G. David Felt

BMW started their ReachNow program, a car sharing program that uses Mini Coopers and BMW i3 cars. Seattle was one of the first 6 cities they started in. Guess unlike their competition Zip cars and Car 2 Go that has properly setup for long term parking all over the city, ReachNow has not and as such got booted overnight by the Seattle Police. Sucks to be the next renter trying to use the car.

Being a below 7 second 0-60 MPH or 0-100 KPH auto should make this very exciting.

So the BOLT being an under 7 second 0-60 car should rock everyone's world!  

Very interesting, surprised by some of the GM divisions ratings, but more surprised by how well GMC has done.

Great that the dealerships are being taken care of finally. I just hope that the Gov forces VW to do all the EV work on industry standard connections and not some proprietary charging setup. We know they are going to have to spend millions to build out charging points around the US and build EV auto's. Lets just hope they follow the rest of the auto industry with standardized plugs, charging, etc.

My Choice is about 400 lbs of Torque on an electrified auto.

G. David Felt
Staff Writer Alternative Energy - www.CheersandGears.com

EV Trucks, What are your options?

Last week, Ellen Musk, CEO of Tesla start his normal dog n pony show about his company and the future and touched on Semi Trucks and an electric pickup. While there has been plenty of photo shopped images of a tesla pickup, this made me think about what are the current EV options for pickup trucks today on American roads?

We will start with one of many startups that is now in production. EV Fleet has started production of their 100 mile range pickup. Considered to be one of the best in slipping through the air. EV Fleet has a multitude of options from a basic cab only truck for full customization to normal pickups and box'd versions and even a Solar option that during the day can add up to 40 miles to the range of the truck. The companies focus is on inner city use by companies and city government. The EV Fleet Pickup has a 1000lb capacity payload if you go with the normal bed. 100 mile range on their current battery pack with a .026 coefficient of drag.

EV Fleet web site

Bremach Motors USA takes a totally off road MOG inspired approach to the EV Truck and has one of the most usable battery packs. The T-Rex as they call it is a serious EV Pickup Truck. 6000lb carrying capacity in a 4x4 platform with a 100kWh battery pack that gives a solid 200 mile range while offering 10-30 amp outlets for powering your tools too. 200hp / 400 lbs of torque

Bremach Motors USA web site

Smith Electric has taken an interesting approach on focusing on the delivery business in cities and has customers like Coke, Frito Lays, Staples, as well as building pure EV transportation for companies that have their own private fleet of people haulers. Smith electric which is more known internationally than in the US just signed an agreement with FDG Electric Vehicles out of China to design and build for the US market light and medium duty trucks for the US market.

Smith Electric web site

Another company that has taken on a niche market is OrangeEV, a company focused on pure electric EV Terminal trucks. These are trucks that move containers around the yard.

OrangeEV web site

The final company is not a pure EV truck, but a Hybrid that has been around for a long time. Giving you 40 miles of pure electric and a total of 400 plus miles with the VIA motors has been making hybrid trucks and SUVs for years, but their current push is to move cities into buying their conversion trucks to go greener and still maintain distance.

VIA Motors web site

No matter if you like, love or hate electrification, I suspect that EVs are here to stay. Having both plug-in hybrids like what is offered by VIA or pure electric like what is offered by EV Fleet or Bremach Motors. There is something for everyone.

What do you think of these early options for electrification of trucks?

@William Maley Thanks for posting that and what you think they could be. That would be interesting if it is a removable entertainment system.

That is a nice looking CUV, reminds me of the Ford Flex. 

Any idea what those funky white bar things could be on the back of the front seats?

9 hours ago, oldshurst442 said:

You being 6'6''/280, and I at 5'6.5"/170ish, I wont be being too mouthy with you buddy!

@oldshurst442 I think you have the need, the need for some speed!

Time to take your car out for a serious drive and let the wind in your hair, tunes blasting and think back to those awesome ALF episodes!

Need another cat?

11 minutes ago, oldshurst442 said:

Thanx for treating me like a dumb-ass with the over explained visuals...you know, with the red circles and the pointer as if I dont know my own handle...

Just kidding!

Well what do you know??!!!

IT WORKS!!!

@dfelt  you rock!

 

 

 

 Sorry do not mean to treat anyone like a dumbass. As a computer engineer who builds virtual setups to train people worldwide on Enterprise Storage, I am in the habit of clearly marking up the screen to make sure everyone including english as a second language know what to do.

At 6'6" tall 280lbs you can pound on me all you want as I can take it.  After all, I am built like a Rock!, American Strong, Like a timex, take a licken and keeps on ticken!  

Will always try my best to help. Glad you got it figured out now.  

6 hours ago, oldshurst442 said:

@Drew

Saturn Sky or even the Pontiac Solstice are nicely sculpted cars, yes.

I can never do a BMW Z3. The Z8 is my style.  That Fiat 124 really hits my buttons though, as much as the A/C Shelby Cobra, Pontiac Solstice, BMW Z8 have.  (I really really love the BMW Z8)

Come to think of it, the perfect Fiat 124 Abarth for me to emulate a British Roadster with guts under the hood (like an A/C Shelby Cobra) would be that 3.9 liter V8 engine from the BMW M5/Z8.

I just saw a dream  fantasy car being born right before me.

I would love to buy a Fiat 124 roadster and engine swap it and drop in that BMW "4.0" V8....

 

 

I TRIED DOING THAT "@ name" THINGY AND IT DID NOT WORK. MAYBE ITS BECAUSE I DONT KNOW HOW TO DO IT....Hmmmmm.

@oldshurst442 You need to use the @ sign and start typing the handle of the person, You will see a pop up window and you then click on the persons handle. This puts in the @ blue box. If you do not see the popup window, then you have popup blocker turned on in your browser and you need to add C&G to your safe site list to allow popups.

Yea, they can put in all these GOV oversight controls they want, but they better have an off switch as there are plenty of times when the nanny devices can be a detriment to life. Computers are still not capable of processing like a human brain.

This is why I think the Tesla pickup or any other Mini EV Pickup with a 1000lbs payload capacity would be a winner for city living folks who want a pickup to go to Home Depot and get their gardening needs.

I wonder how much if any it will look like their Niro concept from 2013.

 I get that same funky symbol some times when I do the keyboard for Bold.

Fiat 124 is far more feminine than the very Macho Cobra!

@Drew Dowdell You Rock!  Appreciate the points and I see what you mean when I look at the photo you included about the longer hood. That does look better than the Miata.

Thank you,

Wonder if Tesla will just keep upping the number for their auto's since it represents the battery pack.

P60, P70, P80, P85, P90, P100

I get they have the 3, S and X

9 minutes ago, Drew Dowdell said:

Well, that's the racer... it's supposed to win on speed, not beauty...

I find the civilian version to actually be rather fetching. 

@Drew Dowdell Help me understand what is in the design that you find fetching? I grew up building Mustang and Camaro racers and have loved race cars, but the Miata is one auto I just could never find appealing and I hear from you and others about the Fiat and just do not see what draws the attention and I want to understand at least what I am missing about the design language of this auto. 

I do not see masculine wheel wells, the front end and back end are to me just average. I honestly just see a rebadge of the Miata with the Fiat logo.

Appreciate you telling me what strikes your fancy on this car. Thank you

19 minutes ago, ccap41 said:

Why would they need a V8 to do what the V6 did? This kind of goes against everything CAFE related downsizing. I think we would have liked to HEAR a V8 in the ATS-V but that's nothing more than noises because it isn't like the TT3.6 needed anymore power or tq. 

@ccap41 I agree that we can use smaller size to accomplish larger size. My concern is the whole marketing story about better MPG. I really do not buy it and you can now make that V6 or even a 4 banger sound like a V8, 10 or 12 as the tuning of mufflers is amazing now.

Gonna Call it now, next tuning will be in sound for the Hybrids and EVs. People will want their own unique sound when driving these Electron Pocket Rockets!

12 hours ago, smk4565 said:

Yes, but the Tesla P90D has 713 lb-ft and that is now the 2nd most powerful Model S.  Unlikely to find a V8 putting out 750+ lb-ft to compete with that.  Cadillac needs that 4.2 V8 ASAP while there are still buyers who want V8 power and smoothness, and can't afford a $135k Tesla.  But even when you look at Mercedes, BMW and Audi, their mid-size cars have turbo sixes, and most 7-series and A8s are sixes, Q7 is mostly V6, even the GLS is mostly V6.  Only the top dog stuff has V8 power anymore, and in 10 years electric will replace it.   there is opportunity for Cadillac to offer the V8 at the price point a lot of the other guys are selling a V6, that could win buyers in the near term.

@smk4565 We all know they have a TT V8 coming. This probably will be the last big power engine or next to last as we do not need them no matter how much you keep pounding the drum of "A true luxury auto company has TTV8, V10, V12, etc.. The fact is that Torque moves auto's and plug-in hybrids and pure EVs are coming and the future will be bright with a whole new way of rating engines.

You and every auto magazine / web site out there needs to accept that the days of HP are coming to a close.

Welcome to the 21st century!

I always thought that there would be room for custom tuners and now I see we have a first one that is focused on Tesla.

https://tsportline.com/

They have all types of custom packages from internals for the cabin, wheels, and more.

Interesting that I found in their blog section that the P100D has been talked about since April 13th of 2016.

https://forums.tesla.com/forum/forums/p100d

Plenty of people were interested in it then.

2 hours ago, Drew Dowdell said:

No, everyone could see it @dfelt, I was just demonstrating the new mention system.

Very cool, had no idea we could mention folks like that. Awesome @Drew Dowdell