A majority of auto executives still think battery electric cars will fail, survey says

Sure. It’s complicated. GM’s motivations change with circumstances and over time, and as various innovations and innovators at their disposal. Also, their right hand often doesn’t know what their left hand is doing. They’ll always be a mixed bag...

Edit: Government (various governments) regulations too, of course.

iPhone ? Pro

 

agreed. i like the volt and bolt. would never rule out the right car based on the mfg's checkered history.

 

With the recent dip in cold weather into Dixie, I was thinking 'Oh this is what PiP owners like @bisco were getting in nice weather. Not great but good enough.'

Cold weather, 10-20F (-12 to -7C) with lower tire pressure allowed investigating battery protecting control laws, Our Prime is 95% a hybrid with extended EV capability and software protected battery. In contrast, our BMW i3-REx is 95% an EV with hybrid extended gas capability.

For urban driving, both cars fully meet our requirements as we figure out the Prime control laws. The binary nature of the BMW i3-REx means we don't have to reverse engineer the driving control laws. However, there may be some interesting battery charging control laws I've started to study.

Recent BMW i3 charging behavior suggests a 12A, L1 charger is barely adequate for cold weather performance. I'll put my second, instrumented, 40A, L2 charger back up and do future, cold weather charging surveys. Instrumented, I should be able to track charging behavior. Then wait for the next cold dip into Dixie.

Bob Wilson

 

The frequency of involuntary changes to ICE mode has dropped for me even though weather is about the same.
I wondered if the Prime has a learning mode that modifies the control laws

 

We do know the operator does. <GRINS>

Bob Wilson

 

I've wondered about that, too.

 

Here's some pics of vintage EV's I took on a tour of a "summer villa" of one of the early oil magnates, Waite Phillips (Phillips Petroleum). He's credited with being one of the first to implement vertical integration in controlling the drilling, refining, transportation, and distribution of gasoline. Anyways, I thought it was pretty darn ironical that he had EV's at his summer villa in New Mexico in the 1920's when I guess electricity was more prevalent than filling stations (even his) back then. I assume these were conversions since they have radiators(???).

 

Clutch pedal, too? Maybe it also had a gearbox.

 

EVs where the more popular choice in the beginning because of ease of use. Remember, early ICE cars were started with a potentially arm breaking manual crank.

The motor and battery still produced heat that needed to be shed.

 

Maybe. IDK.

Here's a pic of the other one and it doesn't appear to have one.

 

According to this, there is at least one semi-restored, Ford Model "N":
McHenry County Vintage Car Gazette &raquo; Blog Archive &raquo; The Philmont &quot;N&quot;

Bob Wilson

 

drop dead gorgeous. i always thought phillips petroleum was dutch, like the medical equipment.

 

I think we’re starting to see it in the reviews. I’m starting to see comments like, “they claimed 25 miles on a charge, but I only got <low number> miles.” I suspect that the cars they send out for reviews have been really dragged through the dirt!

iPhone ? Pro

 

possibly, but you also have to make sure it isn't temperature related. i hope prime batteries have improved somewhat over pip in this regard.

 

Ahh, so the red one was a gasser and never used there. Very interesting, thanks for the link!

 

no reason someone couldn't pull the drivetrain and drop in hsd.

 

I am sure @Bill the Engineer would be able to pull it off

 

exactly the man i had in mind.

 

Hmmm. The creative juices could really get flowing on a project like that...

 

i would be happy just to look at it everyday.