Tesla doesn’t manufacture their battery cells. They buy them from Panasonic, LG, and CATL.

They bought Metris Cargo vans that start at $33K

I’m a corporate manufacturing engineer for an automaker. The weirdest thing is that I haven’t traveled since Feb 2020. In normal times I travel 25 - 30% of the time supporting all of our North American plants.

Yes, EVs are simpler than an ICE car and over the life of the car likely require less maintenance. However ICE cars are very reliable today - especially in the period of time that the original buyer owns the car. A new car buyer isn’t going to buy a EV so that the 3rd or 4th owner has lower repair bills when it is 15…

Correct. That is why they are talking about partnering with Hyundai.

At least one. We have one at work for our test fleet.

Harley started making the Street 500 and 750 in 2014.  

The plan to bury our nuclear waste under Yucca mountain in Nevada never happened. Instead our waste is scattered all over the USA and is mostly stored on site at the nuclear plant were it was create. Usually in “dry casks” above ground or concrete pools.

There are LOTS of bikes for $10K or less. The 2021 BMW F900R comes to mind @ $9000. Triumph Street Twin is $9300. Yamaha XSR900 $9500. All will run circles around the 49 hp Sportster 883.

I’ve also spent decades driving manual and automatic transmission cars. Pre COVID I traveled 25-30% of the time so I spend a lot of time in rentals. I’ve found it take 2-3 days to adapt to a new shifter position.

The tethers on airbag jackets and vests take about a 50 lb pull to inflate.

You landed on your shoulder instead of your leg. Imagine if your legs hit the 90 degree corner of a curb.

He must do a lot of J-turns.

It sure looks like the raised ridges between buttons would make them easy to feel by touch. A raised knob with clicks between positions would be even easier to operate by feel - no different that climate control knobs.

The Avalanche had a 12 year run, two full product cycles - not bad. The biggest issue was the premium pricing and the fact that it was basically just a more expensive Chevy Silverado.

The eliminate the useless shift lever sticking out of the center console that isn’t actually connected to anything. A shift knob works even better and takes up less space. 

Diesel is taxed.

The simplest way to record miles driven is to just check the odometer at a yearly inspection. Simple and it could work. The downside is most people don’t want to pay a year’s worth of road taxes at once.

Security guards are cheap in Mexico.   

One of the leaked photos showed that the Maverick doesn’t have a mid-gate pass through to the cab.   That could be key info for a competing automaker thinking about doing their own small truck.