G. David Felt

Bourne

Till we have a vaccine and we understand the weird death that is now hitting kids caused by Covid-19, my travel will be by my own auto with social distance between me and everyone else. No Virus bugs for me.

Life Cereal

Beechers Mac n Cheese

Interesting Morning News: GM has a CDC approved cleaning program for all dealers to follow and market to insure safety when going to a dealership on how to clean an auto, what to use that will not harm leather, plastic rubber, etc. but sterilize the touch points in an auto. Good Move GM. https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/general-motors-chevy-buick-gmc-cadillac-dealer-disinfect-clean/ Masarati MC20 sports car shows off with a stirling Moss wrap. Not really sure why people like these. I get it if you are advertising a company to wrap an auto, but otherwise let the beauty of the auto show and not cover it with ugly wraps. Am I alone or do others here find wraps ugly unless it is for Marketing a company like on vans or trucks? https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/maserati-mc20-sports-car-stirling-moss/ 2021 FORD F-150 Delayed, possibly a short model year run. Due to Covid-19, Ford has pushed back when they will open up the order books from May 11th to July 15th but further delays could happen they say as production start moves from September 28th to November 9th. Ford has declined to comment further but seems the F-150 Hybrid paired with the 3.5L V6 and the F-150 EV are still on track to debut with the Ford Bronco and Bronco Sport. https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/2021-ford-f-150-delays-production-coronavirus/

Seems Lucid has parked their testing fleet of 40 auto's till California lets them get back to work on the road, but the engineers are working from home to spit and polish the final details on the auto's as the Lucid Arizona assembly plant starts back up to continue work on installation of manufacturing equipment. Lucid says they are still on target for delivery mid 2021 to the first customers of the Lucid Air Sedan. I have to say to each their own but this Tesla Modded car is BUTT UGLY to me.

Need a New Used Car? According to this story, Prices for used auto's dropped 34 plus percent in April. On top of this, Hertz is in deep trouble as it is mostly owned by two banks and as such the banks over the next two weeks will decide to either liquidate and close Hertz or attempt to sell off at least half of the auto's they have to pay bills and try and survive. https://jalopnik.com/a-hertz-bankruptcy-could-sink-an-already-struggling-use-1843414354 Per the story, Hertz is currently on the hook for the leases on 567,000 vehicles, with another 200,000 internationally, spread out across its 12,400 locations. Read at the link above to see their options, but it is NOT pretty and I would not be surprised to see the banks liquidate their options to save what cash they can. Benefit will be the public that can afford an auto if the auto's they have for sale are desirable. Next is the Aston Martin story where the Canadian Billionare came to the rescue of his beloved brand and took it over and then sales tanked in the last quarter of the year and start of this year were considerably lower with lower prices and then Covid-19 hit. Now the question is what will this guy do next? Cut bait and run? Nope they say they have a plan to survive and come out in better shape. Interesting is that the new billionaire owner wants to be more like Ferrari where you only build what customers buy and not have hundreds to thousands of auto's sitting on a dealer lot. https://jalopnik.com/aston-martin-is-in-bad-shape-but-it-says-it-has-a-plan-1843443664 Time will tell if this strategy works for them as they move to being an EV auto company.

Calcium

To each their own of what they like. It is way better interior than a Tesla. I like it and am excited by the EV. But then you knew that!

EV's just like ICE are starting out as a luxury item for the wealthier of society, but prices are dropping, feature functions are there for those that want connectivity and reduction in maintenance for personal transportation. While Gas has dropped in price, ICE Auto's have gone up in price. I do not see that the cheap gas is making the ICE auto that big of a value over EVs. A $10K basic difference between them as I showed in the comparison is not that big of a difference and I expect it to drop big time when other EVs come out over the next 18 months. With Millions out of work, I do not see ICE sales taking off again either. Both business models just slammed head-on into a bridge abutment.

I prefer a good auto drive over a plane ride. So nope, will pass, keep my comfort, space and health safety for taking a drive over flying. Yes I realize it will take me 4 times or longer to travel the same distance but still would rather drive and see North America.

I will disagree with you and post this very good read on Transportation and the Carriage age. Transportation in America and the Carriage Age.pdf To quote a few we documented facts as discussed in this educational research paper: The carriage era lasted only a little more than 300 years, from the late seventeenth century until the early twentieth century. For much of that time, only the very wealthiest people could afford to own and maintain their own vehicle. In the United States, the real height of the carriage era lasted less than a century, from about 1850 to 1910. Primitive roads held back wheeled travel in this country until well into the nineteenth century, while the advent of the automobile doomed the horse-drawn vehicle as a necessity of life and transportation in the early 1900s. While there were still more than 4,600 carriage companies operating in the United States as late as 1914, by 1925 there were barely 150. By 1929, there were fewer than 90.** **For the source of these statistics and a thorough but readable account of the rise and fall of the American carriage industry, the following book is highly recommended: Kinney, Thomas A. The Carriage Trade: Making Horse-Drawn Vehicles in America. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004. At the turn of the nineteenth century, there were 21 million horses in the U.S. and only about 4,000 automobiles. End result, I expect the EV to do to ICE what ICE did to the Horse. EV is becoming more reliable, has far less maintenance and you can easily power it , recharge it just about anywhere. Yes it takes time and is slow, so was ICE in the early years. Yet look at ICE now. EV has already replaced most ICE as being faster, R&D is proving to build better and better batteries. So in time people will change to EVs just like they did with cell phones for Smartphones.

Sunfire

Way better looking than most of the current pathetic style at Chevrolet.

So then you admit that 50 years ago, what Mercedes built did not pay the bills and only cost them money! Got it!

Ya know you want a Camaro EUV as much as a Ford Mach-e.

Wine in a box

Kia update news: Back in January of this year, Kia announced that their first dedicated EV would be a Crossover like sedan. Now Kia is updating the information on their new EV Auto. It will now be a poster child of affordable but high speed charging as Kia like GM are both going to use the new industry standard 800V charging system which is what the Porsche Taycan uses. This means that the Kia will recharge it's 300 mile battery pack in 20 min or less depending on DC supply. Current 800V fast chargers can hit 250 kW charging for the 20 min recharge rate, as the newer spec DC fast chargers are installed these are 350 kW rated and that will cut in half to about 10 min charging for 300 miles. https://electrek.co/2020/05/13/kia-to-offer-crazy-fast-ev-charging-with-800v-battery-system/#more-133701

Seems the Camaro EV is a real thing if comments and pic are to be interpeted correctly from GM. They are fast tracking not only the Hummer EV and Cadillac EV but a 3rd not shown EV that did not make it to the EV day at GM. https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1128140_gm-has-fast-tracked-its-electric-vehicle-program-in-pandemic-slowdown

Wow, for the first time in 40 years people are seeing the Mountains, Himalayas and for many the first time they have ever seen mountains from the cities. Shows the Pandemic is cleaning up the planet air. https://electrek.co/2020/05/13/india-co2-emissions-drop-for-the-first-time-in-40-years/#more-133672 https://electrek.co/2020/04/11/climate-crisis-weekly-are-our-oceans-doomed-or-can-they-heal/ Some of the before and after pics are amazing. For those who are into electronics, this is an outstanding read on how Tesla went from basic Industrial standard semiconductors modules to semi-custom built units. The industry was used to building for long life in commercial applications of 600V, 1,200V and 1,700 volt applications with 3-phase motors for long life and not necessarily fast switching. This gets into the meat and potatoes of why Tesla has changed from their heavy duty design for the Tesla S and X to a semi-custom power module design for the Model 3 and Y inverter. The whole industry is changing and changing fast. Cool stuff on semi conductors if you interested. https://chargedevs.com/features/heres-why-tesla-transitioned-to-a-semi-custom-power-module-design-in-model-3-inverter/ Final good read is on the GM change to fast track the Hummer and Cadillac EV production. Love the updated comment from GM about the possible Electric Camaro. So while reveals have been delayed, production has not and GM says they are still on track to sell 1 million EVs per year Globally by 2025. The Camaro was NOT shown at EV day where no camera's or smartphones were allowed. They have fast-tracked a 3rd EV for production, many think this is a Camaro EV to compete against the Mach-e from Ford. https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1128140_gm-has-fast-tracked-its-electric-vehicle-program-in-pandemic-slowdown

Thought this was an outstanding write up on the tear down and how mostly Asian auto companies are buying the reports to compete. https://electrek.co/2020/05/08/teardown-guru-sandy-munro-sells-tesla-reports-to-mostly-asian-automakers/ https://sandymunro.net/ Munro YouTube channel on Tear downs. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCj--iMtToRO_cGG_fpmP5XQ Crazy all his connections and links for info on his Tear Down and input about Tesla. PATREON GROUP: https://www.patreon.com/MunroLive MUNRO MERCH: https://teespring.com/stores/munro-live-store SUPPORT MUNRO: https://munrolive.com/access-%2F-shop... MUNRO LIVE VIDEO CONTENT: https://munrolive.com/ MUNRO MAIN WEBSITE: https://leandesign.com/

Based on Nissan recent announcements about relying on Renault and the FCA chain for future EV auto's, one has to think that they are backing away from their research on tech like this. Sad.

I doubt MB built the first super car, the 1954 300SL was a cool car but not the first super car. Best car in the world in the 1960's being the 600 is again YOUR THOUGHT. Plenty of other superior auto's were built before then. Where are the links to back up your Fake Claims? Where are the professional statements that say there are the best, the first supercar, etc.? What do you call all those that built and raced auto's that were faster and better than the 300SL before it was created? Just lemmings as it is not a MB auto? Today, you DO NOT need 50 years to build a luxury brand when with computers, one can buy the competition models, tear them apart just like a couple companies do with Tesla and build and sell reports to the competition to build superior auto's. Genesis G80 will be superior to much of MB product line and people with an open mind and not hung up on a badge will sit in them and realize the value and quality and buy them over the Leasing monsters of Germany. You want respect @smk4565 then post your statements with clear facts and links to back them up by reputable sources of researched news. Stop being a lemming with Koolaid fake statements.

China has already stated 2040 is the final year for any new ICE auto's / trucks / buses to be sold. Many cities have already put in place earlier dates to stop the sale due to hazardous air quality. Same as Britain and France. Chin'a Chongqing Changan auto company has already stated with stock holder support for the stop of all sales of ICE auto's in 2025 as they will convert 100% to EV production by then. 2024 will be the end of manufacturing of ICE auto's with sales to end by Dec 31st 2025. https://www.wardsauto.com/chinas-chongqing-changan-halt-sales-ice-powered-cars-2025

Naw 50 years or less. People are already creatures of habit in regards to plugging in at home for recharge overnight. Prices are dropping on batteries and EV components in big ways. Europe and China have already committed to this change, the US due to failed leadership in many different departments will end up following along as auto companies are not going to continue ICE auto's for 150 years. 20 to 30 years at best if not less. EV assembly is much less complex than ICE, higher profits will come with less manufacturing costs. Just makes business sense. West coast is already well staged for EV support in charging, Chicago just implemented a required charging parking spots on all buildings https://chargedevs.com/newswire/chicago-to-require-evse-ready-parking-spaces/ GM is fast tracking building EVs and opening up the plant due to less labor required, greater spacing between workers, safer working for the workers. https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1128140_gm-has-fast-tracked-its-electric-vehicle-program-in-pandemic-slowdown Even reviews of PHEV show why moving away from ICE only auto's is a good thing. https://chargedevs.com/features/2020-lincoln-aviator-grand-touring-review-of-the-brands-first-plug-in-hybrid/ Electric Power Trains are far more efficient and getting better every day than ICE will ever be. Reduction in local pollution to air, ground, and home is better for humans. Yes I could go on, but I honestly think just like about 50 years to replace horses with ICE auto's, I see ICE being replaced by EVs in 50 but honestly less years. Future auto customization will be people taking their favorite old auto, removing the old ICE power train and converting to Electric.