Gotta have something to drive those clicks, man.

... and was about to turn under manual control of the operator, who was using the vehicle’s joystick control...

As of today that would make Rivian the 6th most valuable automaker in the world. Just behind Daimler (Largest truck manufacturer in the world and owner of Mercedes)

Share price is a meaningless metric for comparing two companies.

Yup. Mazda doesn’t have a dedicated EV platform, nor the funds to develop one. This is based on the CX-30 platform, and making an EV out of an ICE platform always ends with severely compromised range. 

Radio? Not as much, but AC? Absolutely. In Chicago on 90 degree day in the sun, my tesla’s AC can draw nearly 6kw of power between keeping the cabin and the batteries cool. Run that for an hour and thats equivalent to about 24 miles of range, if we assume this thing can run 250wh/m. But its even worse in the cold.

One correction, the reason why Prius (and other Toyota hybrids) batteries last so long is that they solely operate in the 40-80% state of charge range.  EVs are allowed to operate closer to 0 and 100% based on user behavior.

Bingo. I think this is exactly what’s going on. I love the Wankel as much as Mazda, but I suspect they’re suffering the usual letdown between theory and practice with this range-extender.

Hasn’t stopped her from posting homophobic comments 

Throw in the usual battery degradation after the first couple of years and this actually becomes a golf cart with a nice interior.

Honestly having just enough range to cruise around town or take a pass down the drag strip for fun isn’t really that big of a deal for a restomod.

I’m curious if the trans won’t be needed and the motor could be mounted directly to or very close to the rear diff on the IRS cars. Often the factory gas tank, exhaust and drive shaft is in that area, with them all removed, there should be enough space without having to mod the floor pan.
Then the entire area under the…

The issue here is the Ford name plate. If someone wants to respond their old Mustang or vintage truck, using original Ford parts is the only consideration. This makes that possible, even if practicality is lost. 

Then again, most hot rods handle like shit and have 150 miles of range - either from fuel limits or the boomer driver being maxed out.

This isn’t really true. Junked Tesla batteries are also available, and much more energy dense. People have done EV conversions on classics that have reasonably decent range (200+ miles in some cases).

To be fair to batteries, the leaf pack’s weight is nearly half packaging, electronics, and wiring. Of course, you have to have wiring and electronics, but it’s just an example of poor packaging that makes 300 lbs of batteries packaged in a 600 lb pack. However, it would be easy to cut up, as inside the shell is 48…

That’s a lot more math than a comments section rightfully deserves, but I like it. The biggest problem I see with EV’s is, like you said, weight and volume. Just like with an ICE, range relates to weight on a J curve, so every mile added to range requires increasing amounts of fuel/battery weight. It’s not so bad with…

I love the idea of an electric crate engine program, but the motor was never the tricky bit

I’d image the cheapest option would be a wrecked Leaf or Bolt. Even if they have a ‘bad battery’, typically it’s just a few cells you can replace.

He’s not wrong though. Ford is tossing you the easiest part of the whole deal, leaving you to figure out the most difficult part.

Also, the whole fucking point of a “crate engine” is the easy route...