This might be the only time in recorded history where Snap On is the bargain option.

I find it interesting that he thinks they have too many engineers since I get an email from LinkedIn about every 3 days looking to hire a Powertrain Differential Design Engineer. I went to engineering school because I wanted to work for Ford when I grew up. Now that I’ve been working as a design engineer for 15 years…

They’re cousins, I follow Jim on twitter and he always posts something for Chris’s birthday and the anniversary of his death. 

Here’s an interesting wrinkle to India though. The farmers in India all want battery tractors because they have better electrical infrastructure than the cities do. I was talking to a German guy from FEV who does tons of EV consulting a few months ago and they apparently have guarantees from the government for (free) e…

Had GM ever actually been involved with F1 before? I know Ford has off and on but the GM thing is quite a surprise. 

Just for context here I’m working on BEV engineering for offroad applications currently. I agree with Akio Toyoda on this. While BEV passenger vehicles are getting pretty good they aren’t a silver bullet and have some hurdles to overcome before they become viable for mass adoption in my opinion. Just take a Rav4 PHEV…

Some interesting specs on it.

My guess for the Tacoma is some sort of hybrid with the next Generation in 24 or 25. At least that’s what I’m hoping for. If the next generation Ranger comes with a hybrid and from everything I’ve read it should then whichever one of those comes to the market first is probably what I’ll trade my 2016 Tacoma for. 

That’s why I don’t buy full sized trucks, well that’s one reason. My 3rd gen Tacoma is basically the same size as an early 90's half ton truck with more power and roughly the same towing capacity.

8 Years is the warranty period for Ford EV batteries. I wouldn’t say that means they’re junk after that but I’m also not going to be an early adopter. 

Play the Game podcast is pretty good. Its a couple pro paintball players talking about all sorts of things, lots of paintball because of who it is but there’s lots of talking about mental and physical prep with other athletes. They’ve had some MMA guys and an NFL player or two on there too. Plus it helps they’re both…

That’s not quite fair I’d relate BEVs more to the iPod right now. They do one thing (passenger vehicle) really well but if you get outside of that (towing or cold weather) they suck balls. They’re getting better but unless you live in a warm urbanish area and don’t ever pull a trailer it’s going to take some…

Bingo.

Based on the conversation I had with the Ford rep at the Farm Progress show a few weeks ago it’s a good thing they didn’t have to pull the sled very far. 

I was at COTA 6 years ago and loved it. I really want to go back there but Miami and Vegas do absolutely nothing for me. 

If you would have asked me 5 years ago I would have said the same thing about Tesla. 

If I was going? A V12 Ferrari, I’m not going though. I have facebook, I know what you’re doing with your life already and it’s not that interesting. 

For the BEV adoption it really depends on where you live how ready you are. If you live on the coast near a major metro area you’re probably setting pretty good for infrastructure and buying one wouldn’t really cause an inconvenience. If you live in rural America then that infrastructure sucks and it’s going to suck…

I agree with Toyota on not killing off the ICE portfolio yet. I think we tend to forget about how much of the world doesn’t have electricity but can get gas or diesel to run their vehicles. I also keep reading from people in the battery industry that we don’t have battery manufacturing capacity for all these batteries…

I fall under number 2 when I rent a car 90% of the time. I also see a lot more hotels with chargers in the parking lot these days. I think you’ll see more people get comfortable with an EV after having one for a rental like that.