G. David Felt

But it should since Mercedes is saying the same thing about 3D printing that they say they have used for the last 30 years which I find weird and hard to understand since 3D printing has not been around that long, but according to them it has and they have been using it all along. Mercedes-Benz replacement parts from the 3D printer. Mercedez-Benz restarts classic cars with 3D printed parts - 3D Printing Industry Mercedes-Benz Turns to 3D Printing for Plastic Spare Parts | Additive Manufacturing Mercedes Vision EQXX features directly and indirectly 3D printed parts (3dprintingmedia.network) Mercedes-Benz Trucks Rolls Out First Metal 3D Printed Part: An Aluminum Thermostat Cover for Older Truck Series - 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing Daimler Buses implements 3D printing to produce bespoke Mercedes-Benz parts - 3D Printing Industry So how do you justify it not being a cool or important thing in auto building when Daimler / Mercedes-Benz says they have been doing it anywhere from 30 years ago to 10 years ago using it on trucks and buses?

? Really, you used to compare the S-Class to these as well as you have mentioned in the early days before the EQS actually started to ship that it would be in this class, now because Mercedes does not have anything to compete, you try to play it down. Just accept that Cadillac is getting here first ahead of Mercedes. END OF LINE!

Ran some errands today and saw a number of interesting sites. Like New Chevrolet GEO that has a Classic Auto license plate. Built from 1989 to 1997, Amazing that someone kept it in such good shape for the old guy driving it and he had it licensed under the classic auto licenses. Oldsmobile Aurora, still running, but wish I could have grabbed a picture, back end and front end held together with black duct tape. RIP CT6 V, saw it ahead of me, my wife recognized the V on the rear of the CT6. Rare auto indeed.

Very cool, 7 pages of cars, interesting that American Muscle is cheaper than European or Asian autos. Toy Cars – Drive What You Love | Vehicles | LEGO.com | Official LEGO® Shop US

I like all the new Lego sets, interesting is the love hate debate over the new Lego Logo and box design. Guess some are really hung up on the past and see no reason to modernize or change. Crazy. ? Wonder how long before they get the EVs done as Lego Sets, would be cool to have the Cadillac LYRIQ, CELESTIQ and ESCALADE in a Lego.

If someone actually looked at the Cadillac website you would have seen in the specifications that the Escalade ESV is 229.6 inches long, Escalade standard is 211 inches long and CELESTIQ is 216 inches long. Yes, it is sized to the Escalade, but not the ESV version.

I have been reading the various reviews of the LYRIQ and they are pretty much positive and spot on for what Cadillac has built. Yes a few nitpick issues here and there depending on review, but over all very positive. 2023 Cadillac Lyriq review & testdrive (autoevolution.com)

Yes Toyota has more cash, but they also burned through 12%+ in one year showing money does not mean forever. At that burn rate, they will reduce cash on hand by half in 3 years and be on par with GM in 5 years when they are finally on an 800V mega Cast platform and by 2025 GM has planned to be producing 1 million plus EVs a year here in the US and the same in China. Compared to GM Every interview shows that GM is very serious about becoming #1 in Luxury and EV Sales. GM bets on electric Equinox to kick-start 'massive adoption' of EVs (cnbc.com)

Agree to disagree then as Europe has set a line in the sand for EV sales as has China. Due to the parts shortages and inflation due to idiot decisions in DC in the past decade, we have people who struggle and people who do not. Humanity is nothing but predictable in certain ways and autos have become an appliance for most who do not want to deal with oil, gas, maintenance, etc. As such, there is a reason EVs have taken off in bigger numbers where a larger assortment of options is available. I believe this will happen here too once the planned models come out in the next couple of years. Batteries will always get upgraded, same with software and electric motors. The ability to have a proper platform in place to grow off of is what will hold Toyota back compared to GM. GM is now with Mega Casting and a pure 800V platform. Toyota does not have this and is looking at 3 to 5 years to get there. That is a big deficit to overcome. Tesla MIGHT still be a leader in a couple years, but I would not bet on it as long as they have idiot Musk doing the stupid things he is doing. CEO Leadership is missing at Tesla IMHO compared to GM. Toyota has money now but could end up hurting like other auto companies due to stupid decisions and the whole lose face thing. You know GM is not looking at selling 5,000 trucks only nor is Ford. They are both looking at selling millions and are aiming to make a full business of EVs for all product size in Trucks, SUVs and Cars. Market will dictate for sure.

Interesting pics of a possible RAM EV Pickup test mule. Ram EV Pickup Mule Spied Undergoing Testing (gmauthority.com)

Forgotten Tech - I know many that are aware of the EV1 was a flop, but GM actually had some good tech here that they failed to capitalize on. I feel the VOLT and its PowerTrain was also in this camp as I think GM would have done well using the Volt 2.0 powertrain in a CUV. I also was always amazed by the history of Cadillac and the fact that Alanson Partridge Brush who has the patents on VTEC way before Honda and Alfa started using the moniker that they had superior engines. According to history notes, Cadillac rolled out the first engine in 1903 that had VVT or Variable Valve Timing. Guilty Pleasures - Not everyone will agree with me, but there were some cars that rocked being driven hard with the GM QUAD 4 motor. That engine rocked and a large number of them were bored out and turbocharged to crazy horsepower numbers. I remember one such drag auto that produced 1200 hp on the strip and truly shocked the V8 crowd. If you drove it, it was an amazing peppy small engine. Olds rocked it and it is what I consider the last of great Olds Tech that the division created.

Will be interesting to see what the first Buick SUV EV will be and at least GM has committed to keeping ICE Corvettes built as long as there are sales to justify them as they also start building EV versions. I know some will be mad at Corvette Sedan and SUV, but I have to say that I think this will just expand the Corvette Family of ownership as I tend to believe that there are many out there that want Corvette performance but, in a family, packaged auto.

Very interesting, Tesla has lost their EV crown to BYD in China. Other interesting things in this video too. Interesting comparison as some auto companies say that chip availability will be back to normal by the end of 2023 making 2024 a much better year for auto sales. Yet other auto companies are saying the chip shortage is here to stay through 2025 or 2026 as companies avoid items built in China and move forward with local produced chips that will come online in the U.S. or Europe between end of 2024 and 2026. They did a good job covering the CELESTIQ Mega Casting and why GM is going this route of 6 Mega Castings versus 3 like Tesla. Finner adjustments and repairs it would seem according to GM. Each Mega Casting reduces from 30 to 50 stamped parts that are assembled for 1 single mega cast. That means 6 mega cast parts replace 180 to 300 stamped parts. That will be much more tight quality. Very interesting watch. This was yesterdays video where they covered the massive GM profit they had for the quarter of $15 billion. Also, pretty much confirmation that an EV Corvette and EV Corvette SUV will be built and out in 2026. I have to totally agree with this story as it is also based on the above Autoline Daily story that is from internal sources at GM. Electric Corvette SUV Reportedly Due 2026 (autoevolution.com) Autoline Network, citing AutoForecast Solutions, adds fuel to the fire. “The Corvette EV will go into production in May 2026, less than four years from now.” The Grand River plant in Lansing, not the Bowling Green plant in Kentucky, will reportedly handle production. The cited publication also understands that General Motors will build an electric Buick SUV and an electric Cadillac sedan there, which seems feasible. Lansing Grand River is currently making the Chevrolet Camaro, Cadillac CT4, and CT5 on the Alpha platform. All three and the Alpha are due to be discontinued soon.

Normally I would have to agree with you if EVs was not in the equation as Toyota has perfected the Lean Manufacturing process that America was late to embrace as well as Europe. Yet as the whole reason for this post was that Toyota is having to reboot. The whole honor do not lose face is what has led Toyota to this mess right now as they embraced Hydrogen which will never happen, I believe in the personal auto space. The rubber stamp upper management failed the Executives in not pointing out what Tesla was doing now rather than basing it on a decade old interaction with Tesla. This misstep is not a kiss of death, but this can very well lead a company to fall from the top #1 space as they play catch up and the executives are now battling between the oldest ones that feel what they have is still the way to go and the younger ones that have setup this group that is looking at changing the way things are done. If Toyota takes 3 to 5 years to get a Mega Cast pure EV platform in place, GM, Kia, Hyundia, Ford and VW will kill them as they all have Mega Cast platforms up and running now as they move to get multiple products out by 2025. We are at the end of 2022 and they are supposed to release a report at the start of 2023, approvals and politics inside Toyota will take place and at the earliest, I can see them start on the new Mega Cast platform starting late 2023 or early 2024, so if just 3 years, that puts Toyota on track for a profitable Mega cast platform in production in 2027, 2 years behind many others that will have multiple products out.

Two ways to look at this, First is higher insurance as your right, more common than not, an auto will be scrapped if in an accident beyond minor visual damage. Flip side is that if they are built like Tesla, 3 Mega Castings, if the damage is just to the front or back, it might make a bigger salvage business as people who like projects I can see buying up, replacing the core Mega Cast section and rebuild the auto to get it back to functional. Interesting times for sure and I am glad to hear that the Germans are paying attention to Tesla, but to what extent as I would have expected Mercedes to then have mega casting by default at 800 V when they started their EQ portfolio rather than now having to upgrade. Interesting times for sure.

@ccap41 interesting thinking on this about Toyota, this fits Mercedes very well as their electric platform they are using is a 400V, not the 800 V platform that others are using and no Mega Casting as it was designed to be built on the same assembly lines as the ICE autos. I think Mercedes will have a hard time once they sell to the badge snobs in getting conquest sales when they are more expensive for nothing more special than their badge. I do think Toyota is listening and watching and realizes that they have to do a major revolution change, not an evolution change. Mercedes, I am not so sure is paying attention like Toyota and while they talk about their next generation EV platform out in 2025, I wonder if it will take into account Mega Casting and efficiency or lean manufacturing. The unions have hit hard about not losing jobs. Yet Tesla makes their EVs with far less hands than just about anyone right now.

I will agree in a limited scope on Hydrogen and this is why, Energy, still takes 10 times more energy to produce a gallon of Hydrogen making it an unsustainable energy source especially for small form factor like autos. The next issue is as follows, molecular size of H2. It is the smallest possible stable molecule, hence the ability for it to escape through even the smallest of tiniest gaps in storage devices and this does not take into account the natural leakage that over time leak out through all the various materials used to store it and transport it to be burnt in an engine. The higher the pressure, the more that leaks out. The next problem is the cost of the one metal that is able to keep most of the hydrogen where it needs to be and efficiently use hydrogen as a fuel source. Platinum, this is why the Toyota, Honda and GM Hydrogen autos were all lease as the amount of platinum in those auto's made them more expensive than what they had to be sold at. Another issue is due to the explosive nature on top of leakage, transporting Hydrogen in bulk is not feasible, as to why the few Hydrogen fueling stations had big expensive equipment on site to make the hydrogen as it was needed to fuel. Now that we have covered why Hydrogen autos will not happen, let's take a look at where it MIGHT work. Trains Semi class 8 trucks Planes Why these three items one might ask, easy they are the least fuel-efficient engines, but they move massive amount of people and especially products and usually it is from consistent ports to warehouses, major distribution points. As such, you could have trains and long-distance Class 8 trucks that could be electric propelled, but Hydrogen generator electricity supplied. Planes is another place due to how Hydrogen helps with lifting the heavy plane and freight and having an engine that would burn Hydrogen producing water and oxygen out the exhaust up high would actually help the climate and seed clouds with water vapor. Boeing, Lockheed, Airbus, BAE are all working on planes with Hydrogen engines. This is actually a well-done page on Hydrogen powered planes. Hydrogen-powered aircraft - Wikipedia Trains are in the news too. Coradia iLint: The world's first hydrogen passenger trains | CNN Travel Since 2017, we have had much research done into Hydrogen powered Class 8 trucks. Still, none are in mass production as they are still testing in limited use cases. Kenworth To Build Class 8 Hydrogen Fuel Cell and CNG-Electric Hybrid Drayage Trucks - Trucks.com Cummins, Navistar to develop hydrogen fuel cell-powered Class 8 truck (fleetequipmentmag.com) Toyota's fuel cell-powered Class 8 truck is going into service in LA - CNET Hyzon Class 8 Freightliner | Zero Emission, Hydrogen-Powered Vehicle - Hyzon Motors | SAE actually has defined specs now on Hydrogen Class 8 Trucks. Hydrogen technology commercial trucks (sae.org) Hope you can understand my point on why hydrogen autos for personal use will never happen, but in commercial space it has a place.

Seems Hyundai is very serious about raking in EV subsidies and sales as they move production of EVs here to the U.S. in 2023 and now this about battery production. Hyundai breaks ground on $5.5 bln U.S. EV, battery plant | Reuters Hyundai says new U.S. EV plant could begin production in 2024, produce 500,000 vehicles annually | Reuters

Have to say I am very impressed with the Hyundai Ioniq 5 as I parked next to this matt finished EV which was new from the dealership.

October 2022 was the startup again of production of the bZ4X as well as the announcement of the bZ3, the second EV in the bZ series. This second electric sedan was jointly developed between Toyota, BYD and FAW Toyota of China. Many would have thought that Toyota was finally on the bandwagon for moving forward with EVs as they had announced 30 new EVs to be produced and released by 2030. This in comparison to companies like Hyundai or GM where they have committed to having EVs replace full portfolios by 2025. So why then is a reboot in order for Toyota? Per an exclusive story released by REUTERS, "Exclusive: Toyota scrambles for EV reboot with eye on Tesla" We need to take a few steps back first to understand a little history. The 1970's and the world's first oil issues with the Arab countries forced America to change almost overnight from gas guzzling V8's to 4 banging econoboxes for autos and Japan was new on the scene with fuel thrifty little cars and trucks. This actually began in the 1960's when two individuals, W. Edwards Demming (renowned statistician and management expert) and Peter F. Drucker (father of modern management thinking) offered American manufacturing a concept of better productions through lean manufacturing and a transformation of management to get greater innovation, higher productivity and quality, joy in work and better jobs overall. At America's peril U.S. companies ignored these two visionaries and they left for Japan where Toyota's management system was designed based on their ideas. To quote Shoichiro Toyoda, Honorary Chairman and director of Toyota: "There is not a day I don't think about what they meant to us. Deming's 14 Points is the core of our management." Lean manufacturing is the Deming and Drucker core to how Toyota has become the most efficient manufacture of autos to this day. So, one can understand the thought on this, here is the core of these two men's thinking. Topic of Intersection Dr. Drucker Dr. Deming Fear as a motivator Modern behavioural psychology has demonstrated that great fear coerces, while remnants of fear cause only resentment and resistance. Lesser fears destroy motivation. Drive out fear, so that everyone may work effectively for the company. Fear impairs performance and causes numbers to be padded. Management by drives and quotas Many managements fail to draw the obvious conclusion that drives [such as cost cutting, then inventory cutting, then human relations] are after all, not the way to get things done. Quotas are a barrier to improvement. Eliminate numerical quotas for the work force. Eliminate numerical goals for people in management. Innovation Inherent in the managerial task is entrepreneurship: making the business of tomorrow. Inherent in the task is innovation. Innovation is above all, top-management attitude and practices. Innovation in a business enterprise must therefore always be market-focused. Actually, "What is our business?" is almost always a difficult question and the right answer is usually anything but obvious. Innovation, the foundation of the future, cannot thrive unless the top management have declared unshakable commitment to quality and productivity. The moral is that it is necessary to innovate, to predict the needs of the customer. A good question for anyone in business to ask is: What business are we in? What product or service would help our customers more? Productivity Productivity means that balance between all factors of production that will give the greatest output for the smallest effort. Economic performance that is achieved by mismanaging work and workers is illusory and actually destructive of capital even in the fairly short run. To leave knowledge skill underutilized is impoverishment of society and individual alike. Production [and service] should be viewed as a system. The improvement of quality begets naturally and inevitably improvement of productivity...this transfers waste of man-hours into good product and better service. The result is a chain reaction—lower costs, better competitive position, happier people on the job, jobs and more jobs. Variation To design a control system, one has to think through what is routine and what is exception. The traditional American system is misapplication of control. It subordinates the routine to the exception. There are two mistakes frequently made: To react to an outcome as if came from a special cause, when actually it came from common causes of variation. To treat an outcome as if it came from common causes of variation, when actually it came from a special cause. Learning Worker responsibility for the job, work groups, and output cannot be expected, let alone demanded until the foundations of productive work, feedback information, and continuous learning have been established. The fault is in the system, not in the men. I should estimate that in my experience most troubles and most possibilities for improvement add up to proportions something like this: --94% belong to the system, (common causes) which are the responsibility of management. --6% special causes Psychology of leadership Management by drive [such as a theme of the month] is a sure sign of confusion. It is an admission of incompetence. It is a sign that management does not think. To make a living is no longer enough. Work also has to make a life. Transformation to the new philosophy of management will result in joy in work, joy in learning. The result will in time be greater innovation, expansion of market, greater material reward for everyone. Everyone will win; no losers. Use of rewards to motivate ...watch lest the compensation system reward the wrong behavior, emphasize the wrong results, and direct people away from performance for the common good. Rewards motivate people to work for rewards (quoting Alfie Kohn). A show of appreciation may mean far more than monetary reward. At this point, Toyota was moving into very efficient manufacturing processes with modern management training that would make teamwork between management and assembly line workers a success for all. Fast Forward 6 Decades and now you have Toyota, stuck in that past, still doing the same thing they have done over and over but with a twist. Toyota moved forward with Hybrids showing the world you could have very efficient autos, but this is also where the path to the future diverges. Toyota moved into Hydrogen as the fuel of the future where they would continue to have mass produced auto's that would have hybrid systems that ran on Hydrogen. Another company based in California at the time called Tesla believed electric vehicles was the future. EVs was the way to go and with it a cleaner way to live with autos that were less complex and less toxic liquids that had to be used to run. Tesla not only won this battle of EV versus Hydrogen but was showing the way by allowing a large set of their patents to be used globally to get others to build EVs. Toyota then corrected their course to embrace EVs with a plan to have 30 EVs out around the globe by 2030 as launched in 2020 and with their first EV the bZ4X being released on their complex eTNGA electric platform. This was supposed to support this modern portfolio that was shown off by Toyota. This was supposed to be a very efficient future platform to standardize the whole company on globally for the 21st century. eTNGA electric platform This is where the big problem lay in that this is still based on traditional ICE production of many parts to build an auto and Tesla was not sitting still in how they produced EVs. Tesla was the first company to move to MEGA Cast parts and this is what has destroyed this second change of course for Toyota as the eTNGA platform is based on building many little parts into an auto, still very complex and time intensive at a time that Tesla has reduced costs by using Mega Casting. They Model Y went from a 70 piece hand assembled rear end to a single piece by way of Mega Casting. The physical pieces look like this: 70 piece assembled unit Mega Cast Unit Now that you have been brought up to speed on why this is a Reboot of Toyota's EV plans are that four individuals per the REUTERS story talked on how Toyota is allowing into production those autos, bZ4X and bZ3 to move forward as they have halted all other EVs due to the fact that Tesla is more profitable and efficient compared to Toyota's eTNGA platform of old-world thinking. Internally at Toyota, there is a proposal under review that would make a dramatic shift for Toyota and rewrite their $38 Billion dollar EV rollout plan to better compete with Tesla and GM who has just started to use Mega Cast in their EVs. An internal working group at Toyota has been charged to outline plans for improvements to the existing EV platform or if needed a new architecture these four individuals have stated. Current work on the 30 EV projects announced last December 2021 has been suspended. This includes according to REUTERS the documents they were allowed to see that included the Toyota Compact Cruiser Crossover and the battery-electric Crown autos. Toyota has committed to be carbon neutral and to achieve this, the current programs will not allow Toyota to achieve this and as they work with their range of partners and suppliers, it will be essential to initially slow the work on EVs to allow Toyota to put in place what is needed to make EV manufacturing more efficient as industry-wide EV sales run past Toyota's earlier projections. Green investors and environmental groups have argued that Toyota, once a darling of environmentalists for their hybrids has been slow to embrace the EV revolution and ignored cleaner ways of doing business due to an outdated thinking from the 60's. Even the Deming and Drucker groups have moved on from where Toyota is today as Toyota in this internal review that was triggered by younger engineers and executives has realized that Toyota is losing the factory cost war to Tesla on EVs and other legacy OEMs that have embraced changes such as Mega Casting. Toyota's plan was that EVs would not take off for 2 to 3 decades and the eTNGA platform could be built alongside ICE autos and hybrids on the same assembly line. This was based on Toyota selling 3.5 million EVs by 2030 a year or 1/3rd of their global production to stay competitive according to these internal sources. EVs are now on pace to replace 50% of global auto production by 2030 at a pace that Toyota is not ready to deal with nor the industry-wide investments that now total $1.2 trillion dollars by 2030. According to these four internal sources, Shigeki Terashi, Toyota's former chief competitive officer is the person now leading this Toyota EV review team. Terashi was contacted by REUTERS for comment, and he declined to comment at this time. According to the internal sources, Mr. Terashi team is designated BR or Business Revolution group which has only been used twice, once in the 1960's and again in the 1990's as Toyota went through internal revolution in changing business to increase profits and growth. This BR team is looking at how to fix the eTNGA platform in the short term to be profitably competitive with Tesla but retire it for an all-new EV dedicated platform that takes into account efficient processes like Mega Casting. This new EV platform would not be ready for 3 to 5 years as why a fix to eTNGA is needed. Areas of improvement to be made is a massive change in how thermal management is done. Tesla has already moved to heat pumps and a very efficient way to manage the temp of the battery pack and the internal cabin area. On top of this is the need to simplify and reduce the size and weight of an EV battery pack which are currently being made by Denso and Aisin for Toyota. A decade ago, when Toyota took a financial stake in Tesla and the two collaborated on battery-electric technology which was used in the RAV4 Hybrid, many of Toyota's engineers believed that Tesla technology was no threat to Toyota with the attitude of "There was not much to learn" Toyota concluded in 2014 and Toyota sold their stake in Tesla in 2017. Today, 2022, Toyota now recognizes that as the Worlds Biggest Automaker, they have been surpassed in factory efficiency as Tesla is the new benchmark for EV manufacturing costs and this marks a major reversal from 2014. Toyota much like many other Asian, European and American auto companies now find themselves playing catch up to Tesla and having to reboot their EV plans to take new age thinking again into account on how to build EVs far more efficiently and cheaper. Tesla has today already informed the world that their goal is a 3-piece base frame that allows for various battery pack sizes in the middle, add on the front and rear piece and then the body panels allowing a very efficient build of an EV. With Texas having taken delivery of a 130 ton Mega Cast, they have not only been producing the rear sections but have also started to produce front sections having Tesla on track to build a 3 piece platform for their auto's in 2023. Model Y front end cast. Toyota brought out the Prius Hybrids and believed that Hydrogen was the future. Hydrogen lost out for many reasons and Toyota had to reboot to get EVs going using processes they have honed to perfection some would say from the 1960's to today with the eTNGA platform. Now realizing they are losing out big time in profitability and simplicity of auto building to Tesla, reboot 2 is under way for making a short-term fix to eTNGA and for a long-term platform that will be competitive against Tesla and GM who have moved to Mega Casting as just one process of building better EVs. Toyota today is now rebooting again on EVs and it will be interesting to see if they can catch up to keep their crown as the largest global auto builder or if it is lost to someone else who never had it or might have lost it but could take it back. View full article

You have hit the one issue that many companies FAIL to understand. Technology is supposed to make life easier, not harder through complexity. This is also where I believe Mercedes is going to FAIL big time. They are sticking to the same formula of ICE with an Electric power train. This will hurt them when you have Tesla leading the way in Mega Casting. GM has already started this with their EVs and I would not be surprised based on news from Ford if the new EV Platform that they are moving to next year is based on Mega Casting. This is also where Toyota / Subaru has failed. Interesting times we live in.

Your last statement is a bit of a shock as I would think that being an EV they would have focused to make them inside equal, but I see tonight that others have also stated in their reviews that the EQ autos are smaller than their ICE auto's. This is a trend that would not make me think "The Best or Nothing" Thank you for letting us know on what it was like.

Work has me slammed so I am not going to get this written up. Seems FoxConn is not only the latest Contractor and Design manufacture for other EV companies but has decided to become an EV auto company as well. In May 2021 FoxConn and Fisker signed an agreement that would have FoxConn build their low-end EV SUV. Fisker Ocean is scheduled to start 2023 manufacturing on FoxConn plant here in the U.S. located in Wisconson. Fisker, Foxconn sign deal to build EV in U.S. | Automotive News (autonews.com) Now FoxConn is going to expand in the U.S. to build their own EVs for sale globally. HHTD 2022 Unveils Two Concept Prototype EVs, Defines Contract and Design Manufacturing Service (CDMS) First made-in-Taiwan electric pickup and crossover hatchback │ Foxconn Technology Group Two SUVs and One Pickup truck. Model B is aimed at the younger generation. This is a compact size @ 2.8 meters in length and 450 kilometers of range on a full charge. Model C is a midsize SUV with 700 kilometers of range on a full charge. Third auto is the Model V, a first made-in-Taiwan electric pickup truck. 5 seat configurations in a double cab mid-size truck. FoxConn platform is a 48V based system. As the auto's go into production starting in 2023, more details about power train, HP and Torque will be released.

I would have to disagree with you on every point you made including the Lucid comment. Yes, Lucid has done a nice job, but they are nowhere near what an ultra-luxury hand built auto this will be compared to them. In regard to the cheap, garish looking EV grille, that could be said about all EVs. Tesla, Mercedes EQ is just awful and even Lucid which can leave one wanting. Style after all is very subjective.