11612 replies to this topic

[Victoria Watcher]

Edmonton will never be the vehicle-less utopia progressives want

 

https://edmontonsun....ogressives-want

 

But when council thinks we can have zero garbage, zero road accidents, zero emissions, zero homelessness and poverty, you know they’re dreaming of a utopia that will never exist no matter how much of your money and mine they throw at “solutions.”

 

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 27 December 2019 - 04:10 PM.

[Mike K.]

Quite the smack down from the Honda interview. “Are there really customers who truly want them?” Oi vey.

Q: Honda wants two-thirds of its global sales to come from electrified vehicles by 2030. What is your road to electrification when demand for hybrids and EVs is still undeveloped?

I believe hybrid vehicles will play a critical role. The objective is not electrification, per se, but improving fuel efficiency. And we believe hybrid vehicles are the way to abide by different environmental regulations.

Q: What about full-electric vehicles?

Are there really customers who truly want them? I'm not so sure because there are lots of issues regarding infrastructure and hardware...

[Mike K.]

Coming soon to BC, no doubt, in one way or another:

Starting on Jan. 1, Oregonians driving an electric vehicle will pay $110 more per year to register their EVs. That will lift their registration fee to $306 for two years. The new Oregon scheme will calculate registration costs based on the miles per gallon of the vehicle. In other words, you get penalized for having a more fuel-efficient car. The increased registration fees were written into a transportation bill passed in 2017.

- https://electrek.co/...v-fees-in-2020/

[Mike K.]

Nio’s stock surged this morning by over 42% to $3.4~ after a promising earnings and delivery report came out ahead of today’s trading session.

The EV maker entered the market at a IPO price of around $6, rose to double that, then crashed to the $2 mark.

[Mike K.]

Nio hit nearly $5 today and is just a hair below $4 in after hours trading.

[Mike K.]

Hyundai is now running an ad showing a woman plugging in her EV and opting to play soccer with her daughter ...while the car charges.

She’ll need about a full game’s worth of charge time so it’s a poignant piece of marketing.

[Victoria Watcher]

Polarizing objects are things you either instinctively love or loathe, no middle ground whatsoever. Tesla's Cybertruck is about as perfect of an instance as you'll ever encounter, however long you might live.

 

We love the basic idea and shape. Some critiques we read in the first few hours after its initial reveal suggested it to be a manifestation of unimaginative brutality, crude, ugly, and totally impractical. It is certainly different from traditional pickups, which apart from size have not really changed in concept in 100 years. Is it better than the tens of millions of pickups made during the past century? That remains to be seen, but as a concept vehicle it's both exciting and profoundly interesting.

 

https://www.automobi...930#sf227252930

 

that's a very good article.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 02 January 2020 - 03:57 PM.

[Mike K.]

It’s neither exciting or interesting.

It’s grotesque.

It’s a terrible joke Musk is playing just to call fans of this monstrosity hypocritical, as one of the biggest complaints about trucks has been how masculine they look, how big they are, yadda yadda. But now the same voices are salivating over the cYBerTruck? Give me a break.

[Victoria Watcher]

even if you disagree with that article it makes some interesting points that i have not read elsewhere.  it talks about the truck like it's a real architectural piece of work.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 02 January 2020 - 04:22 PM.

[shoeflack]

Who else wants to start a GoFundMe to get Mike a Cybertruck to use as the new Citified-mobile? I'll cover the wrap-job.

[Mike K.]

Can we make it the CybErBus instead?

[Mike K.]

How can you take this publication seriously when they pen this gush-fest about the cYBerTrucK:

 

Designating the styling as "brutal" shows a complete lack of comprehension as to how subtle and intelligent the Cybertruck's designers were in defining its outer skin, applying the ancient Greek architectural idea of entasis, the not-readily-perceptible distortion of flat planes and straight lines to curves to make them seem straight to the human eye.

 

...meanwhile calling the cYBerTrucK's equally as brutish twin "quietly terrifying."

[Victoria Watcher]

it's looking at the truck through a strict design lens.  don't know why you can not understand that.  if people hate it they will hate it.  like google glass.  it's not like anybody is making them like/buy it. 

 

 

plenty of people buy that stupid fiat car and it sucks real bad.

 

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 03 January 2020 - 05:33 PM.

[Mike K.]

No, it's the same gobbledygook we see stitched to modern art pieces that need a half hour introduction.

 

What they're saying is if you don't "get it" you're unrefined, essentially. They even come out and say it: "Designating the styling as "brutal" shows a complete lack of comprehension as to how subtle and intelligent the Cybertruck's designers were in defining its outer skin..."

 

Sorry for lacking complete comprehension, Automobilemag.

 

20 years ago the Cybertruck would have been featured in a film depicting a dystopian future where design was garish and simple, and an attack vehicle would be slapped together to create something half-functional from garbage strewn about. Today it's fine art.

[Victoria Watcher]

"brutalist" as a term has a long history.  50s or 60s.

 

https://en.wikipedia...st_architecture

 

also Bluto is a cartoon and comics character created in 1932 by Elzie Crisler Segar as a one-time character, named "Bluto the Terrible", in his Thimble Theatre comic strip (later renamed Popeye). 

 

 

 

 

anyway today:

 

 

 

The momentum Tesla is seeing continued during the fourth quarter, with the electric vehicle maker setting a new record in terms of deliveries, blowing past Wall Street estimates. 

 

Earlier Friday Tesla reported it delivered 112,000 vehicles across the globe during the fourth quarter, higher than the 106,00 vehicles Wall Street had expected it to deliver. 

 

For the year Tesla said it delivered 367,500 vehicles, up 50% from 2018 when it delivered 245,240 vehicles. Tesla said the reported deliveries should be viewed as "slightly conservative" and could vary by up 0.5% or more. 

 

https://interestinge...ehicles-in-2019

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 03 January 2020 - 05:40 PM.

[Mike K.]

Brutalist, sure, but brutal is still brutal in my paper copy of Webster's.

 

Tesla is clearly on a role. Good for them.

[Mike K.]

Chinese automaker Lixiang plans $500 million U.S. stock IPO

https://www.autoblog...tomaker-us-ipo/

 

Chinese electric vehicle maker Lixiang Automotive has filed for a U.S. initial public offering, aiming to raise at least $500 million, said two people with direct knowledge of the matter, joining peers seeking to finance growth through stock listings.

 

Lixiang, also known as CHJ Automotive, founded by entrepreneur Li Xiang, confidentially filed in December for the IPO, which will take place as early as the first half of 2020, said the sources.

 

The Beijing-based carmaker has been working on the IPO since the summer of last year and hired Goldman Sachs as the main bank leading the deal, said the people.

[Victoria Watcher]

any comment on bluto?

[Mike K.]

I suspect Musk's memoir will fill in the gaps some day.

 

 

 

[rjag]

Talking with my guys at Porsche and they confirmed they have 6 Taycans sitting at the track. These are all mules and are being used for training all Porsche dealerships and technicians across Canada. 

 

6 weeks or so of people flying, eating and sleeping on the Island is a good contribution to the local economy at this time of year

 

My guy said they have a T3 and S there to compare and he says they are night and day apart as Porsche has focused a lot of the driving perspective. He says its like driving a 911 Turbo on steroids

 

The floor models should be here in a few weeks and they are planning an event to intro them. Already sold out for the next 2 years