John's Stuff - Personal Log 1279

April 30, 2024 - May 5, 2024

Last Updated: Sun. 11/03/2024

5-05-2024 Instead of Tesla. I was quite astonishing to see this article title this morning: "Turned Off By Tesla? Consider A Nissan Ariya Or Toyota BZ4X" That's quite an obvious turning-point having been reached by a media source who always sung high praise for Tesla. This was within the article: "With a $150-$200 monthly lease payment, you can't go wrong." I was all to happy to climb up on the soapbox seeing that opportunity to reply:

The argument against Toyota was always their unwillingness to play the loss-leader game. There's simply no benefit pushing high-volume of a gen-1 when you know gen-2 will offer a big step forward (new platform with a choice new batteries). Toyota did the same thing with gen-1 of Prius. Offering some killer lease deals on the limited quantity available spreads real-world exposure to a wide audience, reaching out beyond just enthusiasts.

Interestingly is the prospect of resale value. Knowing how protective Toyota is being with stress on the battery and the fact that significant increase in DCFC will cancel out range anxiety, could make expired lease purchases an easy sell. So, it would appear to be a win for everyone involved.

Seeing Toyota commit to 2 new 3-row BEV offerings... one produced in Kentucky and another produced in Indiana... will help assure those in the North American market that Toyota is indeed committed to BEV. That claim about being anti-EV ends up just being confirmed as a narrative from impatient enthusiasts.
Again, look at Toyota history. They did the same thing with gen-1 Prius. It was a highly criticized offering that ended up being a means of building a competitive (profitable and high-volume) gen-2 vehicle. What's the rush anyway? It was easy to see infrastructure build-up speed was pitiful and that Tesla had picked all the low-hanging fruit.

5-04-2024
Tesla Adapters. Hearing that Ford & Rivian are now sending NACS adopters to their current EV owners for free and GM for $25 is stirring interest. It gives the impression of progress. Asking dealerships for status is a terrible idea. If they even have correct & complete information, it tends to be outdated. This was such a case: "My salesperson told me to expect the Tesla adapters in 6'ish months." What are the odds that they detail about Tesla layoffs just shared online yesterday was something that salesperson was well versed about already? I would suspect Subaru plans were established last fall and dealerships were told rollout would take about a year. Any update on progress since then really wouldn't make any sense. We are only now hearing from Ford & Rivian owners. Initial experiences being so limited, how could a corporate revision come so quickly? There simply isn't enough real-world data to work with yet. Whatever software tweaks are needed for standardizing interface will be forthcoming. Patience. I'm a software engineer, which makes me well aware of the fine-tuning you want to do for api calls prior to widespread deployment. Doing it right means not rushing. Doing it right also means having staff available to manage those changes. Fewer staff will almost certainly equate to delay. In other words, contracts for third-party production will continue as planned but we should plan for extra time for activation. I kept my reply brief with: Delivery of physical hardware may no longer coincide with service enablement... since recent mass layoff of Tesla Supercharger staff makes that necessary support uncertain.

5-04-2024 Mindful Voices. It sure is nice seeing sentiment like this being posted now: "Toyota, apparently sees and accepts one of the current limitations in battery technology and as a car company understandably chooses to work with that limitation by gearing production toward hybrids." That came about from a relook at Toyota's 90:6:1 approach. Remember all the controversy that stirred last year when everyone else was making their empty pledges. What those other automakers proposed made no sense; there were no milestones or penalties. They had no transition plan either. Now, that's easy to point out:

It's quite obvious when you look at Toyota's roadmap. Their upcoming next-gen BEV will appeal to mainstream shoppers, leveraging profit from having switched to hybrids to prevent business disruption.

How in the world will other legacy automakers declaring "all in" were going to achieve transition raised warning signs that no one noticed. Now watching Ford, GM and Hyundai scale back BEV efforts to include hybrids for transition is quite a redemption for Toyota.

However, Toyota now holds a massive advantage... since their hybrid design inherently includes PHEV support. Evidence of that is RAV4, CH-R, and Crown hybrids with the plug-in option, along with Harrier to follow. Prius will only be available as a PHEV in Europe now. Seeing the same happen with Prius here, as the hybrid-only Camry rollout progresses, is a natural next step.

Toyota didn't lock into battery design/chemistry prematurely either. Watching Tesla struggle to adapt 4680 is a great example of payoff from being patience. GM will be attempting to adapt Ultium as well. It can be costly to rush. While details are worked out, Toyota knows large-scale carbon reduction can be achieved in the meantime.
Emphasizing hybrids and plug-in hybrids makes sense while the BEV market is still rapidly evolving. Don't commit to high-volume production until traits appealing to a large audience can be identified.

5-04-2024
Going Away? Ugh, I wonder how many more times I will end up seeing this: "Again, the Supercharger network isn't going away. Yet so many in the community are acting like this is what this move means." Right away, I had to wonder what community he was referring to. Of course, that wasn't important. Knowing that existing Tesla owners didn't look forward to the day Superchargers would be filled with Model 2 made discussion impossible. Evading the topic all together was their typical response. Somehow, the major selling-point for Tesla was magically going to grow faster than vehicle production. Hmm? Tesla charging locations here (Minnesota) are all leased. Not actually owning that land is an indication of long-term uncertainty. For example, the Holiday (CircleK) station I was really hoping CircleK chargers would be installed at instead got Tesla Superchargers without MagicDock. What incentive would their be to offer lease renewal when CircleK has since established their own chargers at other locations here? Why not just point in more of their own chargers then, especially now that wiring is already in place? I replied to that comment hoping to raise awareness of Tesla's situation, wanting to follow up with how rethinks are not necessarily a bad thing long-term: Know your audience. Pretty much every EV owner I have seen feedback from express a concern about this resulting in a significant slow down of V4 deployment, complicating NACS adoption for legacy automakers, and some new construction contracts being dropped. Claims of "going away" are likely coming from those who never believed in EVs anyway.

5-04-2024 Not A Car Company. That moment of epiphany has arrived for online enthusiasts. Gotta love realizations like this: "Then we learned that Tesla really isn't a car company at all." I was beside myself upon reading that. So many had turned a blind-eye to evidence presented to them, it's amazing they didn't all just jump ship like Volt defenders. When they finally recognized their mistake, it was too late. That's not the case with Tesla falling apart. However, I felt climbing up on the soapbox to address a large audience with this one... which is what I did with this on the big EV group:

No. Just no. I have been quarreling with fanboys for years telling them to take the time to look at Tesla's business mission statement. It has always clearly stated it is an "energy solution" company.

They simply didn't want to accept that. It was a bit of a head-scratcher why. Superchargers offered enormous potential and Musk clearly had no interest in competing in the same market as Toyota... selling mainstream vehicles with ubiquitous features at a razor-thin profit.

The other act of denial was the obvious Innovator's Dilemma at play. It's a textbook example. Musk painted himself into a corner by chasing niche opportunity, devoting too many resources refining choices for a small audience.

Now seeing a major shakeup from within was quite predictable. EV market growth does not need FSD or CT. Operation leveraging carbon-credit and investor-capital doesn't work well at this stage either. And of course, the boutique approach for sales becoming increasingly more challenging as we move away from the early-adopter market.
In short, Tesla is at a turning point. What direction is taken next is anyone's guess.

5-03-2024
Proper Implementation. Yet another way of pushing a "vastly superior" narrative... Ugh. This was the reply I got to the one-pedal post: "Have you ever driven an EV that proper implements this?" It was a brain-dead reply, not taking into consideration intended purpose. Remember, EVs are supposed to benefit the environment. Why would something that automatically blends regenerative-braking with friction-braking be proper? Sure, that's a nice means of providing an enhanced driving experience... but it completely misses the point of getting the most from the least. As soon as a disc or drum activates, opportunity is missed. You want to have regen operate as much as possible with the least amount of driver interaction... hence Toyota's button. Just like with hybrids, it makes the most of the electrical system to decelerate. How come such a benefit is overlooked? Simple. Enthusiasts are drawn to what is new & different. They want a driving experience superior to the past. Making behavior mimic the past is something they absolutely will not endorse. It is what dooms them to just being enthusiasts rather than becoming true supporters. To support, you sometimes have to embrace the subtle or invisible benefits. Absence of praise is especially repellent. Oh well. All I can do for them is point out what they are missing: Consider the other perspective. Being able to get maximum regen without needing to work the pedal to avoid coming to a complete stop is an advantage, not a shortcoming.

5-03-2024
One-Pedal Marketing. I was rather annoyed by yet another review used the same old boiler-plate measures to assess worth of bZ4X. Supposed experts only have a limited time with the vehicle, no exposure to what long-term ownership reveals. They basically just check boxes to ensure their report will draw a wide audience. Focus on detail of what makes a design unique helps to draw clicks, if it is presented as something questionable. Ugh. They don't care why. If they did, there would be some type of follow up... you know, journalism. Sadly, online media has devolved to competing for attention. To that nonsense, I pointed out: The belief that not coming to a full stop indicates a missed opportunity is just marketing. What none of the "one-pedal" pushers ever get into is the behavior itself just prior to the stopping. For the Toyota/Subaru system, it is actually quite refined... surprisingly assertive yet remarkably smooth. It's a desired trait carried over from hybrid owners, those who wanted to effortlessly regen as much as possible without coming to a full stop... since continuing to move is more efficient. If you desire the vehicle to remain in place without having to needing to keep your foot on the brake, use the "hold" button. It works well in unison with the max-regen feature.

5-02-2024 Wrecking Ball. Articles with harsh critic are flooding all the popular EV venues. Some feel no loyalty, freely stating their opinion. One such publisher of popular EV enthusiast content called the recent layoffs of the Tesla Supercharger staff a "wrecking ball" move. A comment posted on that catching my interest was: "Getting out of the charging station locating, site acquisition and utility negotiating may be a very good idea. It's likely that placing charging stations is a "low-hanging fruit" situation where the person-hours and cost per connection has started to rise, maybe rapidly, to the point where it is impossible to recover costs in an acceptable time." To that, I added:

That situation of "low-hanging fruit" was becoming difficult to deny. Musk had been playing the market that early opportunity provided. Enthusiasts didn't like being presented with evidence alluding to Innovator's Dilemma becoming a reality. Tesla isn't approaching an impasse anymore. Layoffs inform us not all was well within.

With regard to Supercharger specifically, it was clear there was some kind of trouble. New installs were only V3, spread of MagicDock was barely a trickle, and rollout of NACS has been slow & uncertain... quite a change from Tesla, who is usually pushing limits.
Knowing most of the automotive business is dull, with most sustainable profit coming from high-volume sales of vehicles delivering small returns, having reach a "wrecking ball" stage shouldn't really surprise anyway. With a CEO spread so thin across multiple businesses and driven by ego, it was only a matter of time.

5-02-2024
3,000 Miles. Ugh. Nonsense about Cybertruck continues to rise. This time, it was a review that omitted information related to electricity use. How can any supposed journalistic effort have such a blatant avoidance. It's an EV. Imagine presenting a new hybrid without including anything about gas use. That would be absurd. But then again, nothing about Cybertruck was related to reduction of emissions & consumption. It's simply not green. I was all too happy to point that out too: Nothing like an extensive write-up for a supposed green vehicle missing consumption data. There's no excuse for the absence of observed efficiency, especially with so much other information provided. Why wasn't anything referring to electricity usage included?

5-02-2024 Falling Apart. Now things really get interesting: "When Tesla was really the only game in town and was the only one smart enough to understand it needed chargers not just cars to survive it was great..." I obviously had comments to contribute to that:

That narrative is finally starting to show signs of enthusiast blindness. Look no further than Toyota for confirmation. Spin was that they were anti-EV. Reality is their lobbying was for better legislation. Their past experience with how Prius was born should have made that obvious. They witnessed the CARB mandate fall apart. It was a technology push with incomplete support.

Lack of proper support is the same thing Toyota saw decades later. What's the point of pushing EVs without supporting infrastructure? It's how the IRA bill managed to get passed. Those provisions NEVI fund was exactly what the nation needed.

It should have been obvious how Tesla's Supercharger network was incapable of handling a flood of entry-level vehicles... Model 2. The nightmare those short-range (small packs to make them affordable & competitive) would have overwhelmed Tesla's charging capacity.

Rollout of MagicDock and still favoring V3 for new installs signaled growth challenges. Adding quick Ford & GM rollout for NACS was likely far more difficult than anticipated.
In other words, that "smart enough to understand" narrative didn't address what was truly necessary to make the technology acceptable for mainstream shoppers. Musk's audience simply didn't have the patience or willingness to accept what takes, and he didn't either.

5-02-2024 Pre-Condition Hope. Turning attention from industry to our EV, this question was a nice change of pace: "Does anybody know how to precondition the car before heading towards the charging station becuz in tesla and hyundai has the feature where when you put charging station address so it automatically starts heating the battery so it can charge faster. Can we do that to bz4x too or no?" Since that feature isn't available (yet), this is what I was able to provide:

Hope is that the upcoming software update will enable a pre-condition feature. Ideally, that would be in the form of a simple 30-minute timer and not have that requirement of specifying a nearby DCFC location as other automakers require.

Problem with that is the same plug-in hybrid faced with charge-mode. Using it at inappropriate times will result in a net loss. Gas used is not accounted for with the EV mile improvement. The same is true for electricity consumed by pre-conditioning while still plugged in. You'll see an EV mile improvement, due to the battery-pack being heated more than necessary for just driving, that won't be accounted for while driving.
Toyota's initial approach was to only engage the battery-heater while plugged in. That ensured electricity available en-route would only be used for miles driven. Since people already freak about range, losing EV miles due to pre-conditioning is a can of worms they didn't want to open... yet.

5-02-2024
Tesla Disaster. It makes you wonder how the worsening situation will play out. The situation will get increasingly more confusion without any direction from leadership. I summed it up this way: With profit expectations falling from 3/Y price-drops, CT challenges, FSD shortcomings, carbon-credit market shift, and an absence of interest for an entry-level offering, there were very real survival pressures. The combination of NACS and V4 were a remedy. Tesla could sell charger hardware and software solutions for steady, dependable income and strong growth potential. Abruptly laying off the Supercharger staff is a truly bizarre move.

4-30-2024
Trying To Persuade. I found this a compelling opportunity to contribute: "Trying to persuade a friend to buy an EV, although, like us has only has a second car. He looks at this group and said "doesn't matter what you say, all anyone cares about online is the range and how poor it is for some people. You are not convincing me." That was a valid point to make. My response was: Enthusiasts do indeed obsess with range. Fortunate for me, in Minnesota (where California rules just became active on Jan 1) there's a group who has other priorities. Solving that problem has come in the form of promoting the DC fast-chargers being built. We'll share into like digging permits and install progress. Knowing more locations are coming makes range less important. I contributed to that just 2 weeks ago, driving to Northern Minnesota and sharing a photo of dig status near my destination. Seeing that gas station get chargers ends concern for many who travel there.

5-05-2024	Instead of Tesla. I was quite astonishing to see this article title this morning: "Turned Off By Tesla? Consider A Nissan Ariya Or Toyota BZ4X" That's quite an obvious turning-point having been reached by a media source who always sung high praise for Tesla. This was within the article: "With a $150-$200 monthly lease payment, you can't go wrong." I was all to happy to climb up on the soapbox seeing that opportunity to reply: The argument against Toyota was always their unwillingness to play the loss-leader game. There's simply no benefit pushing high-volume of a gen-1 when you know gen-2 will offer a big step forward (new platform with a choice new batteries). Toyota did the same thing with gen-1 of Prius. Offering some killer lease deals on the limited quantity available spreads real-world exposure to a wide audience, reaching out beyond just enthusiasts. Interestingly is the prospect of resale value. Knowing how protective Toyota is being with stress on the battery and the fact that significant increase in DCFC will cancel out range anxiety, could make expired lease purchases an easy sell. So, it would appear to be a win for everyone involved. Seeing Toyota commit to 2 new 3-row BEV offerings... one produced in Kentucky and another produced in Indiana... will help assure those in the North American market that Toyota is indeed committed to BEV. That claim about being anti-EV ends up just being confirmed as a narrative from impatient enthusiasts. Again, look at Toyota history. They did the same thing with gen-1 Prius. It was a highly criticized offering that ended up being a means of building a competitive (profitable and high-volume) gen-2 vehicle. What's the rush anyway? It was easy to see infrastructure build-up speed was pitiful and that Tesla had picked all the low-hanging fruit.
5-04-2024	Tesla Adapters. Hearing that Ford & Rivian are now sending NACS adopters to their current EV owners for free and GM for $25 is stirring interest. It gives the impression of progress. Asking dealerships for status is a terrible idea. If they even have correct & complete information, it tends to be outdated. This was such a case: "My salesperson told me to expect the Tesla adapters in 6'ish months." What are the odds that they detail about Tesla layoffs just shared online yesterday was something that salesperson was well versed about already? I would suspect Subaru plans were established last fall and dealerships were told rollout would take about a year. Any update on progress since then really wouldn't make any sense. We are only now hearing from Ford & Rivian owners. Initial experiences being so limited, how could a corporate revision come so quickly? There simply isn't enough real-world data to work with yet. Whatever software tweaks are needed for standardizing interface will be forthcoming. Patience. I'm a software engineer, which makes me well aware of the fine-tuning you want to do for api calls prior to widespread deployment. Doing it right means not rushing. Doing it right also means having staff available to manage those changes. Fewer staff will almost certainly equate to delay. In other words, contracts for third-party production will continue as planned but we should plan for extra time for activation. I kept my reply brief with: Delivery of physical hardware may no longer coincide with service enablement... since recent mass layoff of Tesla Supercharger staff makes that necessary support uncertain.
5-04-2024	Mindful Voices. It sure is nice seeing sentiment like this being posted now: "Toyota, apparently sees and accepts one of the current limitations in battery technology and as a car company understandably chooses to work with that limitation by gearing production toward hybrids." That came about from a relook at Toyota's 90:6:1 approach. Remember all the controversy that stirred last year when everyone else was making their empty pledges. What those other automakers proposed made no sense; there were no milestones or penalties. They had no transition plan either. Now, that's easy to point out: It's quite obvious when you look at Toyota's roadmap. Their upcoming next-gen BEV will appeal to mainstream shoppers, leveraging profit from having switched to hybrids to prevent business disruption. How in the world will other legacy automakers declaring "all in" were going to achieve transition raised warning signs that no one noticed. Now watching Ford, GM and Hyundai scale back BEV efforts to include hybrids for transition is quite a redemption for Toyota. However, Toyota now holds a massive advantage... since their hybrid design inherently includes PHEV support. Evidence of that is RAV4, CH-R, and Crown hybrids with the plug-in option, along with Harrier to follow. Prius will only be available as a PHEV in Europe now. Seeing the same happen with Prius here, as the hybrid-only Camry rollout progresses, is a natural next step. Toyota didn't lock into battery design/chemistry prematurely either. Watching Tesla struggle to adapt 4680 is a great example of payoff from being patience. GM will be attempting to adapt Ultium as well. It can be costly to rush. While details are worked out, Toyota knows large-scale carbon reduction can be achieved in the meantime. Emphasizing hybrids and plug-in hybrids makes sense while the BEV market is still rapidly evolving. Don't commit to high-volume production until traits appealing to a large audience can be identified.
5-04-2024	Going Away? Ugh, I wonder how many more times I will end up seeing this: "Again, the Supercharger network isn't going away. Yet so many in the community are acting like this is what this move means." Right away, I had to wonder what community he was referring to. Of course, that wasn't important. Knowing that existing Tesla owners didn't look forward to the day Superchargers would be filled with Model 2 made discussion impossible. Evading the topic all together was their typical response. Somehow, the major selling-point for Tesla was magically going to grow faster than vehicle production. Hmm? Tesla charging locations here (Minnesota) are all leased. Not actually owning that land is an indication of long-term uncertainty. For example, the Holiday (CircleK) station I was really hoping CircleK chargers would be installed at instead got Tesla Superchargers without MagicDock. What incentive would their be to offer lease renewal when CircleK has since established their own chargers at other locations here? Why not just point in more of their own chargers then, especially now that wiring is already in place? I replied to that comment hoping to raise awareness of Tesla's situation, wanting to follow up with how rethinks are not necessarily a bad thing long-term: Know your audience. Pretty much every EV owner I have seen feedback from express a concern about this resulting in a significant slow down of V4 deployment, complicating NACS adoption for legacy automakers, and some new construction contracts being dropped. Claims of "going away" are likely coming from those who never believed in EVs anyway.
5-04-2024	Not A Car Company. That moment of epiphany has arrived for online enthusiasts. Gotta love realizations like this: "Then we learned that Tesla really isn't a car company at all." I was beside myself upon reading that. So many had turned a blind-eye to evidence presented to them, it's amazing they didn't all just jump ship like Volt defenders. When they finally recognized their mistake, it was too late. That's not the case with Tesla falling apart. However, I felt climbing up on the soapbox to address a large audience with this one... which is what I did with this on the big EV group: No. Just no. I have been quarreling with fanboys for years telling them to take the time to look at Tesla's business mission statement. It has always clearly stated it is an "energy solution" company. They simply didn't want to accept that. It was a bit of a head-scratcher why. Superchargers offered enormous potential and Musk clearly had no interest in competing in the same market as Toyota... selling mainstream vehicles with ubiquitous features at a razor-thin profit. The other act of denial was the obvious Innovator's Dilemma at play. It's a textbook example. Musk painted himself into a corner by chasing niche opportunity, devoting too many resources refining choices for a small audience. Now seeing a major shakeup from within was quite predictable. EV market growth does not need FSD or CT. Operation leveraging carbon-credit and investor-capital doesn't work well at this stage either. And of course, the boutique approach for sales becoming increasingly more challenging as we move away from the early-adopter market. In short, Tesla is at a turning point. What direction is taken next is anyone's guess.
5-03-2024	Proper Implementation. Yet another way of pushing a "vastly superior" narrative... Ugh. This was the reply I got to the one-pedal post: "Have you ever driven an EV that proper implements this?" It was a brain-dead reply, not taking into consideration intended purpose. Remember, EVs are supposed to benefit the environment. Why would something that automatically blends regenerative-braking with friction-braking be proper? Sure, that's a nice means of providing an enhanced driving experience... but it completely misses the point of getting the most from the least. As soon as a disc or drum activates, opportunity is missed. You want to have regen operate as much as possible with the least amount of driver interaction... hence Toyota's button. Just like with hybrids, it makes the most of the electrical system to decelerate. How come such a benefit is overlooked? Simple. Enthusiasts are drawn to what is new & different. They want a driving experience superior to the past. Making behavior mimic the past is something they absolutely will not endorse. It is what dooms them to just being enthusiasts rather than becoming true supporters. To support, you sometimes have to embrace the subtle or invisible benefits. Absence of praise is especially repellent. Oh well. All I can do for them is point out what they are missing: Consider the other perspective. Being able to get maximum regen without needing to work the pedal to avoid coming to a complete stop is an advantage, not a shortcoming.
5-03-2024	One-Pedal Marketing. I was rather annoyed by yet another review used the same old boiler-plate measures to assess worth of bZ4X. Supposed experts only have a limited time with the vehicle, no exposure to what long-term ownership reveals. They basically just check boxes to ensure their report will draw a wide audience. Focus on detail of what makes a design unique helps to draw clicks, if it is presented as something questionable. Ugh. They don't care why. If they did, there would be some type of follow up... you know, journalism. Sadly, online media has devolved to competing for attention. To that nonsense, I pointed out: The belief that not coming to a full stop indicates a missed opportunity is just marketing. What none of the "one-pedal" pushers ever get into is the behavior itself just prior to the stopping. For the Toyota/Subaru system, it is actually quite refined... surprisingly assertive yet remarkably smooth. It's a desired trait carried over from hybrid owners, those who wanted to effortlessly regen as much as possible without coming to a full stop... since continuing to move is more efficient. If you desire the vehicle to remain in place without having to needing to keep your foot on the brake, use the "hold" button. It works well in unison with the max-regen feature.
5-02-2024	Wrecking Ball. Articles with harsh critic are flooding all the popular EV venues. Some feel no loyalty, freely stating their opinion. One such publisher of popular EV enthusiast content called the recent layoffs of the Tesla Supercharger staff a "wrecking ball" move. A comment posted on that catching my interest was: "Getting out of the charging station locating, site acquisition and utility negotiating may be a very good idea. It's likely that placing charging stations is a "low-hanging fruit" situation where the person-hours and cost per connection has started to rise, maybe rapidly, to the point where it is impossible to recover costs in an acceptable time." To that, I added: That situation of "low-hanging fruit" was becoming difficult to deny. Musk had been playing the market that early opportunity provided. Enthusiasts didn't like being presented with evidence alluding to Innovator's Dilemma becoming a reality. Tesla isn't approaching an impasse anymore. Layoffs inform us not all was well within. With regard to Supercharger specifically, it was clear there was some kind of trouble. New installs were only V3, spread of MagicDock was barely a trickle, and rollout of NACS has been slow & uncertain... quite a change from Tesla, who is usually pushing limits. Knowing most of the automotive business is dull, with most sustainable profit coming from high-volume sales of vehicles delivering small returns, having reach a "wrecking ball" stage shouldn't really surprise anyway. With a CEO spread so thin across multiple businesses and driven by ego, it was only a matter of time.
5-02-2024	3,000 Miles. Ugh. Nonsense about Cybertruck continues to rise. This time, it was a review that omitted information related to electricity use. How can any supposed journalistic effort have such a blatant avoidance. It's an EV. Imagine presenting a new hybrid without including anything about gas use. That would be absurd. But then again, nothing about Cybertruck was related to reduction of emissions & consumption. It's simply not green. I was all too happy to point that out too: Nothing like an extensive write-up for a supposed green vehicle missing consumption data. There's no excuse for the absence of observed efficiency, especially with so much other information provided. Why wasn't anything referring to electricity usage included?
5-02-2024	Falling Apart. Now things really get interesting: "When Tesla was really the only game in town and was the only one smart enough to understand it needed chargers not just cars to survive it was great..." I obviously had comments to contribute to that: That narrative is finally starting to show signs of enthusiast blindness. Look no further than Toyota for confirmation. Spin was that they were anti-EV. Reality is their lobbying was for better legislation. Their past experience with how Prius was born should have made that obvious. They witnessed the CARB mandate fall apart. It was a technology push with incomplete support. Lack of proper support is the same thing Toyota saw decades later. What's the point of pushing EVs without supporting infrastructure? It's how the IRA bill managed to get passed. Those provisions NEVI fund was exactly what the nation needed. It should have been obvious how Tesla's Supercharger network was incapable of handling a flood of entry-level vehicles... Model 2. The nightmare those short-range (small packs to make them affordable & competitive) would have overwhelmed Tesla's charging capacity. Rollout of MagicDock and still favoring V3 for new installs signaled growth challenges. Adding quick Ford & GM rollout for NACS was likely far more difficult than anticipated. In other words, that "smart enough to understand" narrative didn't address what was truly necessary to make the technology acceptable for mainstream shoppers. Musk's audience simply didn't have the patience or willingness to accept what takes, and he didn't either.
5-02-2024	Pre-Condition Hope. Turning attention from industry to our EV, this question was a nice change of pace: "Does anybody know how to precondition the car before heading towards the charging station becuz in tesla and hyundai has the feature where when you put charging station address so it automatically starts heating the battery so it can charge faster. Can we do that to bz4x too or no?" Since that feature isn't available (yet), this is what I was able to provide: Hope is that the upcoming software update will enable a pre-condition feature. Ideally, that would be in the form of a simple 30-minute timer and not have that requirement of specifying a nearby DCFC location as other automakers require. Problem with that is the same plug-in hybrid faced with charge-mode. Using it at inappropriate times will result in a net loss. Gas used is not accounted for with the EV mile improvement. The same is true for electricity consumed by pre-conditioning while still plugged in. You'll see an EV mile improvement, due to the battery-pack being heated more than necessary for just driving, that won't be accounted for while driving. Toyota's initial approach was to only engage the battery-heater while plugged in. That ensured electricity available en-route would only be used for miles driven. Since people already freak about range, losing EV miles due to pre-conditioning is a can of worms they didn't want to open... yet.
5-02-2024	Tesla Disaster. It makes you wonder how the worsening situation will play out. The situation will get increasingly more confusion without any direction from leadership. I summed it up this way: With profit expectations falling from 3/Y price-drops, CT challenges, FSD shortcomings, carbon-credit market shift, and an absence of interest for an entry-level offering, there were very real survival pressures. The combination of NACS and V4 were a remedy. Tesla could sell charger hardware and software solutions for steady, dependable income and strong growth potential. Abruptly laying off the Supercharger staff is a truly bizarre move.
4-30-2024	Trying To Persuade. I found this a compelling opportunity to contribute: "Trying to persuade a friend to buy an EV, although, like us has only has a second car. He looks at this group and said "doesn't matter what you say, all anyone cares about online is the range and how poor it is for some people. You are not convincing me." That was a valid point to make. My response was: Enthusiasts do indeed obsess with range. Fortunate for me, in Minnesota (where California rules just became active on Jan 1) there's a group who has other priorities. Solving that problem has come in the form of promoting the DC fast-chargers being built. We'll share into like digging permits and install progress. Knowing more locations are coming makes range less important. I contributed to that just 2 weeks ago, driving to Northern Minnesota and sharing a photo of dig status near my destination. Seeing that gas station get chargers ends concern for many who travel there.