G. David Felt

Exactly, how do you approve a solution that only decreases emissions by 80% still leaving you greatly larger pollution out the tail pipe compared to everyone else. Plus can you imagine the resale value on these auto's, talk about cheap and dirty.

Makes one wonder if GM could eventually after getting things going on the BOLT with LG use Tesla Gigafactory as a secondary supplier of battery cells.

Have you been in the new XD? There was one at the STL auto show back in January(or February..) and I was surprised how nice it was inside. Granted I didn't have similarly priced/equipped D3 trucks to compare it to at the same exact time but I thought the interior kind of rocked. If only they could work on the proportions a little better... I just think the XD needed to up it's payload and towing capacity just a little more to really stand apart from the half-tons and become a very good value. Even if the towing just tipped the 13,000lb mark just to say it does. I think that would widen the gap a little better and just looking at a Silverado and F150 can tow 12,xxxlbs and this can tow 12,xxxlbs just looks too similar to not go the F150/Silverado route unless you tow on a regular basis in which I have to believe the larger, heavier truck will just be better suited for "work". Nope never been in one, only making my personal opinion based on the pictures and I still am not impressed. Glad to hear they are better in person, but from these pictures, I would not bother looking at one. This drives home the importance of putting on that first impression as pictures speak a thousand words and then some.

G. David Felt Staff Writer Alternative Energy - www.CheersandGears.com MB Urban eTruck - First or what? July 27th Mercedes-Benz presented their first electric heavy duty truck, the Urban eTruck. This truck has a range of 200 km or about 126 miles, so long haul this is not, but inner city deliveries, this is the green solution many west coast cities have been asking for even as Paccar, the builder of Kenworth and Peterbuilt has gone full production on LNG and CNG trucks for the city to reduce the diesel emission that cities have complained about. Mercedes-Benz stated yesterday that they were the first electric heavy duty truck to be shown off. This is a debatable point considering startups like Nikola Motor Company that I posted about back in May of this year had already shown off their prototype and was lining up additional funding for production. That story is found here The Tesla of Hybrid Trucks and UTV's, Nikola? I will leave that debate up to which company truly produced the first electric truck. Especially since Fuso has had their Fuso Canter E-Cell truck actually in production since 2014. Funny thing is MB also talks about their investment in Fuso with plenty of praise here on their web site. MB Next The point of this story is that Mercedes-Benz is focused on building and delivering an inner city eTruck for use in deliveries that will remove noise and pollution from the streets. Wolfgang Bernhard, CEO Daimler Trucks and Buses, says this eTruck should go into production at the beginning of the next decade, so 2020 is the estimated launch of production purchasable trucks. MB eTruck web announcement So is MB first, second or is it just cool to know that silent delivery trucks will be coming to a city near you in the next few years and we will not have to breath the diesel exhaust or hear the rumble of the truck bounce off the walls of the buildings or the idling as they wait to deliver their freight. Clearly the next 5 years will be exciting as the city changes into a much cleaner area, quieter and more livable.

G. David Felt Staff Writer Alternative Energy - www.CheersandGears.com "Officially Open" AP Reports for Tesla Gigafactory Brought to you from the Money section of MSN.com, AP is reporting that on July 26 2016, Tesla has officially acknowledged that the Gigafactory is officially open for manufacturing of batteries and expansion is on track that will allow Tesla to build and deliver 500,000 auto's in 2018. This includes the heavily pre-sold Tesla 3. AP Story on MSN There is plenty of additional news around this 3200 Acre battery plant that has even more info on the time line of being full production, which Elon Musk now says will be some time in 2020. BBC Story According to the Forbes Story, CEO of Panasonic stepped up investments to a committed 1.6 Billion due to the presales of 400,000 Tesla 3 auto's and the ability to sell the cells to any other auto maker that is interested. Forbes Story USA Today Story

Saw a 2006 Royal Blue Trailblazer SS AWD today coming to work.

Wonder how many auto's will be fixed versus buying back? My gut tells me VW will attempt to minimize buying the auto back and going with the fix to minimize their cost. Yet I suspect most owners will want a buy back. Going to be interesting to see how this plays out. I still think as Europe pushes for a US style solution that VW and Diesel will continue to dwindle and eventually dye as they move to Hybrids, plug-in Hybrids, EVs and more efficient Petrol models through Turbocharging or variable Supercharging.

G. David Felt Staff Writer Alternative Energy - www.CheersandGears.com Turbocharging, Stop Gap Step to Variable Supercharging? I have come across multiple stories lately about Variable Supercharging. Torotrak has the rather dry scripted but exciting video about Variable Supercharging that delivers big engine feel all the time with none of the traditional Turbo lag or the high pressure, premium fuel requirement of traditional Superchargers. The video does cover how this variable Supercharging compares to turbo's and regular Superchargers. With the push for fuel economy and downsizing of engines by taxation on the size of an engine, we have all seen our auto companies move towards turbocharging small 3 & 4 cylinder engines to get higher MPG while trying to deliver big V8 block performance. Many have achieved some incredible performance out of smaller size engines, but with variable results in regards to reducing Turbo lag or affecting engine life. We have also seen where performance on either Turbos or Superchargers usually delivers peak efficiency at only certain rpm ranges that have resulted in exciting low-end response but no top end sustainability or top end fun with dull low end response. So this leads us to what has happened over the last 10 years or so. Seems to have started around 2006 at the Global Powertrain Congress with the fist 2 speed Supercharger by Antonov. I found we did have this posted in our S.E.M.A. section from 2006: https://www.cheersandgears.com/topic/12871-sema-preview-antonov-2-speed-supercharger/ Antonov 2 speed Supercharger - Company Closed in 2011 Lately over this last 10 years we now have the following 3rd party Variable Supercharger systems as follows: Eaton Variable Electric Roots Supercharger - available to work on traditional engines or hybrids. Fallbrook Tech. Variable planetary Supercharger ProCharger i-1 CVT Variable Supercharger - Discontinued product Final option is the Torotrak V-charger (Variable Supercharger) Interesting is that while the first 4 vendors have approached this from an add on application to auto driving fun. Torotrak according to their web site is going after the OEM channel by allowing their variable supercharger to be controlled by the OEM ECU. Their web site says 0 to 95% of target torque in 400 milliseconds and when not required, removal of boost just as fast. As you can see in the last picture above, you have the drive unit that has a ratio from .35:1 to 2.82:1 with output from 1050 to 8460 rpm. The fixed 12.67:1 planetary traction drive pushing out the supercharger centrifugal compressor running from 13,300 to 107,200 rpm. All in all some very cool technology with some being outdated already and others being delivered before it's time and dying. Yet we still have 3 of the 5 Superchargers on the market selling. What are your thoughts about this technology? Is this better than Turbochargers? Wonder why OEMs have embraced Turbochargers at a time that there does seem to be better options? Sound off on what your thoughts are about this technology! Web Sites used in compiling this story: http://www.greencarcongress.com/2008/05/antonov-pursuin.html https://www.companiesintheuk.co.uk/ltd/antonov-automotive-technologies http://www.eaton.com/Eaton/ProductsServices/Vehicle/Superchargers/index.htm http://www.fallbrooktech.com/accessory-drives/supercharger https://www.procharger.com/ http://www.torotrak.com/products-partners/products/v-charge/

G. David Felt Staff Writer Alternative Energy - www.CheersandGears.com McLaren F1 or Non Supercar, What is YOUR Choice? Road & Track pen'd a story about eight non-supercars with more power than a McLaren F1. Given the fact that many pay crazy amounts of money for a limited production run auto that seems to have a limited HP in relation to OEM production runs of normal models, one must ask: Is a Supercar that Super anymore? Here is the list of the 8 cars R&T have listed that they think is way better than a McLaren F1. Listed Low to High in the HP rating. Bentley Continental GT 633HP Chevy Corvette ZR1 638HP Cadillac CTS-V 640HP Chevy Camaro 640HP Dodge Viper 645HP Chevy Corvette Z06 650HP Ford Mustang GT500 663HP Dodge Charger / Challanger 707HP BIG QUESTION For the Money and Power what would you choose?

A year old? The first post was in 2011! lol I'm an iPhone guy myself.. awaiting the news on the next one as it is likely going to be my next phone. Every two years for me. I'm currently rocking the iPhone6 If there is no technical reason to upgrade to the next iPhone, will you consider something else that is technically better or still go with the new iPhone? Techwise, seems the last round went to the Samsung Galaxy as a superior phone over iPhone.

So Mobileye realizes the path Tesla has taken could cost them far more than a conservative approach to autopilot driving. Everyone is covering their ass in hoping to avoid big lawsuits. Hopefully this will not delay or stop the development of autonomous auto's. They have their place in society for those that are too timed and stressed out to drive.

Loving my Work laptop Lenovo W520 with 32gb of ram and 500GB SSD primary, 1TB spinning secondary. Machine just rocks with the dual video cards. Running 4 nice monitors when plugged into the docking station.

Waiting for the New Samsung Note then bye bye Note 3 Hello Note 7

If the squirrels are eating more does that mean a cold winter?

Dem Pokemans = Democrat poking at the Man!

Sergio and all the italian garbage needs to go especially the stealing and waste of billions on the Garbage brand Alfa. They need to kill off the Alfa, Fiat, and Lancia brands. Modernize and grow the rest of the name plates.

WOW Externally this looks like a clone of Ford, internally the dash clearly has attributes from Ford and GM, but the over all impression is cheap, hard plastic, not impressed. I get it they want to be a player in the full size truck market, but WOW, not impressed.

That is one Skinney boy! But I am sure many guys would not mind sucking face with her. LOL

Her Name is Clare Werbeloff, Here is an interview , at least I think it is the same girl. Damn, now I am not sure, way too many stories and not anything confirmed by Saliva.

Her Name is Clare Werbeloff, Here is an interview , at least I think it is the same girl.

Sergio is just proving that he can still shoot himself in the leg and survive. Stupid is as Stupid Does.

Ugly, this will snowball and hurt FCA. Hopefully the board will finally can Sergio after all it happened on his watch.

Interesting, I know RAM has their 2 door full size SUV in Mexico. Not sure if it is still in production this year or not, but I have been surprised that they have not done this sooner. After all it would not be hard to add the 3rd row and enclose the bed so it is a Suburban / Expedition fighter.

Very interesting, wonder what the new hood with vents will look like? Anyone remember Corvette Summer? Talk about massive hood vents to reduce overheating.