G. David Felt

Pollution

Have to say this cracks me up, never thought you could get fined for flipping a camera the bird, but you can in Germany. Rather than the normal $20 Euro Fine, the young driver for speeding 7 kph over the posted speed ended up with a 1 month suspension of driving and a $1,500 fine for insulting the Authorities. Go Figure it was a BMW driver in an X5. Guess they are arrogant everywhere not just here in the US. https://www.motor1.com/news/437703/speeding-bmw-driver-middle-finger-fine/

Metric

Tomorrow @ 7pm EDT the Reveal of the Cadillac LYRIQ EV will happen.

Daimler has deepend their ties with CATL alliance as they focus on building fast-charging EV batteries with 400 plus range and what they say is to Lead in battery technologies globally. Daimler say the goal is to give an average of 435 miles or 700 Kilometers to an EV auto on average. https://www.autoblog.com/2020/08/05/daimler-catl-long-range-electric-car-batteries/ Due to the lead that Rivian has in EV Truck production, VW is watching and keeping an Eye on Rivian as it considers a Global EV Truck for the company. VW has also stated that the Scirocco is retired after it's third time in production and there is no rush or interest in releasing another 2 door coupe either in EV or ICE format. The era of the car is coming to a close, expect the future to be about trucks, CUV/SUV and specialty activity auto's. https://www.autoblog.com/2020/08/04/vw-electric-cars-pickup-ev-meb-platform/

Update on EV stuff going on. California Zero Labs has continued to expand from custom work which they still do to also offering two specific quality off road auto's. Converted Ford Bronco's and Land Rover's. Pricing is NOT for the Faint of Heart! Luxury EV's with Range and off road capable for the Rich. https://www.zerolabs.com/

Awesome collection, if only that could be true today. Sadly, costs are keeping many youth from owning an auto.

I totally agree, I think this is more inline with Millennials than us X generation.

Seems you get 15.5 miles of ride before you need to recharge. https://unagiscooters.com/pages/specifications E250 is RWD and the E500 is AWD.

Seems the TV show Long Way Up which used to be done on BMW will be on the new ride LiveWire e-Motorcycle from Harley-Davidson according to Electrek. This season will cover their trials and tribulations on using an electric motorcycle to tour South America, Central America and North America. https://electrek.co/2020/08/05/long-way-up-harley-davidson-livewire-e-motorcycle-release-date/ Seems this show is following Rivian in testing out the electric bike on a 13,000 mile road trip from the southern tip in Argentina back to America. September 18th is the Premier of this season and will be on Apple TV+. Intersting is that this also took place at the same time as the Rivian adventure proving that the EV industry is serious about having Auto's and bikes that can get you all over the world on Electricity alone. No gas needed. https://electrek.co/2019/09/09/rivian-electric-pickup-harley-davidson-livewire-electric-motorcycles-trip/

The Current Pandemic has really hit the ride share industry hard. Be it bicycles, scooters, auto's, etc. The last thing people are thinking of is sharing something that someone else just used and could have virus on it. https://unagiscooters.com/pages/unagi-all-access-scooter-subscription?show_sub_signup=1 Such is the way that Unagi is thinking outside the box by going with a subscription service for their sexy Magnesium / carbon fiber AWD scooters. Rather than paying the $1,000 plus price for these electric scooters, you can now have a monthly subscription and have your own private scooter to get you around. Initial $50 account setup with a monthly $39 a month or if you pay annually the cost drops to $34 a month. The scooter will show up within 24hrs at your door. Insurance is included in the subscription cost that covers being stolen or damaged and all you pay is an $85 deductible. https://electrek.co/2020/08/05/unagi-all-access-electric-scooter-subscription-service/

Seems Musk must be padding the pre-orders for the Cyber Truck as he is now saying that if it is a flop he will build a normal type EV Truck. Musk also implies that a smaller mid or small size EV Truck would be built also at the Texas plant. Musk also states that the Cyber Truck was built with NO INPUT from actual Truck buyers. He states they simply set out to build a futuristic looking truck that was different. He still states that the Cybertruck will outperform any traditional pickup. In the Interview, Musk says they still have over 200,000 reservations for the Cybertruck. There is an implied understanding that some have asked for their $100 deposit back, but Musk says having over 200,000 reservations is still significant for a niche vehicle that will outperform anything else built by anyone else. Musk does say that having spent time driving the Cyber truck around California, he is mulling over a complete redesign of the cybertruck while considering how a smaller sized truck would also need to look. This tells me the truck hit a initial homerun with the Hardcore Tesla faithful that believe he can do no wrong. Yet with the bigger population, the truck is a failure. This is becoming especially clear as you see what Rivian is building in the R1T and what GM has shown so far in the Hummer by GMC. Both have traits that Tesla has not even thought of. Interesting is that Musk said that there could also be an initial run of the Cybertruck Concept for North America only before releasing a Global Tesla Truck. https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1128270_musk-tesla-cybertruck-won-t-be-downsized-but-smaller-follow-up-truck-a-possibility https://www.autonews.com/executives/musk-suggests-tesla-would-build-normal-truck-if-cybertruck-flops Since this is a subscription required, you can get a take on this, here: https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1129124_musk-larger-cybertruck-will-be-north-american-ass-kicker-smaller-cybertruck-highly-likely

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