G. David Felt

Seems since the US is up in the air for EVs due to the craziness of our political current administration, Nissan has moved forward with Europe showing off many Test Mules that are new Production ready to drum up excitement for 2021 sales. Currently other than the Concept auto they showed off, no test mules have been built that would meet US auto requirements. Nissan is saying at the earliest, 2022 will be when they might have working prototypes testing in the US. Sad that the Ignorance of DC is holding back awesome technology that is good for the planet and people. https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1130151_nissan-teases-potential-of-ariya-electric-crossover-for-europe-as-us-election-nears

The more research I have done, the more excited I am by an EV Crate package as this is the most complete system to date that would allow a much easier conversion. I could see doing this to my 1994 GMC SLE suburban. With the Pandemic, I have not done anything other then have it on blocks. This package of a electric motor, connector to the transmission, controllers, wiring, etc. would make a great package for converting and enjoying locally my Suburban. Fuel at home and never have to deal with the gas station again for it. I am thinking that I could see them use their Ultium motor family to offer various power versions of the electric motors with various battery packs depending on what a person wants to spend. To Quote GM: this is only the beginning. “Chevrolet Performance is also evaluating additional eCrate packages with higher-performance options and new battery configurations to fit a wider range of aftermarket applications.” Chevrolet mentioned transitioning to the modular Ultium battery system in the future. In addition to powering the new Hummer EV, Ultium batteries are interesting because they’re more flexible in their arrangement and placement, which would be perfect for restomod project. Just read a couple more auto news stories that seem to confirm a 6.8 L supercharged V8 for a GT500 and all new Ford Raptor. It seems the Raptor with TT V6 are sitting on the lots as people who are spending that kind of money are not interested in a Turbo V6, they want V8. The deal also will create an additional 300 jobs as Ford will have their battery production for EVs built here being close to Canada's Cobalt mine. https://windsorstar.com/news/local-news/breaking-unifor-and-ford-reach-tentative-agreement

Interesting body company DeKalb

It has been found that you can put together a standard set of photo's with basic instructions and even a person with no experience ever taking a picture can take a better picture than one that has taken just basic family photo's. If mgmt. really wanted to improve, a good mgr. would and could put together a basic 411 info packet for the person responsible on how and from what angles to take the pictures. Having some basic picture taking standards would drastically improve the quality and consistency of the images and over all online experience for those looking to buy a used or new auto. Perfect reason as to why Big Oil should not fear EV's.

Detailed

Saw a FWD Monte Carlo Pace car labeled car while leaving Home Depot, looked very clean until the person stepped on the gas and the blue/white smoke came out the tail pipe today.

As one with a photo degree, I have wondered many times about that and in thinking, it is about the bottom line of having an employee take pictures cost hourly wages and honestly, I think many dealerships are still stuck in the 70's on how to sell auto's. That is why Tesla, Rivian, etc. scare the dealerships. They are ignorant about changing with the 21st century. Your right, a little time to make a basic template of how to take photo's and which ones to show off the auto you could easily reduce it to 10 to 20 photo's at most of high quality that would show off the auto and then post it to the web. I expect over the next decade a number of dealerships to disappear as shopping via Costco, online or direct from manufacture to you with quality pictures will change the way people shop and what they expect. Waste time just staying old school of attacking and pressuring every person who comes on the lot will fail for those dealerships. With the Pandemic, many are shopping online and only when truly ready to look at the auto in person will they go shop. I talked with my sales rep at the Cadillac dealership via Zoom to see how he was doing. He said over all sales are down about 1/3rd of what they normally have been at this time of year. He also said far less looky loos and as such greatly reduced test drives of people just looking which has made the average auto sale of the purchased auto be under 15 miles when sold on the odometer. Interesting.

Tide (deadly bloom of toxic red dinoflagellates)

Minority Report had some very cool EV's that could be driven or used in autonomous mode for those that did not care about driving.

R.I.P. Sir Sean Connery who passed in his sleep overnight at age 90. The best James Bond 007 we ever had. https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-54761824

kill

Exxon Mobil has stated that as they transition to a change of what powers auto's around the world and work to get to a net zero equality for the climate by 2035, that changes are in order and with the Pandemic, Exxon Mobil cust 1,600 positions in Europe and 1,900 position in the US today. They also announced that they will be reducing their head count globally by 15% or 14,000 by the end of 2021. https://electrek.co/2020/10/30/egeb-exxon-layoffs-wartsila-us-net-zero-electricity/

One of the first Rivian R1T reviews come back with a very positive, this is the real deal in Off road power, capability and more. Good read for those interested in how this electric truck did off road the whole time. https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/features/2021-rivian-r1t-electric-truck-first-drive-review/

Chevrolet is expanding with upcoming Cruise and Connect packages that will allow those that want to convert their ICE auto to an EV. As proof of this, they have built a test mule from a 1977 Chevrolet K5 Blazer EV. This Cruise and Connect package will be rated at 200 HP / 266 lb-ft of torque. Battery pack is the same as in the Bolt EV, 60-kWh, 400 Volt battery pack. GM has confirmed a few things, first is that the electric motor will come with a new 4L75E auto transmission. The cool part is that this Cruise and Crate system is going to be based on what the BOLT EV gets from convenience to safety and that will include air conditioning since that is incorporated into the battery pack so the battery and AC will run off the same compressor. You also will have all the controllers that handle the motor, charging, cooling and impact protection. GM confirmed that the team of engineers working on this managed to do the conversion in 30 days. This included changing from the 3.08:1 to a new 4.10:1 rear axel Full details at the link below. https://www.autoblog.com/2020/10/29/chevy-connect-cruise-ecrate-k5-blazer-details/#slide-2274106 https://www.autoblog.com/2020/10/29/chevy-k5-blazer-e-electric-crate-motor-package/#slide-2273971 2020 is a year of change, Europe has reported that for the first time EV's have overtaken diesel in auto registrations making regular petro the leading fuel, EV's second and Diesel a 3rd for auto registrations across Europe. In 2012, diesel made 50% of all new auto registrations. Today, you have petrol at 47%, EV's at 25% and Diesel at 24.8% where as the remaining is a mix of PHEV / Hybrid. 2019 saw a 139% increase in EV registrations, 327,800 new EVs for the year. https://www.autoblog.com/2020/10/29/electric-cars-surpass-diesel-europe/

I remember that color as GM had it as a color option on their Luv pickup trucks from the 70's. Baby powder blue is what I remember it to be. On that auto, for sure a Look At Me Pompous color. Pass on that ugly Jelly Bean!

Black Plague

Yes, the FX is what the rear on this reminds me of. Piss poor interior cargo space, could not even get a bag of golf clubs in them. Also interior space for humans sucked too. I know lots of people liked the style, but for me, the style cost in interior room. That is why I love the Hummer EV, it has the box design with style and what looks like plenty of interior space especially for us big people.

Lemmings

Theology (People Manipulation)

Over all not bad, but the rear reminds me of the funky Infinity CUV that was shaped like this. Not a big fan. wait and see but from the C to D pillar is just weird to me and then the Jelly Bean back end. Meh

@Drew Dowdell refresh is back to normal, selecting unread channels is fast, all seems to be finally back to normal for me. Very nice to be back to normal speed again from what I can tell. Cool, an app version would be awesome.

Got it, I am on the default theme again as Caffeine seemed even slower. Will give it time since I have to go get started on dinner and then will come back and check it out.

Yes, I have stayed very active here at home working out. Thank you I have a PreCore treadmill, so 1hr of running a day, then using barbells I have at home along with kettle balls I do lunges, pushups, a variety of core exercises. Gotta keep going since I am not going to the gym to protect my wife and kids. Stay active, stay safe.

Sports Drink

Icey Blue