balthazar

Rivian R1T is a full-size truck by general dimensions, IIRC. Wheelbase 135”. In that we were talking about the Rivian, I went ahead and assumed we weren’t talking about mid-sized trucks. Agreed that the majority of half-ton F/S trucks seem to be the short bed, and that most days most owners aren’t stressing the max capacity of their beds. But like I stated earlier; if bed size is unimportant, so is sedan trunk or CUV cargo cubic footage. Or 400 HP. Or a vehicle with more than 2 seats/back doors for a 1-2 person household. Chose your parallel. OR... it’s there because you may need it occasionally.

Fed Ex is not an individual, but a giant corporation. And giant corporations weigh fleet purchases differently than individual, such as the long-term viability of the company they're sourcing from, to insure a contract is filled and support/parts will be there long down the road. A fly-by-night Chinese EV startup is not going to rise to the top of that class in consideration. Meanwhile, "the best" doesn't always sell the best, does it? That's why every single vehicle segment has more than 1 product in it. And zero segments have a Chinese EV startup at their top.

Floppers. - - - - -

MUCH better than those overpriced, hard-to-get-parts for Mercedes vans that start rusting out in 7 years.

Hopefully the U.S.-based Fed Ex keeps the contractor U.S.-based.

Of course everything gets crap mileage when you average 3-5 MPH. But you have to give GM credit on the longevity of the drivetrains in these. Gonna have to ask my mail carrier next time how many miles on it.

short : 5.5' standard : 6.5' long : 8' 4.5' = introducing a brand new 2025 battery electric sedan with a 100 mile maximum range

Ooo, that's easy. Name me a full-size pickup built now with a 4.5' bed.

"Who needs a big fussy gas car? Most folk only drive local, to grab a few items!"

I’m not talking about how I use my truck. Saying 4.5’ ‘covers most people’ is like saying... the absolute smallest CUV cargo space covers you, or the absolute smallest sedan trunk covers you, or 200 HP covers you. That’s not how the US market operates.

NOW who’s assuming? ? I know and have known so many pickup owners; I myself have been in the segment 26 years now, and literally none of them use it only for ‘- couple bags of mulch’.

A ‘third to a half’ of US consumers do NOT use a full-size truck with a 4.5’ bed. Zero do.

Yes; hopefully they address the actual needs of the segment they’re trying to plant a foot in. Imagine if they came to market only showing a 2-dr pickup. ? However, what I’ve described IS what they’re spending time building.

Seems that the puny 4.5’ bed will have an available 5.5’ bed. That’s not a ‘long’ bed, nor is it a ‘standard’ bed. Rivian has a short bed and an even shorter bed. I also learned in googling around that Rivian is repeating honda’s fail of locating the spare under the bed floor.

^ I dunno; it'd've been a lot more unfair if it was 39 days later. - - - - -

You must've missed the part where laser / optical scanning became possible during the timeline. That was monstrous. BEVs are still not using standardized plugs or charge rates, just like in the dawn of electrification of US consumer goods, which had a multitude of different plug designs & voltages. It's a very outdated approach that seems to be ignoring past successful models.

Here's a short historical overview, that I think parallels can be drawn to the battery electric vehicle arena. - - - - - The UPC / bar code device took a long time to get to the point it is today. • 1949 : Conceived and patented (as a 'bull's-eye' design). • 1952 : patent granted. • 1960 : Laser light demonstrated. • 1966 : Kroger supermarket chain produced booklet that in part mentioned a 'future where an optical scanner could read product prices'. • 1972 : Real-world (successful) test at a Kroger's of an automated check stand (of the bull's-eye design). • call to standardize the system / fielding manufacturer & marketer commentary. • 7 (all U.S.) companies put in submissions. Criteria was; it had to be a max of 1.5" square, readable at any speed & direction (the initial concern that resulted in the bull's eye design), and have less than 1 error in 20,000 scans. • 1974 : first bar code design public scan. • Not an immediate success. K-Mart led a huge push, and it 'took off' in grocery & business industries in the 1980s. • 2004 : Fortune magazine estimated that the bar code was used by 80-90% of the Top 500 U.S. companies. - - - - - TONS of parallels going on. Allowing a long interval of time to optimize the technology [scanners / batteries], 'universalizing' the bar code / charging plugs, and the normal 'evolution' of getting every corporate entity & manufacturer online. Note that from the retailer's point of view, this was openly requested/desired, and the consumer only saw faster check-out/stocking of goods- both positives. There was no change in the shopper's practice, and no massive price spiking to implement the system. It was seamless, unobtrusive, intangible. Still took roughly 50 years to become widespread. This is the natural course of commerce & manufacturing in the world. Change happens, but change takes time. A LOT of time. This example is a perfect reflection of why I continue to repeat that internal combustion bans in 14 years aren't going to stand.

Percentages have their place, but they throw the casual reader off with ease. You read 'sales are up 50%!' and that's factually correct when you go from (4) to (6). Far more impactful if you go from 400,000 to 600,000.

Good place for thinkin'?

No prob. It's a contract to build / supply parts for, and that component lasts 10 yrs. How long they are 'designed to last' I haven't read, but a good supplier should always under-promise & over-deliver. I would hope the bar is raised from the Grumman's to at least 40 years, but I doubt the Fed is thinking in that direction when there's so many 'wrongs to right'. These upstart BEV company's are the equivalent of a kid's lemonade stand vs. McDonalds. Or: [Like that one? Made it myself!]

We of course every advocacy board wants a fat revenue stream so they can set up layers upon layers of administration and bureaucracy. And get custom letterheads. But it's not REMOTELY "sad" that a intended 25-yr old vehicle gets stretched an even further 9 years- THAT'S where you make gravy on your contract (as the buyer). You misread again. The prior contract was 1987-1994 to build that fleet. They were well engineered enough to last up to 34 years so far, but not only is the new contract going to TAKE 10 years to build/replace the current ones, I see no start date for the new contract! That means the current Grummans may be FIFTY years old before finally retired. The current contract is how long the increasingly inefficient Gov't is allowing them to build the same quantity of vehicles it took 8 years to build before. In other words, it allows a 25% LESS efficient contractor. [OK, there's some more (largely unnecessary) tech and they're larger vehicles... but "SIMPLER POWERTRAINS" (on the BE's), ammirte?]

Actually up 34% vs. a year ago (total industry was down 6%). Which was still off the peak set in 2018. Report says Mustang Mach-E was responsible for almost 100% of Tesla's market share PERCENTAGE loss, but Ford only built 6700 units in 2020. Lo-ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong way to go

How laughably out-of-touch with reality. I wonder if ZETA has any concept of how many petroleum products are in a given BEV?? Struggling, flighty, upstart companies are not fit for long-term Gov't contract work. God; look no further than Tesla. Long-term viability is a key factor in infrastructure evaluations. Imagine the same backlash against not allowing upstart construction companies to get contracts to build major highways bridge spans or commercial aircraft. They're also not going to be able to come remotely close to being competitively priced.

IMO, Pontiac's full-sizers were on the downside of their peak after '66, tho there are still ones I definitely like. Like this '68 Catalina; it really makes the painted bumpers work here: