G. David Felt

Thor Trucks, Able to deliver before Tesla? From the skunks work world of downtown L.A. comes the latest electrical truck start up. Thor Truck is the latest darling that has probably one of the best chances to actually deliver and put considerable pressure on Paccar, owner of Kenworth and Peterbilt, Mac, Volvo, White and many others that build for the class 8 market. Thor Truck introduced just before Xmas their ET-One Class 8 Semi delivering the following details: Top Speed of 70 mph hauling it's maximum capacity Maximum capacity of 80,000 lbs per trailer load 4,700 pound-feet of torque at zero rpm Battery rang of up to 300 miles 60 % cheaper maintenance cost 70 % cheaper fuel cost 100 % fewer emissions from the actual driven truck 90 minute depletion to full charge time 22 inch dashboard touchscreen 100 mile range version starts at $150,000 300 mile range version starts at $250,000 According to the CEO and company founder Dakota Semler, who praised his staff and posted the following on his blog: “We wanted to show the world that you don’t have to be a big original equipment manufacturer, like a Ford or GM, or a tech mogul with deep pockets to start making progress in this space,” wrote Semler. “With no outside funding, we assembled a team of experienced, gutsy, and passionate engineers and went to work researching and designing the ET-One in-house.” Thor Truck has stated production will begin in 2019 and pre-ordering will open soon for their local short range inner city truck, for now, they have done something that Tesla has not. They have invited fleet operators around the US to participate in a limited fleet demonstrations of their modest fleet of semi's using them in real world use. Thor has set up an FAQ site for answering most of the questions one would ask such as service, warranty, powertrain, dealerships, battery, charging and so much more. Thor Truck Web Site

So an even smaller Bag of Poo with a 3 star badge on it that people will think is superior to any other auto out there and yet is no different than buying a Toyota, Ford or Chevy.

WOW, Looks like their butt ugly Hydrogen bomb car design.

Be interesting, I think this is more desirable than their past versions.

@ykX @Drew Dowdell @ccap41 So what do you guys think about AWD, just a motor front and rear between the wheels or in-wheel hub motors with Torque vectoring for maximum push in and out of corners? I agree with Drew that EV with it's 100% Torque from Zero and continue to dial in the driving characteristics is an outstanding way to take the Camaro and even the Mustang to the next level of performance. Anyone that has seen the videos or actually been in a Tesla with Ludicrous mode knows the gut pulling G's of performance fun.

That is one sharp station wagon! Love it in that Maroon!

Far better than the X1 and I applaud them for not going the Crappy Coupe style. Still very blah to me.

Interesting, at Least GM can focus on building up a war chest of money, pay off debt and get prepped to make a full global push once they have the right pieces in place. Totally agree with this. Biggest mistake was them buying Opel to begin with I always thought versus building out a focus dealership network. I agree with Drew, GM needs to build out a proper network rather than rely on old Opel or other brand locations to sell a few cars.

I have to say, that is very polarizing, but I kinda like it way better than the Chevy!

Chevy Camaro, EV, Hybrid, What do you think? Discuss! We are on the cusp of change, change is never liked by all, but is inevitable. With that said, and brought up by other members in some other threads, I felt it was time we had a section to discuss what the future of the Camaro might be. Will it include an EV only powertrain, Hybrid, both and will AWD come to the Camaro? Or due to being a pony car, should it stay ICE only. Sound off on what you think should happen and your thoughts about this!

And old men, salespeople are sleeze in that regards of praying on the easily manipulated. Did something happen to your mom?

Afraid of the Aussie Aussie Aussie's are we?

Low True, but talk to those that bought them and they love them and the 110 outlets in the bed. Change is hard especially for the blue collar work force and when then price it high, as the price drops, I can see the conversion easily happen. Less Maintenance, lower cost to fuel, easily a change over that companies that use plenty of pickup trucks would love.

Nice Update, I like the looks even more than the initial version on release.

Still ugly as ever.

The station wagon he bought new in southern california before moving up to washington so maybe it was a custom job as they did allot of stuff like that in California.

@ocnblu @Cubical-aka-Moltar @balthazar I will have to go to my parents to dig out some photo's and scan them in. My dad always said it was a rare auto, he had it painted tan, so not sure what the original color was but it was an early to mid 60's Lincoln Station wagon that looked like this one I found online. I could be wrong since I was a small kid growing up till it was replaced with the Olds 98 station wagon. I have included our master of all things old to help me out, but I do remember the long rear glass and the suicide doors, so pretty sure it was a Lincoln.

Weird, Maybe this is a west versus East thing as I just measured my garage as my Split Level house was built in 1952, 2 car garage and the inside dimensions from the Garage door to the foundation on the other side is 29', 30 feet if I go foundation to foundation in the garage, but the auto cannot take advantage of that last foot as the garage door is recessed. So having never lived in a house on the east coast maybe this is just a difference in type of homes built.

Good to know you finally admit what MB really is, a badge on dog poo!

Be interesting to see who they use as a battery supplier and what they bring that is different than the competition.

Plenty of Tesla X on Autotrader with decent mileage and decent pricing.

Totally makes sense and is understandable. I am very interested in their CUV/SUV plans along with EVs.

Your probably right as I remember my parents Lincoln Station wagon and the last one they owned as a 1977 Olds 98 station wagon and I just remember my dad always saying station wagons were right up there with suburbans for 22 foot long auto's, he just liked being lower compared to me liking being taller. Now to go and find out just how long that 98 really was. Found it, 231.8" as it was the longest of it's day before they down sized with the Oil Embargo. OK, so my dad was off as this is just 20 feet long. Still a long big auto.

Love Inline 6 engines, fell in love with them with the Jeep Eliminator Pickup that I always wanted. In regards to Electric Turbo, when not needed the Turbo's impeller spins at 10,000 rpm for minimal hesitation or lag in engine response from pumping air/fuel mixture into the engine. This way you minimize the lag when the driver presses the accelerator. Yet unlike a supercharger that is always pumping in gas/air mixture, the turbo still has lag, though minimal to most people that cannot tell the difference. The point I am making is SMK talks about HP/Torque, new 48 volt electrical system and comes across as if it is the holy grail of auto powertrains. Yet we have seen all this tech for a while now in various forms that get it done without having every single one of them on a single engine. Granted MB is the first that I know of to have them all on one engine. Does that make it better or best? No not necessarily and why I pointed to the fact that their compliance EV auto not only sells terrible but is now a dead product. If they build the best, then why have they not offered a true competitor to Tesla like GM did? If the Inline 6 was so superior, then why did they dump it for a V6 and why are they now like a chef that really does not know how to cook dumping everything into the pot with what clearly to me and others seems to be overkill on a powertrain with only equaling their current engine output rather than beating it soundly. I can get from a business standpoint the simplification of all V engines or all Inline engines to minimize cost of tooling and building when you just have to drop 2 or 4 cylinders so you have inline 4, 6, 8 engines. I get this, but SMK knocks everyone else when they use a family of engines across product lines and then ignores or as has been stated moves the goalposts in regards to MB doing the exact same thing across their product lines. End result is I hope MB continues their success, but this is not a ground breaking engine or superior to what others are doing and one does have to question this over complication of a powertrain or as I have stated, the cook throwing everything into the pot and hoping something good comes out. So far, it seems on par with everyone else out there that is building a much simpler engine and for MB, many expect more.