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G. David Felt

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Everything posted by G. David Felt

  1. G. David Felt
    Multicultural Strong
  2. G. David Felt
    Sadly I see way too many young people more engrossed in social media on their smartphone and using Uber / Lyft than wanting to drive. ?‍♂️
  3. G. David Felt
    There were actually 3 skateboard platforms that GM sunk millions into. January 2002 was the GM Hy-wire skateboard platform that used Hydrogen to power a drive by wire system. This was their latest Skateboard platform. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_Hy-wire 2006 was the updated Skateboard concept from GM, the Sequel fuel cell concept skateboard. https://www.greencarcongress.com/2006/08/gm_announces_dr.html October 2017 SURUS autonomous fuel cell skateboard that GM says would help disaster relief. https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/gms-surus-fuel-cell-truck-platform-could-be-a-disaster-relief-hero/ Some might say the 1996 EV1 that GM killed and many believe was a cave in to Oil companies was the very first original skateboard platform. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_EV1 QUESTION to be asked is WHY did GM never actually use this future tech to move auto production forward? Yes we know battery tech was not as good as it is now, but they clearly had ideas on how to build a global platform that would reduce costs in production of auto's with better driving characteristics.
  4. G. David Felt
    Have you driven a Pilot or Ridgeline or Odyssey? yes they move the auto, but performance and excitement they are not. This is just a shaved CUV of those ugly blah auto's for people who want blah auto's. Gutless to me it is.
  5. G. David Felt
    True, this just might finally clean house on who is still in the game in 20 years.
  6. G. David Felt
    Ugly
  7. G. David Felt
    There is, that is why they added another shift of Bolt production both here in North America and in China, the Bolt is selling well. Marketing has always sucked at GM and that is why they do not sell more. If they offered as many choices on configurations as GM does on trucks, the BOLT would sell allot more. Add in they should have had at the Volt 2.0 release a CUV Volt also as that is what the public wants. Enjoy your gutless honda passport that is replacing your gutless jeep. At least you go from 4 banger to 6 banger.
  8. G. David Felt
    Toyota has admitted they felt Hydrogen was the way to go and ignored electric, Tesla forced them to stop wasting money on Hydrogen and build a late to the party EV team. They are looking at 2025 for full blown EV offerings. Myself and many others have stated when the right options come along people will buy and everyone according to you is afraid of making money on EVs. Yet those that do will surpass and replace those that do not. Rivian has full size Pickup and SUV and that WILL APPEAL to the masses more than Tesla. This is one company that I do expect to stick around and last.
  9. G. David Felt
    Spelling Nazi!
  10. G. David Felt
    Do not tell Musk that. Course if you build a full size truck and SUV plus use an existing real auto assembly line, they could probably build and sell profitable a pure ev product line like Rivian is planning to do.
  11. G. David Felt
    Lucky for them, Mitsubishi left the Normal manufacturing plant fully intact and the city sold it dirt cheap to Rivian. They have a fully setup robotic assembly line that RJ says will speed up their assembly of their EVs and with a full paintshop that is already operational along with many other departments, it is coming down to minimal tweaking of the robots in assembly of the Rivian truck and SUV. Should be easier than what Tesla has done since it uses the same skateboard platform for their auto's. I love that RJ in his interview with Bloomberg stated there was no reason to attempt to reinvent the manufacturing wheel when the existing competition has already shown how to quickly build auto's. So with that, buying an existing auto assembly line with paint shop and just adjusting it to build their auto's should speed up their time to market. Yes they are expecting to start production after the 1st of the year and tweak and then go full production for sales starting after the first of the year in 2020. I can easily see them delivering this sooner than later. I honestly do not expect any slippage in dates unlike Tesla.
  12. G. David Felt
    Loving this Sexy Green AWD with Torque Vectoring SUV. The live reveal was cool. RJ is so much more relaxed and clearly knows his stuff more than Musk. Rivian Automotive should rival and I expect beat Tesla as they are going full size trucks / SUVs compared to cars.
  13. G. David Felt
    Yea, I am thinking that is a mistake as the Escalade is only 116" wheelbase and ESV is only 130" wheelbase. The doors do look long and if it is correct that should just glide over the road soaking up bumps.
  14. G. David Felt
    Yup, super smart guy, clearly all about roomy performance SUV / Trucks based on my reading today. This guy so rocks more than Musk. I am really excited. See they have the preorder page up, Starting price is $65,000 after Federal rebate. So in essence, $72,500 is starting price and the preorder page says the top performance and largest battery pack models will be built first. Then the base model available starting 12 months later or in 2021 available for sale. If RJ can hit his projections and right now I see no reason not too, this will hurt the Detroit OEM and Tesla. GM I believe can handle this but Ford and FCA I am not sure they can handle a strong driven, focused, educated man like RJ that has done his homework on building a better Truck and SUV. I will say that this will put both Asian and German auto companies on alert to move their ass in building EV auto's. $1,000 down is all for a preorder of the SUV or Truck. https://preorders.rivian.com/2322956400/checkouts/400a67d6ffcc711a452e2d3fbd79251f
  15. G. David Felt
    @ccap41 Rihanna is 5'8" So based on this picture at the Nov 26th reveal of the truck that she attended, he is right around 6' tall http://www.zimbio.com/photos/RJ+Scaringe/Rivian+Unveils+First+Ever+Electric+Adventure/VyhC3NG6EI7
  16. G. David Felt
    So the air suspension on this goes from 230 mm to 380 mm. For this reveal they had it at 260mm. So it can still rise up more or as RJ says, can be dropped down to 230 for maximum performance handling and airstream. So at full ride height, the SUV would be 5 inches taller than it is right now. http://www.autonews.com/article/20181029/OEM06/181029762/rivian-scaringe-lean-manufacturing Good read on Rivian.
  17. G. David Felt
    Loving the live Reveal of the SUV and Truck. Stupid Lunch break, but hopefully we still get to see the interior of the 3 row full size SUV. I am loving that it is NOT A COUPE design. LOVE the Green SUV! 800 HP, Torque Vectoring AWD activity vehicles. These will Sell way better than Tesla Cars!
  18. G. David Felt
    I just found a dig at Tesla in their tech section. They say the following about their battery: to give you the confidence to go further regardless of terrain or temperature. I cannot imagine with all the known issues of Tesla be it outside in extreme temps like death valley or at the track racing where their battery tech overheats and shuts down that this is not a dig at them. LOL
  19. G. David Felt
    As an option over touching the screen, I could be happy with telling it to set the temp at 68 degrees. At least they will have touch capable as well as voice.
  20. G. David Felt
    Yes, from what I can gather from their website, it is. They seem to be connected in the center of each wheel section like a differential. I suspect this gives them a very solid center of gravity and ride quality with the weight of the battery pack too.
  21. G. David Felt
    You got me curious about the surfboard statement. The width of the truck is 79.33 inches. According to the web site the length of that storage compartment is 78 inches or 6 feet 5 inches long. The guy looks to be about 5'8" tall to 5'10" tall and when he goes into the water you can see the surfboard is the same size as he is in length. This appears to be a real life board that can store there. Now at the end there is two boards as both he and the woman go into the ocean to surf, so I do question where the second board was stored. No matter what, you nailed it in your statement that the whole packaging of these EV auto's is going to offer flexibility that we have not had in a long time if ever in ice auto's. So in reading of the Rivian web site news section and technology section, they are stating that the auto will be voice controlled via connection with your phone. So Apple Siri or Ok Google will be used I would think to adjust all that. Like you both, I would be happy with a couple knobs for the most commonly used items, but I could be totally touch screen if it has voice control to turn things on/off or adjust while driving.
  22. G. David Felt
    Come visit and if you come north enough to the seattle area let me know and we can connect up.
  23. G. David Felt
    @Robert Hall @ccap41 So the video is very easy to identify where they filmed. Started in Downtown Portland, they then drove up to and over the last bridge going over the Columbia River called "The Bridge of the Gods" into Washington state and the beach where they go surfing and camping is just south of Westport on the coast and Yes, those roads are always very sparse with traffic like that. Common to only see a few cars at a time. 1hr and 32min till the Rivian reveal of their SUV the R1S! Good reading stuff in their newsroom https://www.rivian.com/news
  24. G. David Felt
    That Rocks, Thank you CCAP41 for finding this. I have been reading good things on the off-road capabilities of this truck. I could actually see myself buying this as a family hauler and for yard duty. My wife wants a truck big enough to haul us and our two grown kids occasionally plus let her go to Home Depot or the Nursery and buy stuff and throw it in back. Her final request is it be EV, so this truck would fit all her desires. Exciting for sure. Have to say this video gives even more space and room that this truck offers. Love the Surf board that fits in the funky storage between the cab and bed. I love the sizing of holding a full size cooler in the Frunk. Clearly cup holders are there as CCAP41 points out.
  25. G. David Felt
    Unlike true concepts that barely move around on their own, Rivian has shown the truck out in the woods actually being driven off road, going through rivers, etc. I think while some of their pictures have been from the initial concept they built, many are also of what should be a production near ready truck and I think we will see this at the autoshow once media have access to it. I would think they would have cup holders by then. I could be wrong through. Still exciting times for auto's.
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