Featured It turns out that Akio Toyoda was right

He just decided not to renew the existing agreement. There was nothing else he needed to do..I believe he has already stated he will not run again for governor. I know he is not very popular with some government workers, especially in IT.,

 

Several laws have been suspended.

Los Angeles Pushes to Rebuild Homes Fast, Despite Wildfir...

The order suspends an ordinance that would have required replacement homes to be all-electric, which would have greatly reduced the use of natural gas in a high-risk fire zone. ​

Orders Addressing Rebuilding After Southern California Fires | Insights | Holland & Knight

Mike

 

Absolutely, we should be using Natural Gas in areas prone to fires. Makes the neighboring houses much much safer.

 

I might take a much more difficult and tedious approach.

Any home rebuilds must be fire resistant and earthquake resistant.

I would also stick with the all-electric as natural gas in a fire zone is a fool's folly.

This solution is expensive, difficult and would require immediate legislation - but the only way to avoid this continuing cycle of destruction in that area of our country.

Also, long term goals would involve proper forest/brush management, proper funding, proper manpower, common sense zoning and planning eliminating building in high risk areas.

All these are very easy to write in a post on a thread but extremely difficult to execute and would require great diligence and unwavering commitment as well as the ability to sustain the initiatives over the foreseeable future. And - come at great cost to that state.

It is absolutely expensive to build a common-sense suitable home for that environment in that area of the county. People should realize that as well as being told the extraordinary cost they will pay for insurance if you choose to live in that area.
California may have to tax the bejabbers out of people to subsidize that insurance - it is unreasonable to expect people who live in other areas of the country to finance tinder box homes built next to yearly fire zones

Anything less than these countermeasures just insures this will be an ongoing event every year during the fire season forever.

 

that's pretty much cali's mo, but the housing crunch is a wrench

 

Clearing brush that should have been cleared anyway is the ticket. That's it, that area is not an area to build common sense homes. There were views across the Pacific, huge places with acreage, Etc. Not too many years ago Toyota invited a handful of us to Frank Lloyd Wright's grandson's property in that area. Unbelievable to look down a thousand feet below and seeing planes flying a thousand feet below that over the ocean, with unimaginable sunsets every evening. Like a of the homes in that area it was designed in a way that could be manageable with big fires. But it costs a magnificent boatload of cash to do it. Money-wise? Nothing common sense about it.
[QUOTE ]
California may have to tax the bejabbers out of people to subsidize that insurance - it is unreasonable to expect people who live in other areas of the country to finance tinder box homes built next to yearly fire zones ....snip....[/QUOTE]
Again, it's much cheaper to manage brush than it is to rebuild from the ground up.
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On a happier note, Muno is looking at a BYD hybrid vehicle:

My former 2017 Prius Prime suffered similar problems found in the BYD "Shark."

• Oversized engine - 1.5 L when a smaller engine is needed
• Poor battery size and location
• Over weight
• Mechanical clutch and drive
• Inefficient manufacturing (a by-product of cheap labor)

Bob Wilson

 

It's an actual truck with a 5500 pound tow rating. The goal wasn't efficiency.

That hybrid architecture might be what goes in the next Corolla PHEV.

 

Don't forget Va. I believe is only remaining state with one-term Gov. so our governors cannot run again

 

If Republicans take the house, the Dems still cannot force through an agreement though. It could go either way.

 

Hopefully Youngkin did the "right thing" for Virginia and his action will stand even though we trend bluish purple

 

As a bonus, the owner of Tesla, Inc., is a white supremacist/neo-Nazi.

 

Instead of trolling for reactions, PC has a place especially set up for that.
FHOP
Maybe you can get some off topic reactions over there.
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Nearly a third of Elon Musk’s EV-loving Dutch customers may sell their Teslas: ‘There’s been a debate in the Netherlands around Tesla shame’ | Fortune

 

i'm gad i chose the bolt over the m3 last year

 

I bought my Model 3 and Full Self Driving in 2019 before Elon started to buy Twitter. IMHO, Twitter/X was the first symptom of his distraction.

So in 2024, I sold all of my TSLA stock because I don't want my 'capital' to reside in an entity directed by a distracted manager. I saw this pattern at work: (1) Computer Network Corp; (2) General Electric; (3) Boeing; (4) Wang; (5) Computer Science Corporation, and; (5) Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC).

When the 'powers that be' decide corporate resources are going to be spent on a black hole, I polish my resume and accept my next job offer. So my 'capital' formerly in TSLA is going into a solar project on my roof. This in turn is leading to new things to investigate. For example, having my EV car chargers adjust their rate based on the solar panel generated electricity.

Bob Wilson

 

Tesla is a great vehicle, but I would have been unhappy in ww2 if I had been supporting Volkswagen and Mitsubishi.

 

To get back close to the original posting...

insideevs.com reported today the NC located Toyota battery plant will start shipping product in April from 14 assembly lines.

10 dedicated to PHEV battery production and 4 to hybrids.

By 2030 Toyota estimates 30 gigawatt-hours, enough for over 400k BEVs with 70 kilowatt hour batteries.

They expect production of between 5 and 7 Toyota EV models in the next 2 years. Its 3 row EV has slipped to 2026 from KY.

 

They will soon revise the number downward

 

70kWh equals maybe 65-66kWh usable after subtracting buffers that are decent sized enough to stop degradation.
For fair weather ev drivers (not driving much in sub freezing remote areas) who only need 200 mile 70°f driving - that's fine.
How long 'till there's a 350 miler in fair weather.
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