Drew Dowdell

I dunno. Most charging still happens at home. 30,000 chargers for this new network is still more than what Tesla has today and the Tesla folks do okay most of the time. Plus EA and ChargePoint are still out there too along with every GM dealership. I’m not saying 60k isn’t a selling point just that Tesla sells cars fine with 21,000.

Yeah, limited rate because of the battery issues they had made them nervous. It's still faster than L2 charging. But that's probably part of the upgrade. If an EValanche can charge at 10 miles a minute in that giant battery, a more efficient Bolt with a smaller battery should be even faster.

There is no current style. It went out of production in the US market in 2021 after being in production since 2007, a full year and a half before Obama took office.

BMW, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes-Benz, and Stellantis announced a new venture today to build out an EV charging network to rival Tesla's. The aim is to install at least 30,000 high-speed charging points in urban and highway locations across then country. The first chargers will go online in the U.S. in the summer of 2024, with chargers in Canada following shortly after. Of the manufacturers in this venture, General Motors and Mercedes-Benz recently announced agreements with Tesla for access to their SuperCharger network. While Ford, General Motors, Rivian, Mercedes-Benz, have all committed to Tesla's NACS charging connector. The network will use the 350-kw / 800-volt and offer both Tesla's NACS and CCS connectors. What wasn't announced was support for the V4 version of the NACS standard, which supports 800-Volt peak charging, but 800-Volt charging is a key feature of GM's Ultium technology, so we expect it will be offered. The as yet unnamed network will be powered by renewable energy and will be open to all makes and models that use either the NACS or CCS connectors. Sorry, Nissan Leaf and Kia Soul EV owners, you're out of luck. This move reflects a frustration by manufacturers regarding the reliability and build-out speed when relying on third-party charging networks. Electrify America, one of the largest non-Tesla fast-charging networks, has a reputation for broken and error-prone charging stations. With EV adoption being a Chicken and Egg problem, this move by the manufacturers is an attempt to squeeze the egg out of the chicken. To put a project of this size into perspective, the Tesla SuperCharger network offers 20,400 fast-charging ports at 1,900 locations while Electrify America offers 3,600 fast-charging ports at 800 locations, but EA's network is mostly at the slower charge rate of 150kw rather than 350kw. General Motors and Mercedes-Benz, which are both building out their own charging networks, will continue to do so separately from this plan. Related Articles: Mercedes-Benz Announces Their New EV Charging Network Tesla Supercharger Network of North America Now a Benz Charging Option Rivian Latest to Join the NACS Camp NACS the North American New Charging Standard? Ford EVs Gain Access to Tesla SuperChargers, Ford to Adopt Tesla NACS Charge Port View full article

The Bolt is intended to be in the lower end of the market. Adding extra motors drives up cost, weight, and decreases range. It doesn't fit the target market.

Today, Toyota released a more detailed teaser image of the nearly reborn Land Cruiser. Featuring a boxy, egg crate grille, and a profile similar to the new Lexus GX, we have a pretty good idea what the Land Cruiser will look like. Since the two will share most of the body, only the front fenders, grille, and rear tailgate will offer much in terms of styling differentiation. Old and New Land Cruiser Silhouettes - Via Toyota We expect the Land Cruiser to be powered by the same 3.4-liter twin-turbo V6 that produces 349-hp and 479 lb-ft of torque in the GX. Lexus will later be adding a hybrid to the line-up based on the Toyota Tundra i-Force Max that can produce up to 437 horsepower and 583 lb-ft of torque. Like the Lexus, which now offers the GX in an off-road trim called Overtrail, there will almost certainly be a TRD Pro version of the Land Cruiser with increased ride height, locking rear differential, and oversized off-road tires. 2024 Lexus GX550 - Via Lexus The previous Land Cruiser shared its platform with the larger Lexus LX, but the new GX has grown in size, just a few inches smaller in overall length and sharing the same wheelbase as the LX. This gives Toyota room with the Land Cruiser to keep it above the Sequoia in the lineup. The Land Cruiser will be officially unveiled at 9:20 p.m. on August 1st. Keep it here for details! View full article

Years ago, "Log In with <Social Media Account" was sold as a way to get people to sign up without having them fill out a long sign up form. And that was fine until the social media networks got unstable with that function. The first to go was Google+ which then went to just Google. It was transparent to the end users, but for me, I had to rip it out and install new. Then Facebook got really strict with verification. I'm still in limbo-land with them and have to deal with that by the end of August. They need to "verify" the website, but they won't tell me what country they are verifying from and I block most non-english speaking countries in Asia and Russia because we've had hacking attempts, and that's where 99% of the spam posts come from. Elon has made Twitter... I mean.... ?.... so unstable that we're one of the few sites that use this software that the Twitter ... ?....login actually functions properly for. But I am reading about other site owners in the support forums for this software who are having user issues and the Twitter login doesn't work for them anymore. So since I'm the only one who set it up, I removed it so no one can get caught in the future without being able to log in. I have all of them set up just for testing purposes. I'll set up Log In with Apple in the future, but that's $100 a year to implement, so not a huge priority. I'm in beta testing with the software company for something that will potentially bring a nice influx of new users to the site. I've been trying it for a few days and I'm really excited for it, and it will be interesting for you guys too.

Bolt already DC Fast Charge. Will it get the higher speed charge that Ultium gets? Probably. The biggest thing GM has to do is redesign the battery pack to be smaller (narrower). Most of the Ultium vehicles so far are very wide, too wide to fit under the Bolt. But the selling point of Ultium is that the packs are flexible. I would expect a slight, but not mind-blowing, range bump as well. Maybe 259 -> 289 at best.

What car or brand has the best Animal in its logo? My first vote is Jaguar.

Twitter as a login method is being removed from this site. I can tell from the admin panel that I'm the only one that ever set it up. Unfortunately, Elon has made the Twitter API too unstable to be able to rely on it as a logon method. I don't want someone setting it up and then Elon changes things, and then that user can't log in anymore. You can still set up your account to log in with Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and Linked-In by going to your Account Settings.

The more I understand about it, it will be a refresh of the current car with Ultium tech instead of the previous generation tech. That means it won't be off the market for long.

On Monday, Stellantis and Samsung announced they had signed a memorandum of understanding to build a second battery manufacturing plant in the US via their joint partnership firm, StarPlus Energy. Their first facility is under construction in Kokomo, Indiana. Targeted for production start in the first quarter of 2025, the plant was initially planned to have a production capacity of 23 gigawatt-hours, later to increase to 33 gigawatt-hours as demand rises. However, the partners are bypassing the initial 23 GWh phase and are building out to the full 33 GWh capacity now. The plant is expected to be further expanded in the future to meet demand. The Kokomo plant is expected to create 1,400 new jobs. The latest plant is slated to initially add an additional 34 GWh of capacity, with further future expansion possible. StarPlus Energy is aiming to have battery production started at the new plant in 2027. The location of the newest plant has not yet been announced. Stellantis is aiming to offer at least 25 new battery electric vehicles in North America by 2030 with a roughly 50% BEV sales mix. For Europe, Stellantis plans to be 100% BEV by 2030. To meet those targets, Stellantis is working on global partnerships to secure at least 400 GWh of battery production capacity. View full article