Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

No one could have predicted…

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

“But what about the lurkers?”

Americans barely caring about Afghanistan is so last month.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Consistently wrong since 2002

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Eh, that’s media spin. biden’s health is fine and he’s doing a good job.

Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

Tick tock motherfuckers!

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Late Night Car Guys Open Thread (The Future Is *Electric* with Possibilities… )

Late Night Car Guys Open Thread (The Future Is *Electric* with Possibilities… )

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Anyone want to speculate / pontificate about the possibilities here?

DETROIT – General Motors is offering buyouts to U.S. Buick dealers that don’t want to make investments in the brand’s transition to exclusively offer all-electric vehicles domestically by 2030, the automaker confirmed Friday…

All of Buick’s roughly 2,000 U.S. franchise dealers will be given the opportunity to take a buyout, Duncan Aldred, global head of Buick, told The Wall Street Journal…

The company offered similar buyouts to Cadillac dealers in 2020. About 320 of those 880 retailers accepted the offer rather than assume expectations to invest at least $200,000 toward upgrading dealerships for electric vehicles.

Buyout offers for Cadillac dealers ranged from about $300,000 to more than $1 million, a person familiar with the plans previously told CNBC. Malcho declined to disclose how much Buick dealers would be offered.

Buick’s EV plans are part of a broader $30 billion investment by GM into electric vehicles by 2025…

Reader Interactions

33Comments

  1. 1.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    Frist!

    ETA: It’s exciting to see EVs really becoming normal, cool, and hopefully common.  I loved the video of Biden driving the electric truck a while ago.

  7. 7.

    Chris T.

    That Joe wants to go to the auto show just shows how old and out of touch he is!  (According to “Da Yoot’ Dese Daze” anyway)

    Seriously, I love my EV.  Went plug-in hybrid in 2012, full plug-in in 2019, won’t go back voluntarily.

  10. 10.

    Gvg

    @Amir Khalid: on the run with kidney cancer? Oh boy. Neighbors saw moving trucks in prior weeks but apparently didn’t call police ahead of time…well I hope he gets caught and stays in jail this time in spite of cancer.

    They need to confiscate his money.

  11. 11.

    emmyelle

    I’m not in the market for a new car for at least three or four years (my eight year old Sonata hybrid is doing just fine, no signs of decline), and I am so excited about all the EV choices I will have when that day comes.

    Thanks, Brandon!

  12. 12.

    Feathers

    Pity the dealerships aren’t actually going. They are a bulwark of local Republicanism. They also pretty much fund you local TV news, which is why it tends to be horrible.

    Excited about the EVs, though. Curious how charging is going to work for urban areas where people park on the street.

    ETA Also a good time and excuse to do the grid upgrade this country so sorely needs.

  13. 13.

    Mimi

    @Feathers: The Jewel supermarkets (Albertsons elsewhere) here (Chicago) have charging stations in their parking lots.  I do not know if a full charge is possible in the time it takes to grocery shop, not so I know what it costs. I’m guessing the oil companies are already looking into offering charging stations as electric vehicles gain popularity.

  14. 14.

    Lapassionara

    @Feathers: in Paris, there are several street parking spots in a row equipped with charging stations. There are quite a few, and I expect more to be installed. So there is a way to handle, if there is a government willing to do so.

  15. 15.

    lowtechcyclist

    @emmyelle: I figure we’re 2-3 years away from needing a new car, since our 2009 Accord is (obviously) 13 years old.  Based on prior experience, I expect to need to replace an Accord or Civic at or shortly after the 15-year mark, although our reduced driving during the pandemic probably pushes that back a bit.

    (We’ve been Honda owners for 32 years now, it takes that long to build a knowledge base about their expected lifetimes.)

    So I’m looking forward to options in the way of hybrids and/or EVs.  Might be a hybrid in a couple years, then an EV to replace my Civic ca. 2030.

  17. 17.

    Mousebumples

    I’ve heard that some states (eg at least Wisconsin) require the buyer to buy through a dealer for new cars. Though I’m also remembering all the “buy online” and “have delivered to your home” pushes during Peak Covid. Might need to reconfirm that with my relative who works as a service department manager…

    Good news on the EV push, though!

  18. 18.

    JML

    I bought a new car 2 years ago (just before supply chain made it really hard to find what you wanted and when interest rates were 0.0%) and strongly considered EV options, but as a one-car person in the midwest, it would have been great as a daily driver, but not so great for things like trips to visit my sister and her family (who are 300+ miles away). But I expect this will be my last gas vehicle, and I’m fine with that. Looking forward to what they do with building out charging infrastructure, how rapid the recharge timing becomes and how much further they can push the range.

  19. 19.

    Kevin

    I bought my Wrangler in 2020 right as they introduced the electric model. I considered waiting but just knowing I’ll own the Jeep for prob 15-20 years I was ok with it being my last ICE car (most likely). It is exciting to see the transition really start to ramp up.

  20. 20.

    eversor

    We’d been fucking around on buying a new car since the SO crashed the sonata, twice.  We agreed on electric.  We looked at Tesla for a bit but they are riddled with problems and that’s not going to change it seems.

    We came down to two choices a RAV4 hybrid or just go all out and get the BMW i4.   We’re going with the i4.  Should last we don’t abuse things and it’s mostly for her.  I walk to work and still have the very fast trip to the coffin, Yamaha sport bike.  I don’t see the need to change that to electric as motorcycles are very fuel efficient.

    The Tesla flunked out cause Musk can’t get his shit together and build a car that works and doesn’t kill people.   It’s nice, it’s fancy, and if it works it really works but when built out costs as much as the i4 and somehow manages to be a bigger nightmare to maintain than the BMW.   There’s also a massive BMW network for repairs in the DC area so that’s a bonus.

    We may also get the RAV4.   Her niece got into GWU so she is probably moving in with us just because it’s walkable from here.   We’ll figure out if she needs a vehicle after.   Not thrilled about having her here, but the SO and the cat love her so I’m losing that vote 2-1 and really I’ve learned I don’t get votes long ago.

  21. 21.

    Geminid

    @Feathers: Last year the electrical grid upgrade was boosted by funds included in the Infrastructure Bill.

    The “Inflation Reduction Act” passed last month may result in a streamlining of electrical infrastructure regulation. To that end,  Schumer promised Manchin that a separate bill that would ease the permitting process for major energy infrastructure projects, including long distance transmission lines that could bring wind generated electricity from the great plains states to more populous areas.

    I hope there will be an incentive  of some kind for High Voltage, Direct Current transmission lines. These can be buried. One HVDC line has been approved that will run from western Iowa to Illinois, and most of the route is on railroad rights of way.

    Siemens Industries is a partner in this project. They pioneered the technology by running power lines from North Sea windfarms to Germany’s inland cities.

    Buried HVDC lines cost twice as much as above ground high voltage lines, but they attract one tenth the public opposition.

  22. 22.

    Geminid

    @Geminid: The funding for electrical grid enhancement is one one of many progressive elements of the Infrastructure Bill passed last November. I think this legislation was greatly underrated, perhaps because of the circumstances of its passage.

  25. 25.

    JaneE

    I was a kid back in the muscle car era.   0-60 by the end of a short freeway onramp was SOP for the big V-8’s.  You pretty much had to if you were trying to get onto the freeways of the 50’s.  The smallest EVs may not be able to match that, but the big names can easily best the big ICE motors of the past at acceleration.  If you want to smoke the guy next to you at a stoplight, get an EV.  You can always play a vroom-vroom recording.

  26. 26.

    JaneE

    @Geminid: They also don’t impact the view, and presumably would not start wildfires.  Not so likely to be impacted by most weather that isn’t already a disaster.

    I really do not understand why undergrounding utilities in general has not happened in places when every year at least one storm destroys power to thousands for days.

  27. 27.

    JaneE

    @Feathers: We have a charging station in the supermarket parking lot – way in the back.  Also the  spaces in front of the entrance to the El Pollo Loco in our small commercial center area are changing to chargers – I think I may have been one of the few people who used them to park in.  They are on main street and will be visible to passing traffic.  There is a bank of Tesla chargers 6 or 8 that I pass somewhere in town, just off the main drag.

    Not bad for a small rural community that was a hard NO to Tesla chargers when they wanted to put them in a few years back when they were just getting started.

    I see Teslas and a Chevy EV around town, but have only seen people charging at the charging stations a handful of times.  Still, we are a tourist area, so it will probably get a lot of use in the future.

  29. 29.

    Adam Lang

    You wouldn’t know the future is electric around here in San Francisco, where EVs and plug-in hybrids are now quite common but there are fewer public charging stations than there were five years ago. And NO free ones.

  30. 30.

    Geminid

    @Subsole: When I drove I-20 from Atlanta to New Mexico three years ago I started to see wind generators a little ways past Fort Worth. They were on low ridgelines with oil pumps and drilling rigs below, usually with cattle all around. Then I drove through Lubbock to  Santa Rosa. I was surprised to see that New Mexico had hardly any wind generators.

    That year Michelle Lujan Grisham and the  state legislature pushed through a clean power program. I hope to visit the state this winter and I think I’ll see more windmills if I do.

    There is certainly no shortage of wind there! Santa Rosa Lake State Park was the windiest place I ever camped at.

  32. 32.

    Geminid

    @Subsole: I like a good road trip. Virginia is my home, but I jumped off from my Atlanta friend’s house.

    Directions were simple. Stay on I-20 for 820 miles, hang a right at Sweetwater, Texas.* Take U.S 64 past Lubbock to Fort Sumner, New Mexico, then ~40 miles north on Rt. 84 to the Comet II Restaurant in Santa Rosa for takeout chili verde. The state park is 8 more miles.

    *An airfield just west of Sweetwater is home to the Women’s Auxiliary Air Corps Museum. A nice stop. The WAAC pilots made quite a record in the Second World War. It took until the Carter administration for them to win veteran’s status. They really deserved it.

  33. 33.

    columbusqueen

    It would be seriously cool if the car bosses presented Joe with the keys to the first electric Corvette. He’s earned it.

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