gm and EV

[Boog]

Youtube video earlier today of Mary Barra discussing gm and EV in the near future. They plan to have 30 EV by 2025. I read elsewhere the new Hummer EV starts out at $100g.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6U7grAgieyw

[1976gmc20]

new Hummer EV starts out at $100g

Yeah, and what ... a hundred mile range ???

I guess it would be enough for some movie actor to get to the airport.

[72c20customcamper]

Originally Posted by 1976gmc20

Yeah, and what ... a hundred mile range ???

I guess it would be enough for some movie actor to get to the airport.

estimated range 350 miles with a quick charge mode to go 100 miles on a 10 minute charge


https://goodmorningamerica.com/news/...onate-66003889

[1976gmc20]

"estimated"

[Boog]

Depending on how one uses their right foot, their mileage may vary.

Google EV and Mary Barra and you'll find quite a few videos on the current and future plans for American autos, personal and commercial makes.

[1976gmc20]

Do they have plans for doubling or tripling the power generation grid ???

[Boog]

Oh I'm sure car makers and energy providers are all in cahoots with the move to ev. They wouldn't make long term production commitments without complete assurance of easily available charging stations to the buying public. As said, gm plans to offer 30 models by 2025. I am not advocating for EV. I don't want one but that is the way of the current future of automakers in the US and abroad. Cali was the first state to mandate the new auto sales to EV by 2035 or so and recently another state mandated EV by a certain date also. Mass or Conn I think it was. There will be others. IC vehicles will still be around but at some point the parts will run out or gas will be too expensive to purchase forcing them out of favor with many.
I watched some videos on converting cars to ev. Quite expensive! One outfit converted a VW car in one day and it had a short mileage range. Some of them cost $30,000 for the conversion only. No where near affordable for the masses yet. Apparently the Tesla motors are some of the more powerful ones and in high demand.
I love my old trucks.

[DeadheadNM]

GM, errr gm, converted a square body Blazer to an electric motor. The battery pack replaces the rear seat. gm will be offering motors to the public for similar conversions. Amongst other things, I’d like to know where these motors are assembled.

https://www.motortrend.com/news/chev...lazer-ev-sema/

“Chevy's mum on what sort of range the pack affords the boxy SUV...”

[57taskforce]

Originally Posted by DeadheadNM

GM, errr gm, converted a square body Blazer to an electric motor. The battery pack replaces the rear seat. gm will be offering motors to the public for similar conversions. Amongst other things, I’d like to know where these motors are assembled.

https://www.motortrend.com/news/chev...lazer-ev-sema/

“Chevy's mum on what sort of range the pack affords the boxy SUV...”

Oh, I’m pretty sure most of us can already take a very good guess at where they will be made, it ain’t in America that’s all I’ll say.

I imagine the conversions will probably be similar to the E-copo Camaro, running an electric motor to an already existent transmission like they did with the TH-400 in the Camaro.

If the automakers and power companies are in on it, they sure didn’t include the govt in the planning... More and more coal plants are closing every year and that windy, sunny, thing ain’t gonna keep up in any, way, shape, for form.

[best view]

Joe doesn’t have a car and only needs a night light in the basement so electric power does not mean anything to him

[72c20customcamper]

Coal is the second largest source of electric generation . Natural gas is the first and coal plants can and have been retrofitted to gas. Seems everywhere you look solar panels are being put up. Dont really care for the solar farms they are doing but I guess it's a necessary evil.

[57taskforce]

It’s only a matter of time before they clamp down on natural gas emissions more too. They are starting to beat the hell out of us. I work in oil and gas. Emissions on our pumping unit engines and compressor engines are getting tighter all the time, all on what is already the cleanest burning fuel we’ve got right now on earth. I’m the lead emissions mechanic on our well site compressors... One of my responsibilities is to figure out how to get our engines legal every time they change the laws. I do all of our emissions testing as well. New Mexico has a big batch of natural gas emissions legislation coming as do several other states this year.

[72c20customcamper]

Sad state affairs we live in now. I'm all for cleaning up the environment but I'm not going to sit in my house freezing my butt off because we cant use the heat. My main heat is wood so I'm pretty much carbon neutral. But environmentalists would rather I use the electric heat .

[1976gmc20]

easily available charging stations

The power for those charging stations has to come from somewhere. I just don't see where they are building the capacity for all that extra usage?

I don't really care. I would be fine with an electric pickup as long as it had 400+ mile range and five minute recharge time

Originally Posted by 72c20customcamper

Sad state affairs we live in now. I'm all for cleaning up the environment but I'm not going to sit in my house freezing my butt off because we cant use the heat. My main heat is wood so I'm pretty much carbon neutral. But environmentalists would rather I use the electric heat .

We use all wood for heat. The electric heat hardly ever comes on.

But of course the wood comes from the fuel needed to cut and haul it. In 2018 I bought a semi-load of logs delivered by a nice KW with a self loader. Then there was the chainsaw gas and a bit of pickup gas to haul the cut blocks 1/4 mile over to the house. I do split it all by hand.

At this point, I'm not going to be cutting firewood with an axe and a handsaw unless we live in an 8' x 10' hut.

[Boog]

There are a number of companies converting small cars to ev. Some, most are pricey. Check out ev west.com. They've been doing this for 8 years or so. Basic kits are reasonable at under 8,000 but don't include the expensive part, the batteries. Good lord. A super beetle full kit is over 16,000 for a diyer. Another company mentioned solar charging and we are seeing more and more of those solar panel fields all the time. Maybe with wind, solar, hydro power plants they will help offset the shut down coal fired plants they are taking off line. I know nothing about solar panels but could a couple small ones generate enough juice to charge up the car batteries? I guess that calls for batteries at home to store that energy for when you need to charge a car?

[special-K]

Originally Posted by DeadheadNM

“Chevy's mum on what sort of range the pack affords the boxy 2 seater SUV...”

You sure get a lot less vehicle with a battery hauler than the same fossil fuel hauler. The bigger they get the more electricity they'll use

[1976gmc20]

Originally Posted by special-K

You sure get a lot less vehicle with a battery hauler than the same fossil fuel hauler. The bigger they get the more electricity they'll use

30 gallons of gas at ~7 pounds/gallon = 210 pounds.

Propulsion batteries are what, maybe 800 to 1200 pounds?

we are seeing more and more of those solar panel fields all the time

Yeah, covering good pasture and farm land with solar panels

Would almost make sense if they put them on a sagebrush covered south facing hill...

[57taskforce]

Don’t forget the wind turbines on what used to some pretty beautiful ridges and other scenic areas. At least most pumping units have to be painted to match the surrounding environment. Those solar and wind fields stick out like a sore thumb.

[1976gmc20]

Originally Posted by 57taskforce

Don’t forget the wind turbines on what used to some pretty beautiful ridges and other scenic areas. At least most pumping units have to be painted to match the surrounding environment. Those solar and wind fields stick out like a sore thumb.

Some future civilization is going to think we were awful dumb.

[joedoh]

so the average mileage put on a car in a year is 15k (usually 12k, but for the sake of argument)

you have average of 5 driving days a week, so 260 days of a year.

15k/260 is 58 miles per day. even if the range were 100 miles (its not), why wouldnt that be enough?

if they say 350 estimated, lets say thats ridiculous, maybe it will only do 60% thats probably 200 miles a charge (not a day, but again, for argument), and at 200 miles x 260 driving days (you could drive it every day but again, for argument) thats 52k miles a year.

is that how much you drive your current vehicle? more than that? you might be the exception, living any more than 200 miles from food or services does happen.

yes highway mileage is a thing and some are like me: leave at midnight and drive 1200 miles (occasionally 2000 miles!) in a stretch, but the vast majority drive 5 maybe 6 hours at 75mph and then need a full nights rest. thats 450 miles at 6 hours, even cutting it to 5 hours at 75 gets you close to the stated rolling-downhill-tailwind range. I drive long distance maybe once every two years. how often do you?


the 100k purchase price would put me off though, i would rather save the planet by maintaining a 20-30 year old vehicle that has already paid for its climate impact than buy a NEW one. and the gas savings, lets say 15k a year * lets say 5 years for complete no-maintenance driving (other than tires), 2.25 gal gas and 20 mpg avg, thats only about 8400 in gasoline savings. you might still get a rebate from the government for EV though.

[1976gmc20]

living any more than 200 miles from food or services does happen

We are about 65 miles one way from decent shopping. So with running around in the city we are right up about 150 miles round trip. Now figure the extra drain from driving through mud or snow most of the year and you're pushing up against that 200 mile range round trip. Plus extra battery drain for cabin heat/defrost, or maybe A/C in the summer. It's already a long day just to drive there and get anything done and get back so there sure isn't time to wait for a recharge.

And for Montana, where we live is almost suburban. Folks on ranches up north a ways can be well over 100 miles to a real grocery store. And much of that will be on roads so bad that most folks would never even consider driving on.

And taking a long trip in an EV is just out of the question unless you want to spend 2 or 3 times as long getting there, and back.

[joedoh]

Originally Posted by 1976gmc20

We are about 65 miles one way from decent shopping. So with running around in the city we are right up about 150 miles round trip. Now figure the extra drain from driving through mud or snow most of the year and you're pushing up against that 200 mile range round trip. Plus extra battery drain for cabin heat/defrost, or maybe A/C in the summer. It's already a long day just to drive there and get anything done and get back so there sure isn't time to wait for a recharge.

And for Montana, where we live is almost suburban. Folks on ranches up north a ways can be well over 100 miles to a real grocery store. And much of that will be on roads so bad that most folks would never even consider driving on.

And taking a long trip in an EV is just out of the question unless you want to spend 2 or 3 times as long getting there, and back.

youre definitely the exception then. I would bet that your (and your neighbors) requirements preclude you from driving most of all the cars produced, not just EVs.

it doesnt make your opinions less valid, but thats the reason automakers make different cars and trucks, to try and capture the whole market.

[Grumpy old man]

The whole idea is a pipe dream .

If your the 1st buyer you pay a premium for the car you get the charging "coupins" to ease the pain of driving a car that goes vvvvvrrrrrrrrrr. and it looks just like every other vvvvrrrr car at the local choke and puke vegan restaurant while you eat your kale wrap and bottled water. all the while you make sure it never gets flooded or it can explode into a fire ball and the prescribed way to douse the fire is with HUGE amounts of water and that contaminated water runs into the gutter straight out to the ocean and kills all the fish ...

so you hang onto your vvvrrrr car until it starts dropping range and needs constant charging cycles and you dump it to the secondary market buyer who finds out it needs a new $7,000.00 battery that weighs 1200 pounds and even if they sold replacements at Rock auto you still have to ship it and install it and it doesn't come with "coupins"

So now you have to dispose of the 1200 pound tired battery . But there's good news they can be used as a storage battery for off grid homes using solar energy to charge their vvvvrrr car and pump water to their kale garden ,,, Unless it gets wet then it burns down the off the grid home your man bun and surrounding homes and forest from the flames and no huge amounts of water to put out the fire and all that contaminated water runs into the streams and rivers and kills all the fish ...

But there's still another option you can donate that 1200 lb battery and they''ll come and pick it up to be recycled back into a dozen different heavy metal compounds to build more batteries for vvvrrrr cars ... and the vvvrrrr car owners can feel good about protecting the enviroment...

[57taskforce]

Originally Posted by 1976gmc20

We are about 65 miles one way from decent shopping. So with running around in the city we are right up about 150 miles round trip. Now figure the extra drain from driving through mud or snow most of the year and you're pushing up against that 200 mile range round trip. Plus extra battery drain for cabin heat/defrost, or maybe A/C in the summer. It's already a long day just to drive there and get anything done and get back so there sure isn't time to wait for a recharge.

And for Montana, where we live is almost suburban. Folks on ranches up north a ways can be well over 100 miles to a real grocery store. And much of that will be on roads so bad that most folks would never even consider driving on.

And taking a long trip in an EV is just out of the question unless you want to spend 2 or 3 times as long getting there, and back.

Yes sir. I know exactly what you mean. It’s something that unless you've lived it you can’t comprehend it. We were 72 miles from the nearest reasonable town up until about 8 years ago. I average 40-50k a year on my company truck driving within about a 200 mile radius. There’s no way an EV would ever cut it in my line of work currently. You very very rarely ever see a Tesla here or even a bolt or similar for that matter for that very reason. I’ve never even seen a charging station here.

[MikeB]

Ever drive a Tesla, anyone? I drove a friend's Model S with two motors and 4WD. I have to say it was scary fast. 0-60 in 2.3 seconds! Flat and monstrous torque curve from dead stop to >160 mph, not that I went that fast. Absolutely insane! Also had a luxury feel to the ride and handling, something like an Audi or BMW.

That said, the sticker price of over $100K is ridiculous. (My friend leased it for $900-something/mo.) And depreciation is probably worse than a Pontiac Aztec. Also, I did not like the 17" display in the middle of the dash. So much information on it you'd run off the road trying to read it. But at least it has a traditional instrument cluster behind the steering wheel. But, heck, the smaller Model 3 has ALL the information on the center display, even road speed.

As for range, all EVs seem to be getting better every year, but it will probably be decades before they get up to 750 miles, which is what I typically drive when on a trip from Texas to snow country. If infrastructure doesn't keep up with EV sales, we will soon be seeing long lines at charging stations in town and on highways.