balthazar

^ exactly the point I’ve made.

Batteries merely fit in between the structural rails below- they don’t allow for a shortening in height of said structural rails. Usable interior space should be the same.

"open up the center console" for what?

Photoshop ~

Same basic concept : steel structural perimeter frame underneath.
Lightning is totally the same approach, HummerEV is more of a 'unibody' but still encompasses a structural perimeter base. 

[quote]...not many people earning median pay could afford any EV...[/quote]

Not good news for a segment hoping to grow significantly beyond 3% (U.S.) to a major percentage, never mind "100%".

I do think their calculations for salary "to afford" are too high, tho. It also seems to assume zero savings & draws all car funding from salary only. Again- if you're pulling down $111K, you had better have some liquidity / savings. Rule of thumb is 6 months of expenditures... 

I don't know where those 'scenario' numbers were sourced from, but if you're pulling down $111K/yr, you should be putting more than $4500 down on a new car.

When cars did the work trucks do now : 

The fabric convertible top cover (when retracted) is an atrocity no matter the brand/model. 
Cadillac had the hard cover up thru '76 on the Eldorado, it should have returned in '84.

I haven't brought direct sales into the current discussion - the companies I mentioned never got to the point of actual sales (except Rivian has started, but they’ve already pulled back from prior volumes). It was a simple statement of how difficult it is TODAY to break into the market; a comment towards David's post that Tesla 'could implode'.

And not the 'simplicity of sales', but of relative manufacturing of a BE.

The popular narrative of 'so much simpler' aside, it has FAR FAR more to do with the State of the Modern Auto rather than motive power.

The industry has gotten MAD complicated. 

People tend to think starting/running a new vehicle OEM is 'easy-peasy'... but the high rate of poor outings in the BE tent (Nikola, Workhorse, Bolinger, maybe Rivian) show that to be anything but.

Tesla had a 'not-on-the-menu' Model 3 for $35K base... for all of 6 months.  Couldn't hold the line.

'55 Pontiac Safari ~ 

2 hours ago, oldshurst442 said:

[Musk] was referring to the fact that what really matters for him is making autonomous driving a reality, because at that moment "the cost of transport will be reduced, I don't know, by a factor of four to five."

Interesting in light of the fact that Tesla's own 'full self driving' feature costs 12 grand alone, plus $2400/yr subscription [cnet.com].

Maybe he meant to say 'raise the cost of transport by a factor of 1/4th to 1/5th'?

Ford tractor is a N-Series; '39-52, which encompasses the 9N, 2N and 8N. 

38 minutes ago, trinacriabob said:

Is this a real T-Bird model, a kit, or something else?  Weird, but very cool.

‘63 Chrysler Turbine, 55 built, 10 still exist.

I like both looks.

Sometimes, it just makes more fiscal sense to get the mechanicals correct and leave the rest as is. 

Chevy LCF (Low Cab Forward) - a medium-duty semi-cab over that some folk re-work into a pickup. Lil pug doggie ~