with over 60% of new auto sales being EVs for the last 2 years and climbing. Yes a small country compared to the US, but a great example of how they have embraced change for a better healthy life for the MASSES. Here are sites that track where one can charge their EV. https://www.plugshare.com/ https://chargehub.com/en/charging-stations-map.html If you do not like 3rd party mapping sites, then use the Governments own location site that shows the 100's of thousands of charging locations and growing. https://afdc.energy.gov/fuels/electricity_stations.html

Not Everyone got invited to the live Barclays 2020 Automotive Conference, but there is the PDF press release you can get all the juicy details on GM over the next 10 years of what they wanted to announce here: https://investor.gm.com/static-files/66b83c73-17f3-426a-9618-393cea479c19 The Chart set that has additional cool details is available here: https://investor.gm.com/static-files/6e4732bd-c07d-43c0-80e8-9e2294b903fc Cool part is that multiple auto sources were there on the Video concall and did screen captures of EV's they talked about. Example is the TEASE of the all new Chevrolet EV Pickup Truck. The Silverado pickup will have a 400 mile battery pack and higher options as well. https://electrek.co/2020/11/19/gm-teases-electric-pickup-truck-prototype/ Here is the full screen image grabbed by Electrek that shows the Hummer by GMC SUV and what is a Chevrolet CUV EV. https://electrek.co/2020/11/19/gmc-hummer-ev-suv-version-first-peek/

@oldshurst442 Guess you guys have a Major Crack Drug problem up north. Moose cannot get enough of licking your salt caked cars. https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=753282775223716 https://www.facebook.com/709773081/videos/10160402143523082/ Nothing like 1,800 lbs of Moose looking at ya while licking your car clean! https://www.thedrive.com/news/37736/now-canada-has-road-signs-telling-people-not-to-let-moose-lick-their-cars

GM has officially put Tesla on notice that it is going to be #1 in North America with 40% of their auto sales here being EV's with 30 model options and on par with ICE costs by 2025. https://jalopnik.com/gm-has-fighting-words-for-tesla-1845719732

@A Horse With No Name This might be even better for the Central and South Americas road trip.

GM has been digging in their vault for some of the older concepts that were drawn. https://www.instagram.com/p/CHxmMUQMI1n/ Ford Transits are now being converted into the latest off road RV by Winnebago. @A Horse With No Name This could be right up your alley! More cool pics here: https://www.motor1.com/news/455419/2021-winnebago-ekko-ford-transit/

Amazon Prime first EV delivery van from Rivian out in the wild working. https://www.instagram.com/p/CHx910HHpVU/

So you think you can dance!

Your Pretty funny for living the Amish life style with Blu! I see you been Huffing Coal again. You need to be careful at the rate your going as you will black lung yourself 6ft under at the rate your going.

Where did ya get this pic from?

Put in the Mormon door to door hard sale too as well as every other religion hard sale. I will say that both the JW's and Mormons are a nuisance and I wish they would just stop coming. Even with a sign by my front door they still bloody knock.

Not at all my friend. When you look at human patterns, Most humans are lazy and shifting gears is becoming a smaller and smaller pool of desire. With the cost of Auto's today, we also do not seem to have the interest from Millennials that the generation before them had in auto's. College Debt Auto Cost Family Cost Housing Cost Changing interest PANDEMIC Unemployment The list can go on, but I do not see as many enthusiast in 2025 as there is now or how many were just 5 years ago. Auto's have moved into an appliance for most and they just want to get from A to B and Back and not have to think about things like Shifting gears. I honestly would say that by the 3rd full year of Bronco sales that I would not be surprised to see FORD kill the Manual for ICE auto's. Countries around the world including the US are near bankruptcy, Personal Debt is at all time highs. Things will go away based on the lack of consumer interest and Manual Transmissions is one of them. IMHO GM has stated they currently have planned to have Cadillac a pure EV brand starting in 2025 which would imply the 2026 model year. If that holds true, then there you have 6 or 7 auto replacements.

Porsche is owned by VW and while they have justified building a new one, that does not mean with the change to EVs that a manual transmission will survive when they are less efficient than an automatic. In an interview VW said as long as enough are sold they will build them, but that is no promise of them to last long term. https://www.thedrive.com/news/32738/vw-is-fine-building-manual-transmissions-but-only-if-you-hypocrites-actually-buy-them Nissan is struggling so while a concept might have a manual transmission, I would bet that from a cost accounting exercise, they will have a hard time justifying building one and supporting it in the 400Z or what ever they actually call it. Nissan dropped the manual transmission from their truck and SUV offering only Automatic transmissions. There is no commitment from the Company on having manual transmissions in their cash strapped times. Plenty of stories, but the Honda Civic, Accord, Fit, all have dropped manual transmissions. No More. I suspect the Civic Type R will be a one and done as it was already in development, but the rest of the product line has killed off manuals. Less than 2% of sales does not support a product type. https://www.motorauthority.com/news/1128912_honda-kills-civic-si-coupe-fit-manual-transmission-in-accord https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/2021-honda-accord-manual-transmission/ https://www.autoblog.com/2020/10/15/2021-honda-civic-sedan-no-manual-transmission-option/ Mustang and Camaro will probably stick with the manual transmission they have, but with GM and Ford committing more resources and moving up release schedule of EVs to have in GM's case 30 now rather than 20 new EV models on the market by 2025 and EVs do not require a transmission. The days of Manual are closing. Plus the latest in Class Action Law suit against Ford for their MT82 Transmission I can easily see the manual being killed sooner rather than later. https://fordauthority.com/2020/06/mustang-mt82-transmission-woes-lead-to-new-class-action-lawsuit/ For the final fun of ICE auto's, I expect the performance area to be where you find Manual transmissions and even then they will be special built purpose dual clutch transmissions with electronic help. https://www.sae.org/news/2020/01/gm-tremec-corvette-dct-collaboration

I look at it this way, buy a new Suburban spending $80K or convert the one I have which is in excellent shape and I love for half that price. I will take the conversion route as a fun project for me to do. Gonna wait and see what GM wants for the AWD Connect and Cruise EV kit.

On the GM front, found even more details in the MarketWatch report on GM's increased investment in EVs. from $20 billion to $27 billion by 2025. They also have announced they will have 30 rather than 20 various EVs on sale by 2025. To quote what GM announced today: key elements of GM's plan, including: By 2025, GM will launch 30 EVs around the world, and more than two-thirds will be available in North America. Cadillac, GMC, Chevrolet and Buick will all be represented, with EVs at all price points for work, adventure, performance and family use. Engineering advances have increased the previously stated GM-estimated maximum range of Ultium-based vehicles from 400. GM's Ultium-based EVs, when produced, will be capable of driving ranges up to 450 miles on a full charge1. GM's versatile Ultium platform provides the building blocks for everything, from mass market to high performance vehicles – all from a single, common cell in most markets and a set of interchangeable propulsion components. More than half of GM's capital spending and product development team will be devoted to electric and electric-autonomous vehicle programs. GM's second-generation Ultium chemistry is projected to deliver twice the energy density at less than half the cost of today's chemistry. GM is already prototype testing this next-generation technology, which is expected to be available mid-decade. Ultium technology, supported by hundreds of granted patents and pending patent applications, is expected to bring EVs closer to price parity with gas-powered vehicles. Both the GMC HUMMER EV and Cadillac LYRIQ programs were accelerated, along with other vehicles to be revealed at a later date. GM is hiring 3,000 electrical system, infotainment software and controls engineers, plus developers for Java, Android, iOS and other platforms. GM continues to explore third-party licensing for its Ultium EV architecture, batteries and propulsion systems, along with its Hydrotec fuel cell technology developed with Honda. GM, in collaboration with its dealers, will leverage its sales and service capabilities and software-powered innovations to deliver an exceptional customer experience for EV loyalists and new EV customers alike. These second-generation cells will get closer to cost parity with gas-powered engines due to: Cell design that enables higher energy density and uses less non-active material, making more room for the part of the battery that produces energy. Manufacturing efficiencies through GM's Ultium Cells LLC joint venture with LG Chem. Better integration between vehicles and their battery packs, enabling fewer cells and modules. Less expensive cathodes, reduced active material, novel electrolytes and the first use of lithium metal anodes in a GM battery. GM speeds its EV rollout and pace of innovation The modular and highly flexible qualities of the Ultium system, along with engineering advances in battery technology, the use of virtual development tools and lessons learned during the HUMMER EV development process, have enabled GM to bring EVs to market much faster than originally planned. The 2022 GMC HUMMER EV's development time of 26 months – down from about 50 months – is now the benchmark. The development schedules for 12 vehicle programs have been moved up, including: GMC HUMMER EV Three other GMC Ultium variants, including an EV pickup Four Chevrolet EVs, including a pickup and compact crossover Four Cadillacs In addition, Buick's EV lineup will include two Ultium-based EVs. After the GMC HUMMER EV, the next EV to launch will be the LYRIQ, Cadillac's first all-electric vehicle, which will arrive in the first quarter of 2022, nine months ahead of schedule. Much more in the release below. https://media.gm.com/media/us/en/gm/home.detail.html/Pages/news/us/en/2020/nov/1119-electric-portfolio.html https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/gm-boosts-investment-grows-electric-portfolio-to-lead-in-ev-race-301177462.html https://www.marketwatch.com/press-release/gm-boosts-investment-grows-electric-portfolio-to-lead-in-ev-race-2020-11-19

Based on comments from all those OEM, I expect manual transmissions to be dead and gone by 2025.

Funky Lift kit of the Day. Want a taller riding Prius you say, Got it! Want bigger tires you say, Got it! Want it cheap and made in the USA you say, Got it! A local US based company has come out with a $300 lift kit for all versions of Prius that raises the car 1.5 inches allowing for bigger 27" diameter tires to fit on the auto. For the AWD Prius, this gives it much desired ground clearance for off road driving as well as running up the mountain to ski. https://www.thedrive.com/news/37692/this-company-makes-toyota-prius-lift-kits-and-people-are-actually-buying-them