Google "Rivian"

tjf1967 wrote

I'm not really looking to recoup the cost.  More like a science project to see how far I can take it.

If you do it, I hope you share the results. I more or less agree with Camp that EVs are not ready for widespread adoption. That’s why I’m frustrated that everybody seems to want To skip interim innovations that could reduce fuel use. Even if fuel cells aren’t ready for some reason or there’s an engineering reason that DE doesn’t scale down efficiently, I feel like car companies could be using start/stop, variable displacement, turbo, regenerative braking and composites a lot more then they do. Maybe putting all that technology into a single vehicle would make it as expensive as a Tesla? I don’t know.

Start Stop is the worse invention in the automotive history...imo

EV is the next step , i'm sure it's not the final answer to the ice. Tesla makes approx 275k + cars a year.  Say the avg car uses 15 gallons a gas/ week.. That would mean 4 million gallons a week less gas being burned. Yes you have to burn something to make electricity , but not 4 million gallons worth..This has to have the oil guys attention.

The future isn't ICE..

The start and stop in the Prius is excellent. You don't even notice it. In the Honda we test drove, it was terrible.

The Prius is coming to the end of it's battery life, or at least the end of it's warrantee. It still works fine.  (Camp, does the battery just DIE all of a sudden or does the car start to perform at a lower level?)  MPG has been 55 since the beginning and hasn't changed.  I can get 70 out of it, but I treat it like a video game, the wife just drives it.

Zelda wants to keep it until the battery dies and replace it to get a definitive answer on what happens to it.  We're told it's 2000 for a new battery but you get some kind of credit because they "recycle" it.  I read somewhere that the batteries can be used for other purposes (keeping beer cold) for another decade when they are too rundown for the car.

Brownski... Honda made a variable displacement V6 for one of it's mini vans, I read it wasn't that good. While you aren't burning gas you still get friction from the pistons or something like that.

I have that Honda V6 in my Pilot. Compared to my 5 cylinder in my truck, it has more power of course but also is more efficient (by about 2-3 mpg) even though the Pilot outweighs my truck by about 500 pounds. By now, they should be able to do better

Your Pilot is variable?  I didn't know that. I thought it was an Odyssey only thing.

Yeah, it is. It’s a good motor. She had an Oddessy previously and the same motor somehow ended up in a Saturn Vue she had before that. Those two were an earlier generation from before the variable displacement was introduced. It was way more power then the Saturn needed.

campgottagopee wrote

Part of Tesla's success is do to other manufactures not selling EV's or Hybrids. It get's real political but in a nutshell each manufacturer has to sell X amount of EV's or Hybrids. For each car they sell they get X amount of points. If the amount of points don't add up to what their total should be they can buy credits from another manufacturer who may have extra.

Is that like the CAFE standards?

I remember my uncle having a variable displacement engine in a Cadillac in the 80's and it was a POS. I drove the car occasionally and remember the engine not being as smooth as his previous Cadillacs. Seemed like the engine and tranmission did not get along. Although I would think that the technology has improved over the last 30 years or so.

Yep

Isn't it the transmission that limiting your mph in the pick up?

tjf1967 wrote

For me its not having to pay for fuel anymore.  You think those prices for gas in 2007 are gone forever?  I also like smoking tires.  I care about the environment but not that much.  I want the versatility of pick up and not the cost of filling it up at the pump.  Wait till these dumb dumb heads start paying 120 bucks to fill their tanks up so they can feel cool.  I would say most of the people that drive pickups have more money than brains.  Right now I drive a sedan and have a 4+8 aluminum trailer to move stuff around.
They are here to stay.  Elon Musk is going to go down in the history books.

The price of gas today is about what it was in 1973 before the first oil embargo in equivalent dollars. All forms of energy are dirt cheap right now. If oil goes up so will all other forms of energy, even renewable energy.

tjf1967 wrote

Isn't it the transmission that limiting your mph in the pick up?

Yeah, probably. Good point. It would take a pretty amazing transmission to make my five cylinder cool though.

And now there is the Tesla Cybertruck coming, starting at 39,900, 49,900, and 69,900, with range from 250-500 miles.

The midrange model is spec'd to go 0-60 in 4.5 seconds and tow 10,000 lbs.  

$100 refundable deposit to order.

https://www.tesla.com/cybertruck

I think elon went off the rails . i don't think something out of Mad Max is the way to go..

JasonWx wrote

I think elon went off the rails . i don't think something out of Mad Max is the way to go..

It will look cool in a couple of Rap videos. That's something.

JasonWx wrote

I think elon went off the rails . i don't think something out of Mad Max is the way to go..

I think he let his engineers lose after they saw a few too many SiFi movies. Maybe it will appeal to the gentleman cowboy who never gets his boots muddy.

Such a fugly "truck". The Aztec was the first thing I thought of when I saw it.

Supposed to be 200,000 pre-orders already, but if the commitment is a $100 refundable deposit that doesn't count for much.

When I heard that number I called BS.  Same with Disney's 10 million subscribers on the first day.  Give me a break.

That truck was a joke.  I don't think it matters what the shell looks like yet... are they going to use that same skate board chasse?  I'm having my doubt about Rivian coming through.  The release date has been 12 to 20 months out for 25 months now.

The Aztec was way uglier IMO.