G. David Felt

Interior is not bad, exterior is a jelly bean blob of nothing. If Mercedes-benz is the BEST OR NOTHING AT ALL, why only 350 kW fast charging when F1e racing using 900 kW charging and Porsche is using 800. This DOES NOT sound like the best or nothing.

In other news, seems a number of key states have officially fallen into a recession from mid-west to east coast. Pennsylvania alone shed 8,000 manufacturing jobs this year. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-09-09/a-manufacturing-recession-could-cost-trump-a-second-term Seems a wide diverse group of manufactures from auto company suppliers to farm equipment manifactures are in contraction.

Happy Birthday @dwightlooi It has been great having you share your auto engine knowledge. Thank you!

You can be my CFO!

Boy did Ghosen really leave the auto industry screwed for this and a couple other companies.

Bummer for the US market on the initial launch, but let them work the bugs out on the European market first and then bring Rev 2.0 of the controller software to the US Market.

? My one big question for these hybrids is with an electric motor in the transmission, if it fails does it take out the whole transmission so the auto cannot move at all or goes into a Limp Home mode or what? Would be interesting to know what happens if the electric motor in the transmission fails.

According to their press releases, they are working with a wide range of OEMs in current various phases of testing to go full production and we should see various products based on this technology across the technology portfolio of smartphones to auto's in 2020. Their web site says for current EVs, if using this material those battery packs would be 6 min or less depending on capacity. So a 6 min charge for a 239 mile BOLT or 6 min charge for a 300 mile tesla maybe???? ? That is unclear and I emailed off to their inquiry email address asking for clarification on the 6 minutes for auto recharging.

Let's hope they stay true to the roots and keep it a RWD SUV rather than a FWD CUV based. If they do that I think it will still sell but loose some off road creds for a FWD/AWD CUV.

According to Chargedevs.com Mercedes-benz has launched 3 compact PHEVs. A 250e A 250e Saloon B 250e All will have a 15.6 kWh battery good for 70-75 km with electric output of 75 kW, total system of 160 kW and torque of 450 Nm. For us Americans that is 214 HP / 332 lb-ft. https://chargedevs.com/newswire/mercedes-benz-launches-three-compact-phevs/

Want a good laugh, check out the Tweets from Elon Musk and Tesla aimed at VW / Audi / Porsche. https://www.teslarati.com/elon-musk-trolls-vw-porsche-twitter/ November seems to be the month that we finally get to see the production Truck from Tesla. https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-pickup-truck-unveiling-event-date-november/ Will be interesting to see how much it looks like this concept image released by Tesla.

According to the Cadillac Society, Custom Car Co, a Georgia based company has had a leak of a project they are working on, the Escalade V and this so called Coupe seems to be a true Coupe SUV, means 2 doors folks. http://cadillacsociety.com/2019/09/05/cadillac-escalade-v-coupe-rendering-is-bold-brash-and-truly-excellent/

GMAuthority.com have captured 4 of the Cadillac CT5-V Blackwings testing and for those that want the rumble, here is what they sound like taking off from a stop for lunch.

Latest news that Tesla has NO COMMENT on is the rumor that they are moving into a new product line of battery cell manufacturing. According to the story broke by Electrek Tesla Story This all started with Tesla's acquisition of Maxwell, a supercapacitor manufacturer. Tesla now has job openings for a new manufacture line in Fremont California and in Colorado. To quote the story: Tesla is currently seeking a Technician for a manufacturing line we are developing. You’ll be part of a new product line we are developing. One of the jobs listed on their site: https://www.tesla.com/careers/job/manufacturing-techniciancellmanufacturing-48026 Clearly cell manufacturing is a job at Tesla now. While Tesla has NOT had any facilities of R&D or Manufacturing in Colorado, clearly Broomfield, Colorado is now such a locations according to this job posting: https://www.tesla.com/careers/job/cell-technician-44615 The story goes on to say that comments from Tesla executives is to take battery cell supply into their own hands to insure sufficient supplies rather than rely on Panasonic. On top of the battery cell story above, we have Tesla researchers saying they can makes battery packs last 1 MILLION miles. The application for this new cell from long haul trucking, robo taxis to vehicle to grid applications are endless. The link below will allow you to read the full story plus they got their hands on the Research paper that is posted there for the tech heads that are interested in these new 1 million mile battery cells. Tesla Battery Cells last 1 million miles story from Electrek To quote the story: The new battery tested is a Li-Ion battery cell with a next-generation “single crystal” NMC cathode and a new advanced electrolyte. Dahn’s team have been extensively testing these cells and based on the results, they think that the battery could power an electric car “for over 1.6 million kilometers (1 million miles).” Here’s how Dahn’s team describes the results:

Echion Technologies is addressing today's biggest challenge for electric vehicles is the speed at which the battery is recharged. Current technology pretty much has your 300 mile battery recharging in 45 minutes to 1 hour. In 2017 Toshiba came out with a battery that goes into production for select new EVs that come out at the end of 2019 with general availability in 2020. The Generation 1 SCiB battery was 200 miles in 6 min and with generation 2 they have now made it 353 miles fully recharged in 6 min. Now we have Echion Technologies that has come up with a unique material solution for Lithium-ion batteries. According to the interview by Cambridge Independent newspaper Dr. Jean De La Verpilliere was studying at the University of Cambridge for his PhD in nanoscience when he created a material that could be used in Lithium batteries. His focus and expertise on high performance materials innovations for lithium brought about the following benefits that current batteries in current EVs do not have. Ultra-fast charge - Re-charge of Li-ion batteries in a matter of minutes. High energy - No sacrifice of energy for power Sustainable - Materials are entirely sustainable Safe - Fast charge without dangerous lithium dendrites Cost-effective - NO expensive or rare feedstocks needed The benefit of this new material according to Echion Technologies is that this patented technology material will help to drive the global electrification movement across the supply chain. The benefit is that this material simply drops into the existing battery manufacturing infrastructure with no capital cost. Per the interview by Cambridge Indepenent is that they have replaced graphite with their own mass produced neutral material. One of the biggest benefits here is that current Li-ion batteries can explode when re-charged too fast. With the Echion material you have no explosion at any speed of charging. People will remember the Samsung Note 7 nightmare of exploding batteries. This was the push by Cambridge and various scientist who were researching various options for safer battery charging. Dr. De La Verpilliere was the one to figure out a non-explosive material that could replace the solid and liquid current design of Lithium batteries. With the startup of Echion Technologies they are taking their 1,000 tonnes manufactured a day and scale it as they work with various OEMs in building new next generation Lithium solid state batteries. Echion Technologies was funded by Cambridge Enterprise and NewablePrivate Investing. They have since been joined by Vantage Power, a company that designs and manufactures electric and hybrid systems for Buses and commercial goods vehicles. Backed with money and now working with various OEM vendors, Echion says their battery technology will show up in various EVs from consumer cars / CUV / Trucks to commercial applications and should bring the recharge time down to you going inside to get a cup of coffee, pay for it and walk back out and be ready to hit the road. Echion Technologies Founding Team View full article

Mercedes-benz invited a few journalist to their HQ for a preview of their electric vehicle lineup that will be shown off at the German Auto show. https://electrek.co/2019/09/05/mercedes-electric-eqc-eqv-eactros/ I have to say I do like what I see for the EQC. There are a series of pictures both inside and out at the link above. I like what I see and that at least it has some interior storage in the back. MB says this is a Tesla Y competitor. Also, found out that the Smartcar and B-Class EV had Tesla Powertrains. Tesla also admits if it was not for the $50 million investment from MB, Tesla would not exist today. MB sold off their share a little over a year ago for $780 million. Not bad on an original $50 million investment to gain $730 million on it. They do mention that Tesla and MB are considering a joint Sprinter EV van to be sold by Tesla. Sounds like a rebadge of the current released EV Sprinter van.

Yea, sharp looking update for the little bugger, but clearly quality problems. As I posted in the August 2019 Auto spotted thread, had a new one with no plates yet in front of me and they braked, left side came on before right side and cyclops center light and the cyclops light only half the LED came on and then the other did. Wife asked me if that was supposed to do that and I said no. braking lights having electrical gremlins makes me wonder about the whole auto. Not a good sign that they are reliable.

Cool, thanks will text him as he was wondering about it.

Totally agree, I know a coworker who took advantage of the cheap lease deals and got a really nice Jeep GC lease at 15K a year for miles and he is half way through his 3rd year, loves his jeep but is at 54K miles already as he loves driving and camping. Clearly buying would have been better than leasing. He is going to buy the jeep at the end of the lease and is hoping to not get dinged for the miles. Since I have never leased, not sure how it works out when you have high miles but want to buy it then. Any idea?

Came out of 24hr fitness to find this near my Durango.

Then that would remove 1/3rd of MB product line since they have many products that do not compete except as a badge snob.

Your Special

@surreal1272 I get the point you making, yet keep in mind the Trailblazer SS was limited production so not the millions of lemming trailblazers that were built. It is wider far more custom since it is an SUV body on a Corvette. Platinum ESV also were not that common in 2006 compared to all the other standard non esv Escalades. Hummer got a bad rap by the eco nuts, but while they were a in your face SUV, you still did not see many and even today, very rare to find them. Durango was a mass produced SUV, but most people did not know that the RT in 2000 was a limited production AWD, only AWD Durango at that time with the big 5.9L V8. THat is the difference is that yes those names have plenty of mass produced versions, but there were specific trim levels that were limited or people for the most part did not buy due to MPG / Price. To me my friend, those are far rarer than the lemmings auto's of the era I bought them in.

WOW, No I had not ever seen this or hear about it, thanks for the video. Still ugly to me, but WOW, that is AMAZING engineering. Love it! Love the off the cliff test and the Suicide doors still work!