G. David Felt

Beautiful woman with a very lovely voice, thanks for posting!

@balthazar @ccap41 I think depending on where one lives, getting a constant high speed electric stream into the battery pack can be a challenge especially for states that have poor electrical grids compared to other states where they have the flow. Yet with that said, while it does affect how fast one recharges on a road trip, most people I believe will charge up at home always having a full battery pack in the morning to start. We are also in the early stages and while some standards have been set, I think there is still plenty of room to grow the quality and reliability of the stream of power to hit the designated rate of recharge. It might mean that they need a battery pack to hold the power to help with quick recharging. In regards to the cost of fueling an electric car, always been some people who come up with these crazy formula's and state it is 2 to 3 times more expensive. Real world has proven this to not be true. I question that persons use of Tesla as an example due to how many people get free charging or prepay at a very competitive rate to home charging. Again real world charging across the west coast does not bare out that crazy almost $9 per gallon equivalent cost. West coast has a maximum charge allowed on public charging stations so that example is very invalid even Tesla has stated that using the public listed prices is unusual for most tesla owners. Even the story link says that this is the exception rather than the norm where most people charge at home at ultra cheap rates.

I missed this in the GM presentations at CES 2021 yesterday, but the VP of Cadillac announced an all new luxury 2 person EV car will be coming from Cadillac. GM Confirms New Two Seater Cadillac EV Concept Is On The Way | GM Authority

Seems Honda and Acura will now be GM as GM and Honda has signed an agreement to use GM's new Ultium batteries and powertrains to power their EV CUVs for both badges. GM Will Build Electric Crossovers for Honda and Acura | The Drive More CES news, seems bigger is better as BMW and MB have both decided to show off their future dash displays that will go from side to side. CES 2021: The Future Might Be Even Bigger Touch Screens In Your Car (thedrive.com)

Seems Australia is even more conservative about what you have in a commercial as they stopped this commercial from playing due to the drift done in the commercial. Australia Bans 2021 Toyota Yaris GR Commercial Over the Briefest of Drifts (thedrive.com)

More news of the Auto Industry changes happening as CES 2021 Virtual Show kicks off this week. GM has anounced a new startup called Bright Drop that will have an Electric pallet system and Electric Cargo Van with first deliveries of the EV Van going to FedEx this fall in the US. GM reveals an electric van, launches a new business for electric cargo delivery (greencarreports.com) This is followed up by Hyundai Ioniq 5 EV Teaser with built in 3.5 kW Generator for powering all kinds of stuff. More pictures at the link below. First Hyundai Ioniq 5 EV teasers reveal concept car looks, generator capability - Roadshow (cnet.com) Further proof that GM is coming out with even more EV fun is the Video talking about their future EV plans and in the background of a wide variety of EVs is what looks like a C8 inspired CUV. Check out the story for the video and more pictures. Is This Proof Chevy's Working on a Corvette Electric SUV? (motortrend.com) Did GM Just Show Off a Chevy Corvette SUV at CES? | The Drive

GM News, Due to overwhelming demand for Midnight, Sport and RS SUV's, these packages will be expanded to meet customer needs as GM acknowledges that Customer Choice is the Competitive advantage for Chevrolet allowing customers to choose the packages that give them the custom look and Technology they want. Chevrolet to Expand Availability of Midnight, Sport and RS Packages on SUV Portfolio Due to Overwhelming Success

CES 2021, GM teases New Bolt EUV with SuperCruiser video. New Bolt and Bolt EUV will come out February 2021. Chevrolet Shares Preview of 2022 Bolt EUV Steering Wheel Bolt-EUV-SuperCruise.mp4

Seems Ford is pulling back in their restructure to be a profitable auto company with higher ATP's. As such 5,000 people will loose their jobs as Ford closes manufacturing in Brazil. They will still keep sales, but auto's will be brought in from Argentina and other places around the globe. Ford ending manufacturing in Brazil, continuing South America operations (detroitnews.com)

I agree with you on the first two points, but the 3rd I think many have missed the comments that they wanted to see if this could be done and how. The battery pack on the inside is not what is planned and will either be encased between the frame underneath or as you mention some sort of cover over the battery pack inside so the space can still be used. I could see a steel strength plastic cover over the battery pack if you wanted it inside like they did for this concept experiment. I suspect since they do have a wide range of e-crate motors and battery pack options coming that you will have choices on how you package or place the battery in an auto that is converted. I see in the comments that people were asking when the 1,000 HP 3 motor e-crate would be available. This it sounds like is the same electric motor package that will be in the Hummer EV.

Richie Rich

Chevrolet Performance e-Crate Story. This is a very cool video, Lovely Truck and Blazer EV style.

FYI, while I agree that the Buick Envision is a bit pricey, as long as you do not mind color, you usually can get the fully loaded Buick Envision for about 1/3rd off at the end of the year. I helped my oldest sister a little over 2 years ago get a fully loaded Envision for $39K including tax and license out the door compared to the sticker price of $51K that was on it. I see even now a fully loaded Premium II that still stickers for $51K is currently on sale for $44K. I would expect with the all new 2022 coming out this spring that you can get the last model pretty cheap.

Wine @ocnblu Beer was an important staple in Egypt. So important that it was one of the most common goods placed in tombs with the Sarcophagus so that they could enjoy a beer in the After Life!

Based on how deadly this virus is, the long term 6months on average symptoms stick around with all kinds of crazy side affects, I will PASS, HARD PASS on auto shows for this year. Sad, but reality. Plus I think with most tradeshows being virtual and the amazing success they were last year that it is going to be interesting to see how if ever they come back. I hope so as I really want to get back to an auto show and test drives.

Beer

Good Read, seems Ford nailed the mileage. 2021 Ford Mustang Mach-E range test: At 70 mph, true to EPA highway results (greencarreports.com)

Pyramid

Some funny posts of the Pandemic changes and impressions.

The new numbering system will make more sense for EVs than the current ICE product. Cadillac should stay with C.I. or C.C. and leave the Torque to the EVs.

My wife and I did one 500 mile road trip, the North Cascade Loop. North Cascades Scenic Highway (scenicwa.com) We only stopped in a true Western Cowboy town, still has wood sidewalks, horse tie up posts, etc. Winthrop (Scenic Washinton | Best Small Towns in Washington | Winthrop) to use the bathrooms, otherwise we had all our food with us in the Escalade and only stopped at places where no one else was at to stretch legs and look at the beautiful scenery. Lucky for me the Escalade can make the loop on a single gas tank, so minimal people interaction there too. This is the kind of road trips we will do in 2021 planning to minimize any interaction with other people during this pandemic.

Totally agree with you, I have NEVER seen any marketing for the Cadillac XT6. I talked back in November when I got the oil change done on my Escalade and my sales rep informed me he was retiring due to the pandemic and decided to stay safe in the woods. I asked him how the XT6 was doing and he said that they had sold maybe 6 for all of 2020 at the time compared to the dozens of XT5 and Escalades over the year. Problem he saw was that people seem to like many other options out there better than the XT6 and the interior. He said which I agree with that the fit n finish is good but GM did not give it the luxury level that people are expecting for the price. In fact he said the weird part is people have a better luxury impression of a Denali equipped CUV over the XT6 as his sister GMC/Buick store was selling gang busters all they could get of CUVs. It is sad as while I was excited for when Cadillac talked about it, was disappointed when I actually saw it and the rushed job to just get it to market and have another niche filled with a product. GM needs to stop doing this if they want Cadillac to grow. Focus on the Luxury and let GMC/Buick fill in all the Niche areas for appliance sizes.

As a Skin Cancer survivor, I know even while I was never a sun worshiper or fan of having sunny days, I am even more now of an avoider of the sun and lather on sun screen lotion even during cloudy bright days. Course Seattle has Drizzle 9 months of the year and as such, we are used to hiking, camping and playing in the drizzle no matter what the temp is, so I love it and it does not stop me from gardening or doing pretty much anything outside. I can respect everyone for enjoying the sun and less so the rain especially when you do not live in a place that has it often. Course the rain storms in Texas were crazy huge when they hit. Talk about flooding events.

I totally understand this, I am an eternal Optimist that I believe we all have BEST INTENT for what we do. Hopefully we can weed out the companies that truly are fly by night grab the money and run and leave only the solid long term looking companies that believe in building quality products. I truly believe GM with their new electrical nervous system that is Terabytes in data movement has the goods to go back to being a global leader. But like all things, will take time to build and get there.

Fishing