Guess what a surplus of electricity does for you? Pretty much nothing because storage is nearly non-existent. A surplus means you dump into your neighboring countries to the extent that your grid allows, usually making no money in the process and destabilizing their grid (or you curtail your overbuilt generation).…

Especially in Germany. That stuff they burn is just slightly compressed grass; Truly dirt burners!

“Hey guys, I was just thinking...do you think we might take some weight out of this thing instead of always adding horsepower? I don’t know...just came to me...probably a stupid idea.”

I’m sure there is a pile of failed parts!

So you’d fill the trunk with batteries when on long trips to non-local destinations? What else might be in the trunk during those ventures? I think I’ll stick to my Volt and it’s 8.5 gallon backup plan!

GM in general is these days. I am in my first American car because they are so good. I was a Euro snob before.

“While Ford may be behind competitors in the race to develop robotcars”

I would imagine the self-driving car will be dramatically better than any human at noticing these things and then following a logic path that was developed over months/years to mitigate in the best possible way. Humans are fairly awful at addressing these scenarios. Volvo already has autobraking for animals for this…

Yeah, I think they used fuel enrichment (along with the low compression ratio) to try and avoid the fancy emissions stuff typically needed in a diesel. Cool idea and all, but it seems to have backfired. The Skyactiv Gas engines seem quite good, though.

Uhhh...those diesels were not so great? Owners checking their oil and finding it two quarts high from fuel dillution is not uncommon? I wouldn’t touch one with a 10 foot pole.

A diesel cycle is less theoretically efficient than Otto cycle. This is because of the isobaric expansion for part of the cycle, necessitated by injecting fuel over part of the stroke (this is required if the goal is to control when the fuel burns by timing injection). However, the high compression ratio of diesel…

I had one for a rental (6 speed manual somehow) and thought it was fantastic. If they could add some serious sound-processing through the audio system, I’d totally dig it and not care that it was fake. The handling, braking, and power were delightful.

I guess I wouldn’t describe the Bolt as ugly...just boring. The Prius and Leaf are ugly. The Bolt is likely to be forgotten by most people who see one as just another tall hatch/microvan thingy.

Motorcycle. Nobody said anything about safe.

I find your description of Potassium Iodide to be strange. KI has only the effect of saturating the thyroid to make it less likely to uptake radioactive iodine. It has no other benefits regarding radiation, both external and internal. If you happen to find yourself in the unfortunate scenario described, everyone…

What’s interesting is that Consumer Reports just did same-day testing of the Model S 75D and Bolt. The Bolt, despite being rated for 238 miles vs. 249 for the Model S, went 15 miles further. The Bolt is a very impressive effort. My wife and I test drove one and found the seats acceptable, but certainly not amazing.…

Suspension components bolts. Who cares what they’re made of or what hardness/toughness they are? If you can’t break it with an impact, it’s good enough. Same thing with wheel bearings, ball joints, and tie-rod ends. None of that stuff is important. Put your money where it counts, like cold air intakes and cat backs!

Run-on sentence time: If a single country of 1/3 the population of the US, who has only been building significant numbers of meaningful cars to the U.S. market since the 1980s, can have 50% of the car culture, thus relegating all century-old U.S. and European brands (not to mention the whole Tesla thing, which is it’s…

I am comparing “that anything remotely close to getting a car sideways” (your words) to sprint car racing, because it is getting a car sideways. As an art form, getting a car sideways existed in film before it did in drifting. We, as a world people, have ALWAYS recognized that driving sideways was cool, fun, and…

“that anything remotely close to getting a car sideways” is not tied to inventing drifting. Did Japan take sideways driving and turn it into a competition relating to the actual sideways part (judged on visuals)? Absolutely. However, the U.S. certainly had a sport involving long, controlled slides on both dirt and…