Drew Dowdell

On Monday, Stellantis and Samsung announced they had signed a memorandum of understanding to build a second battery manufacturing plant in the US via their joint partnership firm, StarPlus Energy. Their first facility is under construction in Kokomo, Indiana. Targeted for production start in the first quarter of 2025, the plant was initially planned to have a production capacity of 23 gigawatt-hours, later to increase to 33 gigawatt-hours as demand rises. However, the partners are bypassing the initial 23 GWh phase and are building out to the full 33 GWh capacity now. The plant is expected to be further expanded in the future to meet demand. The Kokomo plant is expected to create 1,400 new jobs. The latest plant is slated to initially add an additional 34 GWh of capacity, with further future expansion possible. StarPlus Energy is aiming to have battery production started at the new plant in 2027. The location of the newest plant has not yet been announced. Stellantis is aiming to offer at least 25 new battery electric vehicles in North America by 2030 with a roughly 50% BEV sales mix. For Europe, Stellantis plans to be 100% BEV by 2030. To meet those targets, Stellantis is working on global partnerships to secure at least 400 GWh of battery production capacity. View full article

I guess technically, they announced the end of production rather than cancelation. But with sales numbers like what @David quoted, I can see a desire not to give up that slice of the market. The Bolt was ended to make room for additional Silverado EV production, so I would expect we'll hear about it moving to a new plant in the future.

An unexpected twist! It sounds like it will be a major mechanical refresh but maybe not so much a visual one. I've read elsewhere that this could underpin a future Honda as well.

Put it another way, Toyota has more spare capacity than Tesla has total capacity.

No... just no. Put down the vape. Tesla does not have the manufacturing capacity globally to produce 8 million vehicles. Today, they can do about a million and a quarter per year, and Fremont is still using tents to build cars.

Man.... you gotta stop smoking the Musk Vaporware....

That means nothing regarding attractive designs. The EV6 is too expensive for its size and bodystyle. I like it, but I wouldn’t pay what Kia is asking for it. but that doesn’t make Teslas less stark

I am a computer person. Apple has been far more reliable for me than Android. Both OSes suck, but the build quality of Apple products has been, on average, better than the Androids I've had. The best Androids were the Nexus and Pixel line. Samsungs are garbage.

The charger and the motor, and certain batteries are the only things that Tesla has an advantage on. Their visual design sucks (peaked at early Model S) and their interior design can only be considered "design" by the most technical use of the word. Stark, stale, austere, plain, and unremarkable, are all words I'd use to describe Tesla aesthetics. Are they still using Dodge Dart window switches? I haven't checked lately.

Happy birthday guys. Sorry I wasn’t around for the actual day. Been serving on the worst kind of jury duty possible, but it’s finally all done.

Hey there @Olds Guy, welcome back! Yes, the garage is still up and running. It's under the Community menu up top or you can get to it here. https://www.cheersandgears.com/garage/ I do like that color, but I tend to like Blue or Green more. They don't really have a green I like. Jeep used to have an amazing dark green that I loved.

EA is a weird situation because they exists due to a court order. Until that court order expires, I expect them to remain independent.

Except for EA, I expect there to be several rounds of consolidation as David suggested. Shell is actively buying up charging networks and I would be surprised if other traditional energy companies don't start doing the same. BP already has their BP Pulse network in the UK and announced in Feb is investing $1B in building the Pulse network in the US in partnership with Hertz. They also own a company that builds the DC Fast Chargers and an Israeli battery company. Chevron has a partnership with EVgo to install chargers at its gas stations, I wouldn't be surprised to see Chevron just buy EVgo outright eventually. Only Exxon is taking the Toyota "EV's aren't real" approach even though their CEO predicts that all new cars will be EVs by 2040. Rather than being the supplier of energy for transportation, Exxon seems to be taking the path of being the leader in specialized lubricants for EVs that are different than traditional automotive lubricants. If and when Exxon's CEO changes, that policy could change too.

Different issues in different regions. In @David's region, the EV chargers suffer from the volume of use. There's just more vehicle volume at them. In the mid-west, the charger stations are fewer and further between due to lack of adoption. The stations get vandalized more often and there is less of a support network to bring them back online.

This is also true. The benefit of Tesla is that they will typically put in 8 - 14 chargers while EA or ChargePoint will put in 2 - 4. If one Tesla charger goes down it's a 7% to 12.5% outage rate. If one Chargepoint charger goes down, it's a 25% - 50% outage rate.

That's basically a full-time job around here. Tesla solar at a supercharging station is window dressing and a bit of advertising their solar panels, nothing more. Solar in that square footage cannot generate sufficient electricity to fully charge those megapack batteries. Solar on a house covers the house's usage plus a little left over for the grid. A single Model-3 charging at 250kW at a super charger is pulling the equivalent of 166 standard microwave ovens. My guess is that while Tesla is using solar to top of the batteries in the ground, they will primarily be using the batteries for energy arbitrage, charging when the price is low and selling when the price is high, off of grid power. Shell (and others) already do that, but without the battery part. When they're the generation company, they can beat Tesla on the grid price and the amount of gain Tesla gets by using solar will be offset by the cost to install and maintain the batteries and panels. In short, I bet the cost per kWh is a wash between the two companies. I don't have a lot of knowledge on this, but looking at both the ChargePoint and Tesla apps, it looks like in our area it's 35c - 50c to DC fast charge on both networks. The price varies by day and time of day. There's also the possibility that Tesla will charge a higher rate to non-Tesla cars using SuperChargers. ChargePoint and other networks also have monthly plans that lower the charge rate if you're going to be using public chargers a lot. This will be the key factor. The other charger networks, EA specifically, were the ones that shot themselves in the foot on this.

Musk just thinks he can do whatever he wants regardless of the regulations.

This is probably coming here for 2024. There’s a slot in the product plans for a crossover this size in addition to the XT4.

Unless I've missed a press release, there is no true hybrid ram. The hemi eTorque is the mildest of mild hybrids. It can add 140 lb.ft of torque measured at the crank, but engine management is tuned in such a way that total output is the same regardless if you have eTorque on your hemi or not. What eTorque mostly does is take those micro changes in throttle that you make during a highway cruise and deliver the power via electric rather than gas. This means the Hemi can stay in 4-cylinder mode much longer and much more often. They've also used it to do some magic with the transmission to make shifting butter smooth. It's CVT smooth aside from seeing the tach needle swing. I had a Wagoneer rental with the 6.4 eTorque for a trip to Florida two Decembers ago. Even with the motorcycle on the back, it managed 20 mpg in "enthusiastic" highway driving. The regular turbo-v6 from Toyota suffers the same issue that the Ford Ecoboost does. You can have Eco or you can have Boost... but not both at the same time. That said, the Toyota iForce-Max massively outpowers the Ram 5.7 so much that it isn't even close to a fair fight. It has 437 horsepower and 583 lb-ft of torque verse 395 horsepower and 410 lb-ft of torque for the eTorque Hemi and still gets 2-mpg better. The Tundra has an entire Camry 4-cylinder of extra torque under the hood compared to the Ram.

Yes, but they’re not unibody on frame like the GM big SUVs and soon the EV trucks

That's like selling phone cases before the phone is released. It's both. They have to come up with a new term for it. Technically, it's Unitized Body-on-Frame. The latest Suburbans and Tahoes are set up like this too. Everything from the front to back on the body is now one welded piece and it all sits on a traditional frame.

Fisker has announced that the Ocean Extreme has achieved an EPA rating of 360 miles, longer range than any SUV under $200k currently sold. The Extreme is the top range of the Ocean lineup, with Ultra and Sport offering 340 miles and 250 miles of range, respectively. There is also the Fisker Ocean One, a special edition of the Extreme, but unless you already hold a reservation for one, you're not able to buy it. The Ocean Extreme prices out at $68,999 base and features dual-motor AWD, boost mode, and a host of driving assist features. California Mode drops all windows aft of the windshield, including the tailgate and D-pillar windows, allowing for an open-air driving experience. Ocean Ultra has a base price of $49,999, which slightly undercuts the Tesla Model Y LR while offering 10 extra miles of range. Ocean Sport undercuts the Tesla Model Y base by about $10,000 but has 29 fewer miles of range. On a 350 kW DC-Fast Charger, the Fisker Ocean can gain 200 miles of range in just 30 minutes. Now with EPA certification in hand, Fisker says that the first Ocean deliveries will start the week of June 19th, with production rapidly expanding after that. View full article

I like the look, but I feel like the passenger side windows are a bit weird. I'll have to try out to see how effective they are.