I see this all the time in Utah and Wyoming - but it’s people who buy a travel trailer and leave it on public land the entire summer to occupy a spot. I’ve started documenting and reporting. The forest service will go remove them. And they do. So hopefully they’ll get the message very clearly that it’s not okay. But I…

No snowflake in an avalanche feels responsible.

Here’s the problems I see and why I tend to be critical of these vehicles:

I’m also really curious about the fuel consumption. It’s a series hybrid not a BEV. If it's not saving fuel - what's the point? 

For my SUVs and trucks:

Dear Audi -

Even as a desert race and off-road race fan - the Dakar is always an oddball that I don’t understand. The rules are so old and restrictive, the vehicles are not very good even compared to OEM offerings in the USA. For example the max suspension travel was limited to about 12" and tires were max size of about 32" tall.…

As somebody spends a lot of time out in dirt. I can say at least as to the mountain west - these giant luxury RVs pretending to overland - they’re very very rare in the field. They basically never actual go anywhere and when they do - it’s to luxury campgrounds and overland expo. I’ve seen one once in the field. And…

No. They fucking can’t. Read the Dakar rule book. Ryan King isn’t familiar with Dakar so this blog doesn’t represent the actual conditions. It’s heavy rule based competition. So the vehicles are very very heavily restricted. Including the engine size and power. Electric power needs to be limited comparable to the ICE…

That’s optimistic.

Cars that sit at idle for many hours a day heavily favor EVs. Cars that work a lot tend to favor ice. It depends a lot on how often you need to use rapid charging because it’s a good bit more expensive per mile than gas. The BMW i3 police cars were a big flop. But the Teslas that aren’t used for shared duty (if…

Germany has a pretty dirty electric generation fleet. Lots of renewables, not also lots of coal. CO2 still favors the Prius on a lifecycle basis in most cases but maybe not on the very high mile scenario. On a running basis the Prius is about 155 grams per mile the model S on the German grid is about 135 grams per…

Did the dealer sell trucks or SUVs? If so - then they’re racist, evil, and need to be cancelled!!!

We were talking about the Russian's invading Ukraine and they edited! 

Same is true in Africa. Africans still keep other Africans as slaves. About 10 million currently depending on the source. As do many other people around the world. Native American tribes also kept slaves before the Europeans arrived. It's a universal human history. 

So $60k in repairs every 250k miles? I'm not sure that's a favorable metric. 

Possibly that’s the real story: make sure to have a warranty if you own a Tesla. Running costs are low if you don’t pay for repairs. But repair costs are astronomical and fairly common. Warranty is worth more than the car.

It’s really hard to put a lot of miles on a car that only goes 50-80 miles at a time and can’t charge fast. It’s self limiting in a lot of ways. I think we will see more high mile EVs from others as more longer range options come out though. I think the million miles battery pack isn't likely to happen right away…

Seems like every high mile Tesla needs a battery pack on 150-200k mile intervals at $30k each. And drive units every 200k. $20k each. Tons of ice engines are reliable for many more miles. Typical taxi use Prius need a battery at 300k for about $5000 and are taken out of service at 600k. But they cost far less to buy.…

I move a backhoe maybe once or twice a year. Not regularly. Actually not all all right now sans truck unless I borrow one. But almost every general contractor I know who builds residential homes has a backhoe. The Case 580 is kinda the universal tool. That and a telehandler. Both are pretty heavy but within the tow…