G. David Felt

Integrity is everything and clearly Nikola CEO thought he could pull the wool over everyone. Glad they got caught before GM went too far down the rabbit hole with them. I do still love the looks of Nikola pickup truck. This is far superior looking than Tesla CyberTruck. Out of the 4, 3 that for sure will make it to market are all far superior than Tesla Vaporware Truck.

One would hope ones COPO or Fulie would not burn down, but it does happen and is sad. Be it ICE or BEV, loosing an auto to fire is never good. Course Tesla still has their own fire issues as 1 of 250 initial Tesla S Plaid self combusted. Brand new Tesla Model S ‘erupts into flames and briefly traps driver inside after doors malfunctioned’ | upcoming World News

Interesting that while battery cells have been dropping in cost every year, now assembly is being looked at as another place to drop costs and it seems laser connection of cells strung together can be done at a much lower cost. https://chargedevs.com/newswire/laser-bonding-can-cut-battery-assembly-cost-by-50-whitepaper/

Seeing this made me realize I forgot to mention that in the Q2 status report, the Tesla Semi Truck manufacturing has slipped to 2022 along with 4680 battery cell production that both Semi and Cybertruck is to use. Part of the problem that this story points out is that while testing is wrapping up on the battery cells themselves especially crash testing, production runs are having a 10% failure rate. That is not acceptable for a profitable production run rate. They are working on reducing that to a low single digit. Charged EVs | Tesla Q2 earnings report: record billion-dollar income, delays for Semi and Cybertruck - Charged EVs

Agree, based on trailering mode, then anything including a bike rack to carry your Motorcycle should still work with SuperCruise to my way of understanding.

Based on the Q2 report and statements, it seems Cybertruck will start production late 2022 for delivery in 2023. Tesla Cybertruck release date: Elon Musk reveals a disappointing update (inverse.com) Quoting the story which pulled this current stated delivery schedule from the web site: Tesla’s website lists three versions of the Cybertruck: The single-motor rear-wheel-drive version retailing for $39,900. This car will start production in late 2022. The dual-motor all-wheel-drive car retailing for $49,900. This car will start production in late 2021. The tri-motor all-wheel-drive car retailing for $69,900. This car will start production in late 2021. Then you have the following comments from the person who ran the Q2 financial update. But Moravy’s comments during the latest earnings call suggest it could get pushed back to 2022: Fact is that the Model Y will go into production end of 2021, this clearly pushes the cyber truck into a 2022 production with 2023 deliveries.

Do you remember which thread I had posted the chart and link in related to what you are talking about? Been a crazy week and I honestly do not remember. Looking around to see which thread I posted in with a chart and link on maintenance. Hopefully Balthazar will remember. I think it was based on this post about a study on cost and maintenance / ownership.

Cool post Robert, I could live there, but not the wife. I have to laugh at all the comments and how many people say it is too isolated, cars are useless in the fall, winter and spring there. So much negativity and yet really not much about the cool garage that also has auto chargers 220V for BEVs. I would love that kind of garage and an auto collection but here in Western Washington. Sadly, only a pipe dream for me.

@balthazar @oldshurst442 Cadillac Hotel Seattle Style from the early 1900's and still open and running today.

I wonder if the 4 door Camaro is more an answer to the crazy sales of the Dodge Charger than people who bought Mustang, Camaro and Challenger wanting more doors. Agree with you that they should just let the Camaro ride off into the sunset as is with tweaks till they kill it off and use a new name for a 4 door performance sedan. I read today that the Camaro poor sales is due to the style not performance in comparison to the Mustang and Challenger which out sell it. Dodge Challenger Outsells Ford Mustang In Q2 2021, Camaro Barely Alive (motor1.com)

UPDATE ON GM's BEV's. Seems according to the Robb Report and Automotive News both are reporting that GM current 2 door Camaro will survive this decade with minimal change as an ICE and a replacement will be a PowerFul BEV Camaro in 4 doors. Yup, 886HP, 0 to 60 in 2 seconds and 500 miles on a battery charge for the 4 door Camaro. The Chevy Camaro Will Be Replaced by an All-Electric Sedan: Report – Robb Report Automotive news via MSN goes even further with this additional info: Chevy Camaro Reportedly Being Replaced By Electric Sedan (msn.com) The Chevrolet Silverado and GMC electric pickup trucks will be out in 2023 which we have read here already, 2024 is where the Electric Escalade will come out and in 2025, the MALIBU lives on as an electric sedan. By 2035 every vehicle that GM produces will be electric with just the Heavy Duty Pickups retaining ICE. For those looking for one last Hurrah of a Camaro Z/28, forget about it. Seems GM is focused on the EV Camaro and that this DOHC V8 Z/28 has been canceled. Cancelled Camaro Z/28 Packed High-Revving C8 Corvette Z06 DOHC V8 (motor1.com)

Tesla has decided that Americans do not pay enough for their auto's and as such has raised prices again for the 6th consecutive time this year. Prices on the Model Y alone went up $5,500 as Tesla holds the line in China to build market share, but continues to raise prices to boost profitability. In America the Model Y will start at $53,990 compared to China where it starts at $42,394. Alternatives to Tesla cannot come soon enough for the market to make prices more competative. Analysis: Tesla hikes electric car prices in U.S.; holds line in China | Reuters It would appear Tesla has due to raising prices around the globe, but mostly in the US off set their half a billion loss in Green House Gas credits and reported at the quarterly report that they were only able to sell $354 million in credits to other auto companies. Tesla posts record profits, offers muddy outlook for batteries, Cybertruck | Reuters

If this statement was true, then why did Mercedes just buy an electric motor company to power their auto's? YASA makes decent motors, but has not made performance motors per say and yet Mercedes-Benz is on record of buying Yasa Motors of UK to build their AMG electric motors. Charged EVs | Mercedes-Benz acquires motor technology firm YASA - Charged EVs Electric Motor Technology Company YASA Acquired by Mercedes-Benz | Business Wire Quote from the press release: YASA’s expertise and resources will be focused on delivering world-beating electric drive technologies for AMG-Mercedes’ electric-only platform. Philipp Schiemer, CEO of Mercedes-AMG and Head of the Top End Vehicle Group, said, “We warmly welcome YASA to Mercedes-Benz. YASA’s impressive axial-flux technology allows future fully electric Mercedes-AMG performance cars to stay a step ahead of the competition. Thanks to electric motors with higher power density and continuous torque delivery we will redefine the future of driving performance.” YASA’s acquisition by Mercedes-Benz | A message from our CEO, Chris Harris ? Guess this means Germans CANNOT build Performance Leading EV motors. ?

I agree with you that what we see in the concept picture above is luxury, but I have yet to see the lighting like that on the actual production car. That will be interesting to see if they actually delivered or not.

Seems in Tesla quarterly update on the company, they never stated it as delayed, but after multiple same questions on when will the Cyber truck start production, the only answer from Musk was "It will go into production after we start production of the Model Y at the Texas plant by the end of the year." Yes this means the work on Cyber truck test mules to production will happen later in 2022 indicating that they will start deliveries in 2023 way behind Rivian, Ford and GM. Tesla all but confirms Cybertruck production delay until 2022 (electrek.co) Quote from the Quarterly conference call: Lars Moravy, vice president of vehicle engineering at Tesla, responded instead:

Was unable to take a picture, but saw a California Special Edition red Mustang late 60's getting off the freeway today. Looked very much like this one I found on Bing Images. Other thing I noticed was a Chevrolet Suburban with Cadillac taillights. Seems to be a trend lately as I also snapped a pic of a GMC that had them too.

The industry's first true hands-free driver-assistance technology allowing drivers to travel hands-free over 200,000 miles of compatible roads across the U.S. and Canada is coming to 6 model year 2022 vehicles with new capabilities. Super Cruise New Capabilities: Trailering - Customers will be able to trailer their boat, camper and more while driving hands-free. Automatic lane change - The technology can indicate when a lane change is optimal and initiate the maneuver, while following signaling protocols. Enhanced navigation display - Super Cruise compatible roads will be displayed in the in-vehicle navigation systems for vehicles equipped with the embedded Google Maps app and show routes available for hands-free driving, during route selection. Enhanced Super Cruise will be available in the following 2022 models: Cadillac Escalade Cadillac CT4 Cadillac CT5 Chevrolet Silverado GMC Hummer EV Pickup GMC Sierra Underscoring the software expertise at GM is the vehicles intelligence platform which provides more bandwidth and data processing power to support the expanding Super Cruise features. Model year 2021 vehicles that have Super Cruise will get these enhancements via over the air updates. 2022-GMC-Sierra-Super-Cruise-Trailering.mp4 GM is committed to having Super Cruise on 22 vehicle models by 2023 including the Cadillac LYRIQ, GMC HUMMER SUV and many more to come. To date, over 10 million Super Cruise miles have been driven in the U.S. and Canada. GM Introduces New Super Cruise Features to 6 Model Year 2022 Vehicles View full article

That is an excellent question. Seems there web site is useless as it does not cover what the names mean and there seems to be no relation of the number to Torque or HP. 2022 EQS Sedan | Future Vehicles | Mercedes-Benz USA (mbusa.com) I have looked through many websites and still no info on what the names mean. I did get from this story that the 450+ which is what America gets means the + is the larger battery pack, but we only get the largest battery pack, where in Europe and the Asian rim they can get a smaller 90 kW battery pack. So they will have a 450 or 450+ models. We just get 450+. 2022 Mercedes-Benz EQS First Drive Review: Funky New Luxury (motor1.com) Even on their global web site there is no clear answer as to what the numbers mean on any of their EQ products. The new all-electric EQS. (mercedes-benz.com) Even the Daimler web site FAILS to explain what the numbers mean. The EQS: The first electric vehicle in the luxury class | Daimler Sorry, wish I knew. @smk4565 Do you have an actual link to explain what the EQS 450 and 580 mean?

Sorry, meant to say the 450 versus 580. 450 is RWD only with lower luxury packages, 580 is AWD with higher luxury packages and larger battery options. Mercedes-Benz EQS Enters Production, More Specs Revealed (insideevs.com) Mercedes-Benz EQS spces: up to 770 km (479 miles) of WLTP range two battery versions: 107.8 kWh of usable battery capacity (12 modules, about 9 kWh each) 90 kWh of usable battery capacity (10 modules) CATL lithium-ion cells (pouch cells or hard-case/prismatic cells), NCM 811 chemistry 400-volt architecture (396 V nominal) 0-100 km/h (62 mph): EQS 450+ RWD: 6.2 seconds EQS 580 4MATIC AWD: 4.3 seconds top speed of 210 km/h (131 mph) powertrain options: EQS 450+ rear-wheel drive (single motor): 245 kW and 568 Nm EQS 580 4MATIC all-wheel drive (dual motor): 385 kW (255 kW rear and 135 kW front) and 855 Nm performance version: 560 kW in the future both motors are permanently excited synchronous motors (PSM) peak regenerative brake up to 290 kW (580 4MATIC) or 186 kW (450+) AC charging (on-board): three-phase 11 kW standard and 22 kW option (Europe) Charging time (107.8 kWh): 5 hours at 22 kW AC, 10 hours at 11 kW AC DC fast charging: up to 200 kW; 10-80% SOC in 31 minutes up to 280-300 km (174-186 miles) of WLTP range to be replenished in just 15 minutes Plug & Charge feature Length/width/height: 5216/1926/1512 Length/width/height (USA): 5265/1926/1513 Cd value starting from 0.20 (EQS 450+); 0.209 (EQS 580 4MATIC) Boot capacity, VDA: 610-1770 L Weight in roadworthy condition: 2480 kg (EQS 450+); 2585 kg (EQS 580 4MATIC) Payload: 465-545 kg (EQS 450+); 475-550 kg (EQS 580 4MATIC) Perm. gross vehicle weight: 2945-3025 kg (EQS 450+); 3060-3135 (EQS 580 4MATIC) EVA platform

So true, when you have a forum member that constantly crows about the 0 to 60 number being the magic and then the company that is supposed to be the standard bearer fails to deliver on that, it does make one go H'mmmmmmmmmm! ? I agree with you that there are many solid comments on the interior and the serene ride. Was surprised to see that you get a very much pedestrian dash in the EQS 450 compared to the top of the line 580.

The final development tweaks are being done ahead of the first customer deliveries and with that the AC Cobra is staying faithful to the recreation roots with one twist. Emissions-free electric powertrain is the start of this British marque builders future. The specifications clearly show that this car is staying as much as possible to the roots of the Cobra history that started in 1962 with a Ford Small Block V8 and 60 years later in tribute to that history, the AC Cobra delivers with the following statistics: Acceleration 0-62 mph - 4 seconds Torque 500Nm Peak (369 lb-ft) / 250 Nm Continuous (185 lb-ft) Power 230 kW (308 HP) Battery Capacity 55 kWh Estimated Range 150 miles Auto Weight 1050 kg (2,314 lbs) The AC Cobra 1 series is a limited production run of just 52 cars. One could easily say who cares, I will never see one here in the US. Yet AC Cars has already announced a larger series of the Cobra. AC Cobra Series 4 electric and for those that want an ICE they still do build authentic ICE Cobra's you can purchase via their website. Yet this is about their future and with that the Series 4 AC Cobra offers a wide selection of choices including power trains that can rocket the car including their top performance model with a 460 Kw (617 HP) electric version weighing in at 1,240 kg (2,733 pounds) with a crazy couple of seconds to 62 mph launch. The series 4 offers two distinct packages with 4 color combo's per package. One can get more details about the Series 4 here: AC Cobra Series 4 electric - AC CARS Whether ones passion is electric or ICE powertrain, the one thing for any auto enthusiast is the driving experience and here AC Cars delivers on the traditional fun to drive performance car. The New AC Cobra 378 Superblower MkIV is back featuring an LSA 6.2L Supercharged V8 with 6 speed gearbox and can be checked out here: AC Cobra 378 Superblower MkIV - AC CARS The first of the electric AC Cobra fires up - AC CARS AC Cars Official - YouTube View full article

The Best or Nothing at all seems to be a Failure for Mercedes as the first of the EQS test drives come in and where there are some success in certain areas, there is just as many failures and as pointed out in the review, it would appear that Mercedes is playing massive catch up to other automakers and especially Tesla. For a German company that was supposed to be building a competitor that would beat the Tesla S, I have to say that Mercedes has failed. First drive review: 2022 Mercedes-Benz EQS fuses electric-car wizardry with S-Class serenity (greencarreports.com) No FRUNK, In fact there seems to be many areas that Mercedes does not want anyone to get access too, just supposed to drive it and take it to Mercedes when you need work done it would appear. This review makes me wonder if Mercedes will ever be able to catch up to Tesla? ? Do not get me wrong there are reviewers that drink the Koolaid and no matter how far behind Tesla, they still think Mercedes is the best. 2022 Mercedes-Benz EQS First Drive Review: Funky New Luxury (motor1.com) Here are additional reviews that upon looking at them, I have to say, Mercedes S class is a second place uber luxury car that does not totally deliver on being the Best or nothing! It seems to be a half-way also ran. Mercedes-Benz EQS First Drive Test | Mercedes-Benz Worldwide (mercedes-world.com) 2022 Mercedes-Benz EQS First Drive Review: An EV like nothing else - SlashGear 2022 Mercedes-Benz EQS first drive review: Defining a segment - Roadshow (cnet.com) First review Mercedes EQS 450+: Is Mercedes EQS an S-Class electric? (mercedesblog.com) Mercedes EQS first drive: S-Class luxury in an EV (msn.com) Mercedes EQS first drive: S-Class luxury in an EV | Engadget