I assume you know the full list of pros and cons is a bit longer than that. Reducing the emissions footprint the way good* synthetic fuels do may actually be worth not needing to vastly increase mineral mining and making cars that much heavier. The issue isn’t “won’t somebody think of the gas stations!”, it’s that the…

Are their vehicles margins actually large or is selling things like AP and FSD at huge markups driving those margins? I honestly don’t know as I have not poured over their financials so I am not sure if they spell that out.

There also is a middle ground - strong plug-in hybrids with a 50 mile electric and a big electric motor such that the electric motor moves the car/truck in every “punch it” type of situation. CARB just changed their regs late last year to account for this. Strong PHEVs kick in for model year 2026. This sidesteps the…

Rivian burned $6bn in cash last year and produced 24k vehicles. It is astounding. EV’s right now, outside of Tesla, are a huge losing proposition. And even with Tesla, I don’t know how much profit their car sales are producing or if selling things like AP and FSD are really making them money vs the actual car. I would…

2nd gear... Unpopular take edition

 You really believe that the next generation motors are going to use zero rare earth materials  ? Because tesla said so.....

Woof. Executives don’t have as tangible goals to meet and productivity metrics as say, line employees. The odds aren’t good these all actually are their least successful employees. 

The great thing about liquid fuels for aviation is that as you burn fuel, weight decreases and the plane gets a little more efficient as you go. I don’t see battery electric planes being a thing unless energy density goes up exponentially.

“cut assembly costs by half, invest in a new plant in Mexico and discussed the company’s innovation in managing its operations”

This time around, they showed two vehicles under sheets, just saying something’s coming.

More likely, it’ll be the opposite - ICE cars as a niche market for the very rich, fueled by incredibly expensive synthetic fuels. And hey, look, it’s the two EU countries with significant auto industry revenue from exotics/sports and super/hypercars that are pushing for a synth fuel exception. Regular people won’t do…

Expected Musk to announce Sex Robot

2nd gear and 5th gear is clearly writing on the wall that all is not rosy with car makers taking the plunge into a pure EV strategy. If it was, Polestar would not be posting operating losses of nearly $1B. Sure, some of that is still incurring the initial costs of R&D, new platform development, and tech to productioniz…

maybe they take a long time to recharge. like a really long time.

Layoffs may lead to reduced morale and prompt others at GM to seek jobs elsewhere.

and the shares are sputtering ... It may just have been a case of failing to live up to the hype.” [...]

We can save an awful lot of time and trouble by just assuming any layout announcement from any major corporation is either a lie or a wildly low estimate.

Something that many pundits seem to be overlooking is that Tesla has reduced the cost of manufacturing their cars by building them of fewer, larger components, such as castings. This makes them faster and less expensive to manufacture, but extremely difficult to repair if damaged. There have been articles about how…

There is still engineering to be found with ICE cars. I bet if they really tried, they could get an ICE to accelerate like a high end EV with full interior.

I’m the farthest thing from a supercar fan, but I’ve never been as blown away by a car as I am by this one, and I just continue to be reminded of what an utter genius Gordon Murray is. How he and his team have been able to engineer something in 2023 that looks this good, has this much performance, weighs as little as…