Spying: Looking Inside the Chevrolet Bolt

Interesting take on Musk and Tesla. Hate might be a bit strong of a word, yet based on videos of him being interviewed and talking about the car industry, he clearly does not have any passion for using petro. He has committed to pure electric and I will give him the credit of making a true massive move in the industry that people are clearly excited by.

Over all, I have seen plenty of commercials in the last few days by Toyota about turning Lemonade into Fuel for their Fuel cell auto. Take a Tesla, add a Fuel cell generator and we have a incredible green auto.

https://youtu.be/aYYT7LEBFYo

Interesting take on Musk and Tesla. Hate might be a bit strong of a word, yet based on videos of him being interviewed and talking about the car industry, he clearly does not have any passion for using petro. He has committed to pure electric and I will give him the credit of making a true massive move in the industry that people are clearly excited by.

 

Over all, I have seen plenty of commercials in the last few days by Toyota about turning Lemonade into Fuel for their Fuel cell auto. Take a Tesla, add a Fuel cell generator and we have a incredible green auto.

 

https://youtu.be/aYYT7LEBFYo[/size]

I have driven the fuel cell GM cars and I love them. The real issues are going to be where to refuel them and how long they take to fill. The one I drove had limited placed to refuel and when you did it was a half hour process.

I have past experience working with Liquid Nitrogen and Oxygen and it is something that needs to be used with care as not only could the fumes from a spill be an issue but the cold that is around -300 degrees could be an issue. I am sure these things will be worked out but it will take time to get them done as companies will not invest in filling stations and improvements till there are cars and until there are filling stations it will be hard to sell cars.

As for your claim Elon has no passion for using petro. Well if you were a farmers growing and selling only vegetables and not beef you would more than likely espouse that you are a Vegan.

Elon is more a marketing and salesman than anything else. This has gotten him where he is at today. Some of the most successful people in history have been damn good salesman. In this case he may have over reached in the long run. While he has done well to progress the EV in the eye of the public my fear has been that if this thing goes the way of the Delorean it could do more damage than good. So far my fears have been unfounded but if Tesla does go down and takes a lot of other peoples money with it the damage could be great in the eye of the public too.

I hope he survives as I don't want to see people lose their investment but also I do not want to see a black mark on the industry either. As for Elon he will land on his feet no matter what.

I get the feeling with what GM is doing they will hold cards in each segment and will be very competitive or a leader in most of them. This is a good sign for GM's future. The Bolt in my eyes is only the second step in this process that will continue with other new models. If they can make a Prius sized hit here this would drive them to a position that will gain trust with the other alt fuel products all the while they still sell the Gas powered cars that will pay the bills with even more profitable new products and platforms.

As for Elon he has more competition coming in a limited segment and if he does not advance his present model soon it will get old fast. Also the X model is going to be exciting at first but it has a compromised platform with the doors that will prove to be less popular in places with snow and rain outside California. Just wait for the large chunk of snow to fall in the rear car seat of a child and see how happy the parent is when they have to clean it out in the cold.

But Elon says his doors will offer protection from the elements!

He also wants to make an image of himself as a Henry Ford and Edison while paying others to do the inventing.

 

Here is what pisses me off about Tesla.  Tesla is the equivalent of the computer makers back in the day.  Bolt together a bunch of parts developed by others and market them.

By that in this case here, yes Tesla is investing heavily in the electric propulsion, but they are basically buying / stealing all the other technological development of the rest of the car from vendors and all the R&D done by the big automakers for decades.  As an example, it's not like Tesla has to develop an airbag on their own.  Or a brake disc.  Or a wiper motor.  Or a power steering system.  Just buy whatever from Bosch, etc.

They haven't done the work, so i don't want them to claim the prize.  I'd love for GM to be the game changer in electrics but as previously mentioned the wiser and more practical solution is all the automakers getting together to standardize bits and pieces.

 

He also wants to make an image of himself as a Henry Ford and Edison while paying others to do the inventing.

 

Here is what pisses me off about Tesla.  Tesla is the equivalent of the computer makers back in the day.  Bolt together a bunch of parts developed by others and market them.

 

By that in this case here, yes Tesla is investing heavily in the electric propulsion, but they are basically buying / stealing all the other technological development of the rest of the car from vendors and all the R&D done by the big automakers for decades.  As an example, it's not like Tesla has to develop an airbag on their own.  Or a brake disc.  Or a wiper motor.  Or a power steering system.  Just buy whatever from Bosch, etc.

 

They haven't done the work, so i don't want them to claim the prize.  I'd love for GM to be the game changer in electrics but as previously mentioned the wiser and more practical solution is all the automakers getting together to standardize bits and pieces.

 

I understand what you are saying but there is a HUGE Upside to this, let Elon have his spotlight in the sunshine. He has by doing this brought more people together and increased the experience and skill set of engineers, managers, marketing, etc. and these people are leaving to go back and work for other auto companies to help them build EV auto's.

Long term, is let Tesla have their Elite Title of Luxury EV maker for now as other companies have the economy of scale to build and surpass them in the long run. This is a marathon, not a sprint and I believe GM can and will surpass Tesla in the future. This goes to say for other auto companies as well.

Awesome Post 

Awesome Post 

Cmicasa the Great

 

Why Thank U 

I agree that Tesla really has not provided any real advances in technology that anyone else has or could use. They did discover people would over pay for a large expensive sedan if you market the hell out of it.

Musk has claimed so many things about the car that I think it can cure cancer too now. LOL!

The resources of companies like Ford, VW, GM, Benz etc. are all more capable than just Tesla. But right now most are not willing to allocate that much resources to build an expensive car in a very limited segment.

GM is and the others are working on cheaper cars and many other technologies as no one single technology is a fit all replacement for everyone. They are spreading the field out and giving us many choices and not betting all on one technology.

 

He also wants to make an image of himself as a Henry Ford and Edison while paying others to do the inventing.

 

Here is what pisses me off about Tesla.  Tesla is the equivalent of the computer makers back in the day.  Bolt together a bunch of parts developed by others and market them.

 

By that in this case here, yes Tesla is investing heavily in the electric propulsion, but they are basically buying / stealing all the other technological development of the rest of the car from vendors and all the R&D done by the big automakers for decades.  As an example, it's not like Tesla has to develop an airbag on their own.  Or a brake disc.  Or a wiper motor.  Or a power steering system.  Just buy whatever from Bosch, etc.

 

They haven't done the work, so i don't want them to claim the prize.  I'd love for GM to be the game changer in electrics but as previously mentioned the wiser and more practical solution is all the automakers getting together to standardize bits and pieces.

 

uh... all manufacturers do that.  Why do you think the Takata recall is such a big deal and why nearly all steering wheels have the same basic spoke shape?   When the Toyota accelerator scandal broke out, it cascaded throughout the industry.  And what Sergio is suggesting is even more of it.

And really, does a manufacturer need to design a new wiper motor every time they redesign a car?   Just take one off the shelf, fabricate a mounting bracket, and bolt it down.  Why waste resources on reinventing a whole bunch of perfectly good wheels?

He also wants to make an image of himself as a Henry Ford and Edison while paying others to do the inventing.

Here is what pisses me off about Tesla.  Tesla is the equivalent of the computer makers back in the day.  Bolt together a bunch of parts developed by others and market them.

 

By that in this case here, yes Tesla is investing heavily in the electric propulsion, but they are basically buying / stealing all the other technological development of the rest of the car from vendors and all the R&D done by the big automakers for decades.  As an example, it's not like Tesla has to develop an airbag on their own.  Or a brake disc.  Or a wiper motor.  Or a power steering system.  Just buy whatever from Bosch, etc.

 

They haven't done the work, so i don't want them to claim the prize.  I'd love for GM to be the game changer in electrics but as previously mentioned the wiser and more practical solution is all the automakers getting together to standardize bits and pieces.

 

uh... all manufacturers do that.  Why do you think the Takata recall is such a big deal and why nearly all steering wheels have the same basic spoke shape?   When the Toyota accelerator scandal broke out, it cascaded throughout the industry.  And what Sergio is suggesting is even more of it.

 

And really, does a manufacturer need to design a new wiper motor every time they redesign a car?   Just take one off the shelf, fabricate a mounting bracket, and bolt it down.  Why waste resources on reinventing a whole bunch of perfectly good wheels?

Drew this shows how much he does not know how things work. So many parts are build and supplied to the MFG with their parts and built into units that are supplied to GM.

Case in point GM had issues on the Delta steering columns and they went after the supplier that built them and delivered them complete to the plants as a unit. I remember the many things I saw that came into Lordstown as units sold to GM.

It is not just computer companies but many industries do this anymore as one company can no longer go it alone anymore and have not for a long time.

Even in Aviation companies like BFG sell tire, wheel, brake and landing gear as a unit to the airplane companies and even the Space Shuttle.

I even know one man I got to spend a lot of time with that supplies almost all the shifter interlocks to the auto industry. He also had a company that turned all the LS cams for GM and owns a radiator company that makes one of the best. He did pretty well for a local Detroit Racer.

Tesla doesn't invest in the vehicle dynamics research as much and doesn't have the knowledge and experience gm's and others do. They do build a darn nice kit car though. If gm wanted to, they could slaughter this backyard creation that tesla builds. Ah the cute little upstarts. Tesla is like a car in the sharper image or brook stone holiday catalog.

Here is where the undoing for Tesla will be. They are now having trouble just getting a second and third model out. The second model will sell well as a SUV but it will be limited with odd things like the Doors etc. The third model may be built in China and I expect it to be late and be more difficult to be profitable.

Finally the elephant in the room. The Model S is getting old already. It is still the same car with only some hardware and software updates that just make it more expensive. They will need to change the car to a second gen soon but I do not see them making the money or having the time to do it. Lets fact it they are struggling to make the second two models so revamping an older original sedan may be a challenge at this point. Even a mild refresh will not be enough in this segment with the coming cars from others like Porsche and the like.

It only gets tougher for them as the competitors all have larger R&D and also live on many other non electric models to make money and make profits to pay for new development.

I just saw a story the other day that Morgan Stanley is recommending that Tesla get out of the car business and sell systems and parts to the others. That to me sounds as if it would be smarter mover if they really have anything to sell that the others could not do as easily or better themselves.

Like in the California Gold Rush the Miners were not the ones who made money. Those who make money did so selling supplies to the miners. Even the tone of Fremont where Tesla is built is names for one of these money makers in the rush.