Weather Forecast.  The highs expected for this weekend are 2°F and 3°F.  We have plans late into the evening on Saturday.  Temperatures will be well into the negatives when we drive back home then.  I don't have any plans for Sunday.  That could make for an awesome filming opportunity.  It would be great scrambling to put something together then.  It's difficult to know how much I can have setup in a short amount of time.  Of course, video that's a bit rough is authentic.  I'll have plenty of time to refine captures later.  There are many yearning for some true cold data, the real thing we get here in Minnesota.  I'm looking forward to the discovery process.  Oddly, no one has published any detail yet.  We only have a handle of vague reports from temperatures much warmer.

Whoa!  My looooong afternoon work meeting finished and I headed over to the dealer.  Sure enough, in the area when drop-offs take place, there it was.  With the temperature outside in the single digits and the wind rather nasty, I knew taking photos would be a challenge.  I had to be quick too, it was an overcast day and the sun was about to set.  So, I parked my current 2023 next to the soon-to-be-mine 2026 for a few memorable moments.  Odds are good I will take delivery 2 days from now, late in the evening.  That means it will be dark and the vehicle will be dirty almost instantly.  With all the snow we're getting and the cross-town trip I need to take after purchase, it's going to look like winter struck.  That's fine.  Minnesota is rather hostile when it gets cold... which is why this choice of vehicle is so sweet.  I look forward to that first drive.

No Date!  The online interface no longer lists a delivery-window date.  There's no status either.  Not saying "In Transit" anymore is encouraging too.  Looks like it might be at the dealer now; though, there is no indication of that.  Of course, I shouldn't expect an "In Stock" label... since it was shipped knowing it was already claimed.  In fact, this was actually a trade from another dealer.  So even before it was built, the expectation was this would be a sold delivery.  I get the red vehicle I had wanted 4 years ago, but ended up with white instead.  Turns out, that's just fine.  I mentioned this to someone today making comments about recently buying that same package:  The black fender flares are a nice standout, complimented by the black roof sides and black emblems.  It's exactly what I have been waiting for.

Soon?  Very early this morning, there as no change.  After coffee & breakfast, there was.  Supposedly today or tomorrow delivery to the dealer should take place.  I would assume with that level of precision, the vehicle is near the front of the line at the railway waiting to be loaded onto a truck.  Frequent updates to that online inventory must be somewhat accurate.  My assumption is that late afternoon, I will have some indication of status.  Hope is that I'll be able to confirm the dealer has it and run out there (just 7.5 miles away) to see the vehicle parked somewhere in back waiting to be prepped.

Newbie Assumptions.  It is truly amazing to read a story of someone stopping at a dealer, picking up a 2026, then going for a road trip already.  He described it as the "trip from hell".  No preparation.  He just jumped in the bZ and drove... assuming DC fast-charging could happen pretty much anywhere... but never having tried.  Without any planner, he ran out of battery.  After getting towed, he spend the night charging.  Back on the road the next day, someone had to show him how to get a Supercharger to work.  His Toyota app wasn't setup, so that meant downloading the Tesla app.  He then ended up finding & getting other apps for charging.  He also learned about adapters.  His concluding comment in the post was: "Long story short, I am pissed off at Toyota.  If they are going to sell these cars make sure everything works…"  Everything does work.  He didn't follow instructions prior to leaving.  There are videos.  There is a manual.  Why in the world would you travel without doing any preparation?  For a newbie to assume everything will work perfectly, despite never trying prior to that, is nuts.  This is how I responded to his story:  It is nice to hear you felt comfortable taking a trip so soon after purchase.  Thank you for sharing.  Lesson learned that experience before taking a trip is priceless.  Practice locally, finding and connecting to DC fast-chargers.  That ensures you get familiar with the time it takes to charge under a variety of scenarios, in addition to assurance there won't be any payment surprises.

Delivery Change.  It changed this morning (Sunday) to between today 12/7 and Tuesday 12/9.  Since dealers in Minnesota are not open on Sundays, nothing will happen.  We got a bunch of snow yesterday too.  That means much of the staff on Monday will be busy brushing off vehicles.  Nothing is certain.  My 2023 bZ4X is currently quite dirty and the WeatherTech mats quite wet.  I'm assuming they'll fit in the 2026.  I'm also hoping the receiver-hitch fitting will be the  same too.  Questions like that don't have answers yet.  Early buyers, like me, are who will find out.  I'll be happy to share my findings too.

Assuming Electric.  No where in the fuel economy regulations did it say electric vehicles were necessary.  In fact, hybrids were the primary focus back when consideration of limits were drawn up.  Electric simply made achieving the required fleet average easier.  Nonetheless, I'm seeing a lot of nonsense like this: "People should have rights to choose a type of cars they want to drive.  Some people don't like electric cars most prefer gas cars."  Hybrids are getting ignored completely.  Now that plug-in models are becoming common, that's an especially big deal.  The idea of "gas" car should naturally include a battery at this point... which is why any mandated MPG goal wasn't supposed to be a big deal.  Efficiency would have naturally risen to the needed level anyway, as just a matter of remaining competitive.  Unfortunately, electric vehicles still aren't competitive.  Most automakers decided to sell loss-leaders, unprofitable configurations with the hope gen-2 will achieve cost-parity.  That gamble left the opportunity for the bridge hybrids could provide to become a lost opportunity... for most all except Toyota.  Anywho, I responded to today's assumption with:  Why are you assuming electric is the only solution?  Hybrids use gas and meet fuel economy requirements.

Delivery Update.  No update until this evening.  Now it says between Saturday 12/6 and Tuesday 12/9.  To me, that translates needing to pay close attention on Monday.  The dealer being able to prep the vehicle quickly seems unlikely though.  Tuesday my salesperson has off.  Wednesday is classes in the morning and a holiday celebration at work in the afternoon.  So regardless of when it actually is dropped off by the truck, I would be picking it up on Thursday.  Of course, there's no guarantee the delivery-window listed online currently is accurate anyway.

That tells me over those 36,809 miles accounted for, there appears to be a 1.6% capacity loss.  It's a good sign.  The gen-2 will have a "State of Health" percentage on a dashboard screen, showing calculation results based on the same data.  Having it for my gen-1 is really nice.  I had a hunch something like that could be useful in the future.

Growing Competition.  After going back & forth when someone, trying to address their frustration with the state of charging technology, it became an attack on Toyota.  He really wasn't being objective as implied.  Tesla's network was vastly superior, period.  Ugh.  It's not worth quoting someone like that.  He was from the Atlanta area, where there are close to 80 Supercharger locations.  One even has 32 stalls.  This is why he didn't want to hear about anything else.  He was frustrated about not getting a charging session to start and getting stuck with $30 pending on his credit-card.  Hearing that's how transactions work for chargers where you don't have money already loaded into an account to draw from was unacceptable.  His frustration was all that matter.  What a pain.  No patience.  Unwilling to listen.  He knew best.  Blah.  I was quite happy to fire right back at him, hoping it would sting a little:  Of those 80 superchargers, how many are forcing non-Tesla owners to struggle with a short cord?  The fact that Tesla dropped the ball on cord length, despite having 2 full years to prepare, is still Tesla's problem.  Ionna is one of many brands here too.  We also have Electrify America, Blink, CircleK, ZefNet, Shell Recharge, ChargePoint, EVgo, and soon to open Francis Energy.  In the spring, we will be getting Kwik Charge.  There are also cities providing their own DCFC, leveraging hosts like DirtRoad and EV Connect.  In short (pun intended), Tesla is aware of growing competition.

Fuel Economy, ridiculous.  This was the reply I got: "50 mpg fleet average is ridiculous."  He simply didn't care.  I even taunted him with: "Are you that out of touch?  Camry already gets 51 MPG.  That tech can be licensed to other automakers."  It didn't do any good.  They scream at you, saying you should use some common sense.  That is supposed to mean what I had proposed was totally unrealistic.  It's like they have adopted our president's approach, treating people like idiots when they don't accept incorrect claims.  Dismissing evidence outright is the only way to keep narratives alive at this point.  They have run out of excuses.  Too many better choices are now available.  Resisting progress is becoming an expensive mistake.  Oh well.  It's not like they don't know why.  Electrification comes in many forms now, each contributing to fuel economy improvements:  Try explaining how those popular vehicles delivering 50 MPG, combined with the plug-in hybrids delivering 75 MPG, along with the electric-only delivering 125 MPGe, don't offset the pickups getting 20 MPG.

Fuel Economy, magic.  Gotta like the complete absence of critical thinking: "All that research and development doesn't just magically appear.  You know that, right?"  We've seen hybrids from every automaker.  Some were better than others, but none really wanted to continue producing them... until recently.  Now, we're seeing some revival & expansion.  Point being, the research and development is done.  It's all about implementation.  Simply resting on their laurels was much easy for automakers & dealers than to actually bring about change.  This is why it really didn't matter what was being sold, whether it had a plug or not.  Retaining the status quo is their desire, period.  Many fail to see the big picture though.  They don't notice much.  Some don't notice anything.  Whatever the case, I was annoyed having to point out:  We're well past that stage.   Each automaker has viable designs already.  They simply haven't had an incentive to spread that technology throughout the fleet... except Toyota, who is already 50% hybrid.

Fuel Economy, regulations.  That administration is attacking prior regulations put in place.  This was specifically about fuel economy.  Each year would increase the fleet average requirement.  Higher was quite realistic and the investments have already been made.  In fact, this is why GM just decided to accept a $1.6 Billion loss.  The gamble is selling less efficient vehicles will be more profitable.  That may be true, but it completely relies on cheap gas.  OPEC doesn't want.  Realistically, this administration doesn't either.  Oversupply of oil equates to less profit.  That's how you get prices low though.  It's why comments like this are such a problem: "For once, I agree with this... 50mpg for all cars and light trucks by 2030 was not realistic, and honestly a comical and unserious rule."  People don't pay attention.  No such regulation existed.  Ugh.  I tried to convey that vital point with:  It was not "for all".  It was a fleet average, unadjusted measure (which is more favorable than the EPA rating).  Toyota is showing the way with 100% of Camry & RAV4 hybrid and Corolla heading that way.  You can see the potential is quite realistic when adding in a mix of plug-in hybrid and electric-only choices.

Fake News.  There was another rant today.  That's becoming common now.  Someone will post an anti-EV article, welcoming a reply exactly like that.  Today, it was about the harm & waste from batteries.  That's actually somewhat interesting.  In the past, arguments against batteries were that they wouldn't last a long time.  Now, we rarely here anything about replacement need.  Instead, we're hearing about people using really old EVs for in-town driving.  Range gets increasing shorter on those legacy batteries, but they still work.  Claims were they would abruptly die and you'd be screwed having to replace it.  Finding out you just have to recharge much more frequently wrecks their narrative.  There's simply no way to spin success like that into a problem, especially with chargers become common.  Needless to say, he tried.  Claiming fake news and that I had not done my homework was pointless.  I fired right back with:  Who didn't do their homework?   Recycling is in already place, but very little is happening so far due to the extreme high demand for used batteries.  As for not understanding the grid or electricity consumption, you basically shot yourself in both feet.  EVs use energy more efficiently.  So even consumption of dirty electricity provides a net benefit over refining & combusting gas.  There's also the reality of grid excess.  That's the unneeded electricity that is normally wasted due to fossil inefficiencies.  EVs take advantage of that with off-peak charging.  It's a win-win.

Real Problem.  This was asked: "Why did Toyota decide to not move the port further towards the front???"  This corner is an option, but not a good one  That part of the vehicle gets nasty in the winter and it could easily get bumped by someone walking by.  Think about the parking situation in your garage.  Within the crumple-zone is obviously a problem for accidents too.  In other words, we hear from some Tesla owners who simply don't understand why other automakers didn't follow Tesla's placement example.  That location certainly doesn't work for Cybertruck when towing a trailer.  Ugh.  Being able to nose in, like Rivian, is logical for when you have a load in back.  Anywho, I kept my reply short & poignant... figuring he had already made up his mind anyway:   To protect it.  The real problem is Tesla dragging its feet on lengthening their cords to match the rest of the industry.

Keep in mind, there was actually a legitimate reason for waiting.  The convenience of "Plug & Charge" (ISO 15118) has been unclear in terms of backward compatibility.  Coinciding with NACS rollout is likely just timing; nonetheless, it's appeal gives reason for pause.  As supporters, that's something we can really leverage for promoting EVs.

Available Gen-2.   There are now 6 within a 100-mile radius of St. Paul, Minnesota in stock.  I find it interesting that they are all XLE models.  Naysayers complain that automakers push the fully loaded models first, forcing you to pay for features you weren't necessarily looking for.  Each listed is an AWD model, but wisdom from my salesperson of prior demand related to C-HR was that virtually all shoppers wanted AWD.  For an EV, getting FWD offers the advantage of more range.  But being winter here, the benefit of AWD (especially this morning, we got 5.5 inches of snow overnight) is an easy decision.  With the current $5000 cash and $6000 lease available here, those are great deals.

2026 Solterra.  The first report from a 2026 owner emerged this morning.  They had been researching and test-driving both EVs and hybrid for month.  Having owned a Subaru in the past is what was the strongest draw.  The comment was made about duel Qi chargers being a nice touch too.  The first trip was 200 miles in the cold.  A photo was shared, plugged into a Supercharger surrounded by a snowy wooded mountain area.  This was the concluding comment: "Super happy with the car so far.  If anyone has tips for getting the best charging rates, especially on longer drives, I'd love to hear them."  I provided this advice:  Use the precondition feature to warm the battery before DC fast-charging.  You can turn it on manually, about 20 minutes before should work well.  Keep in mind, that will consume electricity (reduce range).