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Drew Dowdell

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Everything posted by Drew Dowdell

  1. Drew Dowdell
    As companies get better at EVs, they'll continue to be simpler to build than ICEs. That's where I expect a lot of efficiency to come from. There will be a greater percentage of common parts shared among different models.
  2. Drew Dowdell
    Reach and lifting. Having the tailgate swing out puts you 18" - 24" closer to that bag of mulch you're trying to reach without hopping up into the bed.
  3. Drew Dowdell
    A Trax EV with a 225+ mile range would be just about the smartest EV move GM could make.
  4. Drew Dowdell
    *Gently steering this back on topic without offending anyone*
  5. Drew Dowdell
    I want to repeat that I didn't ditch the gas mower for any grand ecological reasoning. It was a 14 year old Craftsman with a Briggs engine that caused me lots of trouble. I probably put more money into parts for it over the last few years than it would have cost me to buy a new one, but it was always $25 here, $45 there, so individually the repairs made sense. The last breakdown happened only an hour after I had replaced a part that I had waited a week for and I was simply fed up. I got a service to do my rentals and I had the spare Black and Decker corded electric to fill in. If I can find a new blade for it (it's enough out of balance to matter) I'll just use it till it dies and then get another electric. I have a number of other newer gas powered tools still around that won't be replaced for a long while.
  6. Drew Dowdell
    The average homeowner isn't going to need more than one battery. 60 minutes of actual mower operation is a lot of yard. Such a homeowner will be of distinctly above average income. I prefer to think of it is as being flexible. You want to talk about all the whatabouts aside from car emissions... We're doing just that. Feel free to bring up cow farts again in this thread if you want.
  7. Drew Dowdell
    lord... how much further off-topic can we wander here?
  8. Drew Dowdell
    Oh come on... Joe Biden can be really funny when those anvils fall out of his mouth.
  9. Drew Dowdell
    Yes, it's one big door, not split like the Ram. Yes, it swings out or folds down like the old wagons. I immediately saw the usefulness of it when I tried it out.
  10. Drew Dowdell
    Neat idear. I was really intrigued when I tried out the swing out tailgate on the Ridgeline.
  11. Drew Dowdell
    I know there will be a new Escalade coming soon, but realistically, they could give the current one an exterior visual refresh and a substantial interior refresh and keep it on the market a while longer. The powertrain is still more than competitive, especially now with the 10-speed.
  12. Drew Dowdell
    No no... we're just being flexible since we have a member here with a case of whataboutism.
  13. Drew Dowdell
    I bill my private consulting clients $75/hour. All that battery needs to do is save me 4.6 hours of swearing like a sailor at a gasoline mower to be worth it. It would have earned it's keep in August 2017 alone. Yes there is a higher dollar cost to these electric mowers, but time is also money. That said, I could probably do my lawn plus the lawns at my rental properties on a single charge.
  14. Drew Dowdell
    It'll run for 60 minutes on a charge and charge in 60 minutes. The natural solution is to just buy a second battery that sits on the charger while you're using the first one.
  15. Drew Dowdell
    I do like that green.
  16. Drew Dowdell
    I was hoping they'd get a bit more mileage out of the Bolt platform.
  17. Drew Dowdell
    That's the brand my Eco warrior neighbor bought and recommended to me when we were talking about me tossing the gas mower.
  18. Drew Dowdell
    They can deregulate coal plants all they want, it doesn't change the economics that natural gas is easier to get out of the ground and that it is much more efficient to produce electricity. It doesn't need to be shipped by train or barge, just build a pipeline. Just the construction of a gas plant is cheaper, and certain types called peakers can be small enough to fit in a shipping container.
  19. Drew Dowdell
    I finally retired my gasoline powered lawn mower just yesterday. It wasn't out of any desire to be green, I just got tired of it constantly breaking down. My father-in-law gave me a very basic electric mower years ago when they moved out of a house into an apartment and that has been doing my lawn just fine. If that goes (it's really old, I can't find blades for it), I'll probably replace it with another electric just so I don't have to deal with all of the maintenance involved in a gas mower. The problem with electric rail power is that in the more remote areas, maintenance of the wires becomes very costly and sometimes problematic. GE and EMD have been working on Hybrid locomotives for years. Norfolk Southern built an entirely EV locomotive, but they powered it with old style lead acid batteries that weren't up to the job. It just got auctioned off and will probably finish its life doing basic switching work at some industrial plant somewhere. The GG1 still has yet to be matched by any electric locomotive for combined power and reliability. Unfortunately none of the ones remaining will ever run again because the electrical systems are incompatible with the modern setup.
  20. Drew Dowdell
    Na, nothing is being un-done effectively, there won't be new coal plants brought online. New coal isn't profitable to build primarily because natural gas is so much cheaper even without the emissions requirements.
  21. Drew Dowdell
    You are correct, and since you are so concerned about cow farts, here is a link, however off topic, to an article addressing the issue. Since you're new here, we usually stick to automotive discussion. Here is information about rail emissions reduction programs. Here is information about tractor trailer emissions reduction programs. Here is information about efforts to get shipping industry emissions under control, though not successful yet. Since you are now informed in those areas, you can stop making straw-man and "Whattabout" arguments against improving emissions from cars, cars being the primary subject of this site.
  22. Drew Dowdell
    Rocket powered Super 88s sold in a fraction of the numbers that Blueflame powered Chevy Fleetlines sold at also. I'm not comparing market acceptance here, but the "high" technology I'm showing at each stage eventually became common or even outdated. In 1984 all engines were "high compression" by 1951 standards....why? Because it was superior design. The turbo hydra-matic that was a fabulous new option in the 1950s was basically ubiquitous and copied by all brands 33 years later. That generation of Thunderbird is credited with changing the the course of automotive styling. Hybrids, in spite of Toyota's best efforts to make them the ugliest cars on the road, are continuing to grow in sales. As battery costs continue to shrink, that growth will accelerate, as will the adaptation to PHEV. In the Prime's case, the range is still not there to justify the extra cost.... But Toyota will get there...long before 33 years are up.
  23. Drew Dowdell
    That Escalade is way overloaded. It can tow, but that is too much tongue weight.
  24. Drew Dowdell
    The only thing that I think Toyota has wrong here is the timeline. First off, existing cars will not be gone. But new production cars will likely be down to EV only. 2050 is only 33 years away. Today, the most technologically advanced cars on the road are PHEVs and EVs like the S-Class PHEV, CT6 PHEV, Chevy Bolt EV, and Tesla Model-S. This is the powertrain diagram for the CT6 PHEV. Aside from the CT6's transmission which is the most advanced hybrid transmission available, the concepts and technologies of this car are the same as the Fusion Energi or Pruis Prime.... I only picked this picture to show the technology, I realize it is not an average person's car. 33 years ago the average midsize car was powered by a carbed V6 or V8. The 1984 Thunderbird was one of the most advanced average person car. It had Central Fuel Injection... which was basically a glorified carb with a single fuel injector instead of vacuum operated jets. Numerous manufacturers were still running carbed engines for an additional 8 years. In another thread here on C&G we are talking about the new Corvette V8 that has two different kinds of fuel delivery systems, and in that regard it is about 3 or 4 years late to the party. Think about the level of technological difference between a 1984 Thunderbird and a 2017 CT6 PHEV or Pruis Prime. 33 years prior to that Thunderbird was 1951 and this was one of the most advanced average person's car on the road. Think about the technology difference between a 1951 Olds with its "High Compression V8" and the 1984 Thunderbird. 33 years before that and you were in a Model-T. 33 years before the Model-T, you could get a Studebaker with between one and four horsepower. The point of this thought exercise is to help you keep in mind what is possible in the span of 33 years.
  25. Drew Dowdell
    Some/Many of the other man-made sources are targeted for regulation as well.
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