Drew Dowdell

Oh it absolutely is because he hires egos rather than talent. Any VP of Production at any other manufacturer would have been sacked ages ago. Sure he steals top talent, but he steals it from Apple, Microsoft, and sometimes Uber… but no one who actually has experience…you know… building cars. If he hired people who knew how to build cars, then he could delegate that to those people and he could go off building rockets to Mars or whatever. He’s arguably better at delegating over at Tesla solar and SpaceX. At Tesla Solar he just bought out another company and kept most of the management. At SpaceX he hired a rocket engineer and stole a bunch of people from Boeing.

Every manufacturer has some issue where they fall short. Tesla's problem is that they can't seem to build a car with consistent quality anywhere close to what GM is doing. And it is a matter of percentages also. In 2021, Tesla produced 936,222 vehicle for their entire lineup globally. But they can't get their door panels to line up correctly each time or for a new vehicle not to brick itself 5 days after delivery. In 2021, GM sold 835,269 Silverado/Sierras just in North America. Add in the 97k from the Colorado/Canyon and GM produces as many trucks as Tesla's entire lineup. GM built 6.3 million vehicles globally in 2021 and that's down from a peak of 10.01 million in 2016. So while GM has experienced some design quality issues... generally the build quality is pretty good and consistent. Telsa also complicates matters by making running upgrades to their vehicles.... so that two cars coming off the same production line within days of each other can end up with different parts. So just having a 2022 Tesla doesn't mean anything... you need to know which version 2022 you got. If that were being done by say, Honda, I'd have a lot more confidence in the process.

$200k price, long hood proportions, intended to compete with high-end MB EQS, Ultra-Cruise (the next step above Super-Cruise), 400 mile range, auto-dimming glass roof, and hand built

It's a matter of focus and attention. Musk himself admits to working 14-16 hour days. That's a sign that he is unable or unwilling to delegate or hire competent people. Mary Barra doesn't need to get involved in AC Delco or GM Financial because there are very skilled people at the helms. Mary came up from the production line where she worked quality control on the Pontiac Grand Prix, but she's not out there sticking her fingers in each panel seam these days. When you have the right people in the right roles, things run much smoother.

Chevrolet announced today that July 18th will the day they drop the curtain on the 2020 Chevrolet Blazer EV.  This will be an all-new, all-electric midsize crossover built on GM's Ultium platform.   Ultium is a joint venture between General Motors and LG Energy Solutions to provide flexible battery and powertrain solutions for any size of vehicle.  Ultium was initially released in the GMC Hummer pickup. The Blazer EV is set to go on sale in Spring of 2023. That same year, Chevy will also launch the Silverado EV and Equinox EV while Cadillac is launching the Celestiq ultra-luxury sedan. In addition to the Blazer EV trims, Chevy is planning an SS version to rival the Mustang Mach-E GT Performance Edition.  While we don't yet know the specs, expect a target near the 480 horsepower and 634 lb-ft of torque the Ford has.   View full article

It's a significant difference in managerial style. Elon strikes me as micro manager in as much as a CEO/President can be. He personally heads up all of his other projects. Mary Barra and the GM Board, on the other hand, hires competent (arguably) leadership to run those things and they just have to report results up to the board once or twice a month. GM has well stocked leadership team that can function on their own. Would anyone here not trust Mark Reuss - President of General Motors, to handle his stuff properly? Dan Berce is CEO of GM Financial and a SVP for GM. He was with Americredit from 1990 - 2010, serving first as CFO, then President, then CEO. AC Delco has its own Director. The list goes on of course with very capable people you've never heard of. Elon has a leadership team too, of course, but he has much more direct control over individual aspects of the business and the side businesses.

Yes, but LG rather than GM. And the issue with Elon is that he is dishonestly manipulating the market with his tweets. See the recent series of tweets regarding Tesla layoffs and the whole Twitter blowup

@regfootball why are we shouting? There’s a big interior space difference. External dimensions are a red herring.

I liked the Milan a lot.. it had just a little bit more flare than a Fusion and it had the hint of being more luxury than a Ford.... not much, but enough that Mercury might have been able to pull away from Ford had they been allowed. My Aunt had one of the last Mountineers and she would say she'd never get an Explorer. She has an Aviator now... so... true.

1. HR Director took delivery of her brand new Tesla Model Y on Friday. 2. By Wednesday it was on a flatbed, stone dead, getting trucked back to Tesla for repairs.

Yikes! That's a miracle! It manages to be slower than my Encore was.

Yeah, for most of the length it is still 2 lanes each direction. There's room to expand it, but they just haven't.

That suggests you haven't been on 95 in Georgia lately. It is, by far, the worse part of the trip for traffic. Regularly down to 55-60 in the left lane with no opportunity to pass. Jacksonville to Brunswick is fine, but from there through Savannah until the interchange with 26 is awful. North of Charlotte to the VA border is the second worst.

yeah, there was a decent but not terrible upcharge for them.... but they only came in upper trims anyway. I don't think they built them as base models. The big negative is that the AWD versions were dropped only a year or so in... so if you wanted a diesel + AWD as I would have, you were out of luck.

an EV SUV would be fine for you then. 10 minutes on a fast charger while you take a bathroom/food break and you'll keep it going After multiple round trips to Florida... I stopped trying to do those marathons of driving without stopping. I stop when I feel the need to stop. It's not a race and there's probably slow traffic in Georgia anyway.

I used to be able to do that in my younger years... I'd do Pittsburgh to NJ in one shot. I just can't make it more than about 200 miles anymore.

Blue badge says TD and yup, it’s the turbo diesel

10 min every hour and a half and you’d never need a full recharge stop until your destination I don’t think the EUV has the new Ultium batteries.

Here’s a rare one What’s her beef with the Grand Cherokee?

Given the time span between when @Robert Hall trades vehicles, his next one will be in 2033 anyway, by that point $80k will be entry level. But I hear you on range. I physically can’t go more than 200 miles without stopping. My bladder doesn’t have that range. The new GM and Tesla batteries can add 100 miles in 10 minutes. That’s enough to keep me on the road at the same pace my bladder needs.

As with everything, there's an App for that.... several in fact. This is from the Plugshare app. Any EV with a 350 mile range and fast charging ability should be sufficient

It is highly dependent on the chemistry of the battery. Batteries can have extremely long lives though, so even when a battery is done in an EV, it can go on to serve as a household solar power storage unit for another decade or more. A gas engine can't really compete with that. Gas engines, and their transmissions, are incredibly complex even just from a metallurgy standpoint. The amount of time and energy that goes into creating and transporting all of those parts is mind blowing. That said, there have been some relatively recent battery breakthroughs that will, in future, reduce the amount of rare earth metals used in batteries. Telsa has already implemented them in some of their cars. The batteries are smaller and lighter for the same power output and range. There are two main points to EVs: 1. It makes the method of propulsion fuel agnostic. It doesn't matter if you have coal, natural gas, wind, hydro, solar, rooftop solar, nuclear, or a hamster running on a wheel generating electricity. The car doesn't care. If all of the sudden we can't use coal anymore, there's 5 or 6 more options to switch to and you don't even have to think about it, your power company does that. 2. Even if you charge your EV from a coal plant (which the vast majority don't, coal use has fallen below 20% in this country), it is still cleaner from a CO2 standpoint because EVs are just that much more efficient. Additionally, it is far easier to make sure that a few power plants are burning cleanly than it is to make sure 200 million cars are. You live in NY, so you have emissions checks. Ohio doesn't bother with that, so cars can pollute however much they want and I get to breathe it all.

I'm curious as to why you think it wouldn't work for you?

dropped last year or the year before... don't remember exactly when.