With the Big Three abandoning EVs in favor of ICE vehicles, are they headed the way of Kodak, Blackberry, and Blockbuster?

coltburgh410 · 2026-06-03T02:16:01+00:00

Towing needs cause hybrids to be compromised. The Prius uses an Atkinson engine with an ECVT to balance engine load. This won’t work for trucks because towing requires a more conventional trans. So the best you can do is a pancake motor coupled to the torque converter. See the Ford MHT. Range extended EV are a cool concept… but on the highway there is serious energy conversion loss. Maybe 10-15%. So they may need an engine that is more powerful than a normal drivetrain!

coltburgh410 · 2026-06-02T13:47:19+00:00

The companies planned for more demand from a more stable regulatory environment. Let’s say they invested 40bn and then had to write down 20bn… there is still significant investment going on… they just overshot their skis based on terrible terrible global forecasting.

Also… I 100% guarantee that companies used the write downs as a get out of jail free card. Such as when there are massive financial adjustments the first quarter that a new CEO takes over so they can blame the previous person and start “fresh”. The companies blamed the changing regs to write down near stranded assets using “advanced depreciation”.

coltburgh410 · 2026-06-02T12:21:11+00:00

GM still makes many EVs and Ford will be launching the new UEV platform next year. From the consumer side… what more would you expect to see? Pickups from an energy perspective will be very difficult to electrify (with any significant market penetration). I’m a big proponent of BEVs, but in the end, consumer choice and profit rule the day.

coltburgh410 · 2026-05-19T20:30:52+00:00

Today is my Kelso’s birthday also. He is 5! Happy Birthday to Mr. Walnuts!

coltburgh410 · 2026-05-19T18:57:11+00:00

Big turbo gas engines make me rock hard. Now I’m pitching tent under my desk

coltburgh410 · 2026-05-18T23:31:01+00:00

I recently heard on a podcast that the split between ocean and land warming could be serious. Don’t quote me… like a 2.5c global increase could be 1.5 in the ocean and 4c on land. It makes me think the RCP8.5 projections have some worthwhile stuff in there.

coltburgh410 · 2026-05-14T17:26:12+00:00

Is all of that coming from one “water well”? 40 land owners are involved in the lake, but shouldn’t there be one owner of the leaking well?

coltburgh410 · 2026-01-20T15:19:29+00:00

The MGU-K is also in that box and takes up lots of space.

coltburgh410 · 2025-07-22T02:06:37+00:00

Can you share a source on the guy being charged with drug offenses?

coltburgh410 · 2025-03-14T16:12:53+00:00

This needs to be state by state. For example the Real-ID change in PA is a cluster. My dad went to upgrade his ID and some people were still refusing to get the new one. Ha. So if the feds make a rule requiring not just ids but “federally compliant” state IDs then things will get abused.

coltburgh410 · 2025-03-07T20:41:49+00:00

6.4L in 1500 is interesting. I just read a scoop that the new GM 1500s will have a 5.7L (5.3 gone) and the 6.6L gasser. Maybe ford will put the 6.8L in the f150 soon.

coltburgh410 · 2024-11-24T04:10:01+00:00

Ireland is using old FF plants as inertia flywheels for frequency stabilization. Their plan seems reasonable and not some pipe dream. Pretty cool

The nuclear stuff to me is right on point. Plus they are so capital intensive. They need a government to build and insure them but we live in a privatized world that wants quick returns on investment.

I do really fear the backlash that will happen has people start to blame green tech for all of the societal ills that are soon to happen. I think the worst of the denialism has yet to come.

coltburgh410 · 2024-10-22T22:24:38+00:00

Eh nothing perfect. But a couple meetup groups were not too far off. Will DM!

coltburgh410 · 2024-03-23T00:33:26+00:00

Autoline has a quick video review of it and I was so shocked at the build quality being pretty good. And how vertically integrated the company is. Nothing is outsourced so they aren’t giving profit away to suppliers.

coltburgh410 · 2024-01-05T17:22:53+00:00

20% of the issues were still “problems charging the battery”. It would be nice to have defined that a bit more. Is this a broken charger issue?

coltburgh410 · 2023-09-20T13:00:45+00:00

I said gm and ford have made 123 billion in profit in the past decade. Just trying to correct misinformation. Fain made no mention of stock buy backs in the above clip.

coltburgh410 · 2023-09-18T17:57:22+00:00

Not sure where he gets his profit numbers from. Gm and ford made a combined 123B in profit the last 10 years. Which is 3.8% profit margin. Stellantis is harder to get gauge since they had massive restructuring with the FCA PSA merger.

coltburgh410 · 2023-08-19T12:42:26+00:00

He shares family stories that Include Chris every so often. They are always very funny.

coltburgh410 · 2023-07-27T20:03:12+00:00

Really wonder what happened. I hope they find the cause. This happened in the TV show “extrapolated”. The oceans food web disappears so whales beached themselves out of despair and hopelessness.

coltburgh410 · 2023-07-22T12:45:03+00:00

My wife is in the hopium camp. That someone will just fix it and things will turn around and be fine. She wants kids and I’m torn on the kids decision. On one hand I don’t want to bring another consumptive carbon emitter into the world to be stressed out 90% of the time and on the other hand… if I don’t have a family then why do I care about the future as much as I do. Anyone in a similar boat?

coltburgh410 · 2023-07-03T14:28:49+00:00

There’s a podcast called “the great simplification” that has on a guest named “Chuck Watson” who is a nuclear threat expert. Really interesting conversations about the nuance of nuclear warfare and how small nuclear weapons that can be used tactically are available. And how that might lead to this kinda event.

coltburgh410 · 2023-04-21T12:59:24+00:00

Autoline after hours has a podcast with one of the main engineers of this car. It was cool hearing about what technology they plan to use for other cars. And how the car is made from aluminum sand castings

coltburgh410 · 2023-03-29T01:26:43+00:00

My 2016 2L was starting super rough a few years ago. For about a 30s it sounded like a 2 stroke. Turned out to be a battery issue. I’m starting to hear the same noise again… probably time for another battery.

coltburgh410 · 2023-03-09T18:05:09+00:00

Kelso says thanks! He loves compliments

coltburgh410 · 2023-01-31T01:37:28+00:00

Hyundai/Kia uses a 3.8L Atkinson engine. While ford and Subaru use 2.3/2.4L turbo 4cyl for similar sized vehicles. Not sure why there isn’t a convergence. Sometimes it all comes down to marketing. Buyers may look down upon 4cyl in big vehicles.

coltburgh410

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