Dammit...a missing tool from my kit!

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For me, the perfect example of an EV is the Citoën Ami.

Small, light, inexpensive. Range: 45 miles. Max speed: 28 mph.

Can be rented "all inclusive". MSRP: 6500€.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citroën_Ami_(electric_vehicle)
Legally, it isn't even a car, but a moped. Cheap to insure, low road tax, can be driven without a driver's license.

The Chinese make several small EV that are in the same area, technically. Like a mini truck for 2000$. They'll flood the markets once they can figure out how to get these legally on European roads.

Then there are niche applications, like those ginormous mining trucks in France. These drive the same route all the time, going down from the mountain loaded, returing empty. These never need to charge and can run 24/7.

There's a Dutch company that's launching an EV with solar cells on the roof. The average driver never needs to charge from the grid.

Again, etc.
 
I don't do videos, but as a Boeing stock holder for several years, I have been paying attention. :cry:

This is likely to be seen as political but some in that industry are being accused of lower work quality due to preferential DEI hiring. Hopefully that is not the case, but the door plug falling off mid air was due to loose/missing hardware, so somebody (a subcontractor) dropped the ball (bolts).

I am not selling yet, because Boeing still has a duopoly with Airbus and also a strong military business. But a bumpy flight these last several years.

JR

PS: Re: EVs... hybrid EVs with IC motors as well as batteries are gaining market share in China. These answer the range anxiety problems from simple battery only EVs. I expect these to gain acceptance here too, but far from simple and/or cheap.
 
not secret but developing new automobiles involve large capital investments up front that require years of sales to break ev

Understood ... but then it almost, sorta kinda seems premature to judge whether the investment is a gain or a loss in the long run, as they are still out on the course, n'est ce pas? They may be losing money in the short run, but it may be too early to judge whether they WILL eventually make money in the longer run. After representing both creditors and debtors in hundreds of bankruptcies and other litigation, I sorta understand how financial data is really just a form or statistics and they tell one story one day, and another story another day, depending on what axe is being ground; for example, claiming to lose more on cars than they make, while staying in business ...um ... in the longer run. So car companies dragging their feet developing electric cars claim they are hemoraghing money - perhaps for political or various economic reasons - after all they have their own axe(s) to grind. It is not easy to determine and express their REAL long-term positions as some suggest.

This is NOT really an argument - just a few passing comments. We cannot cross examine any of the claims expressed herein. Nevertheless, I am confident there is a lot more to the story at every turn. For just one example, politicians tout electric vehicles as having a "smaller carbon footprint", while actual automotive engine designers I know point to a larger picture, including the carbon footprint and other ecological hazards involved with producing sufficient electricity to charge all those batteries, not to mention the cost and carbon footprint of building a battery-charging infrastructure, and they say there is A LOT more to it than most folks know and talk about. I foresee a huge problem disposing spent batteries. And on and on.

I sorta, kinda almost doubt anyone can truly explain it all in a couple of paragraphs in a social media thread. Nothing we hear in a news blip is fully accurate. For example, about 18 years ago, there was a major revision of the US Bankruptcy laws. Nothing any newscaster could say in just 5 or 10 minutes could possibly convey the gist of nearly 400 pages of revisions, which means every news story was to some degree inaccurate and misleading, at least beyond the fact there were many revisions.

So, personally, I have serious doubts about all of these topics. I have little faith in big business or big government or politicians because the world economy is too vast and complicated for anyone to fully comprehend, let alone manage and control. Folks can focus on small bits and angles, but that is as good as it gets. Consider a simple matter of shifting from gasoline to deisel fuel. They are both produced in from the same raw material in essentially a singular process - by which I merely mean to say making more of one type of fuel inherently entails making more of the other type. (At least that is what industry engineers tell me.) It is sorta, almost analogous to distilling voldka as a byproduct of distilling whiskey to be aged into bourbon. (At least that is how it is explained by active Master Distillers I have met.) That easily explains why new distilleries all sell rum and vodka while they wait for their first bourbon to age. My point is - it is a lot more complicated than folks let on. People focus on one or two aspects, as if that is the whole story. But it really never is that simple. It is hard to affect one aspect of the market without causing serious repercussions in other aspects of the market. Consider, as further evidence, how many retail jobs have been lost in any local market, as consumers shift purchases to online Internet vendors.

Again, I am NOT really making an argument for any particular product or position - I merely suggest it is a VERY complicated world and nobone can sufficiently and accurately sum any major field or development in a few paragraphs.

Consequently, considering I have no impact or control over any of it, I am just standing by sipping my favorite bourbon and waiting to see what happens next. And that is just MY take. (Again, there is no argument here - just a observations on the larger process, partly explaining my personal skepticism over the future.) JHR :)
 
not secret but developing new automobiles involve large capital investments up front that require years of sales to break even.

Tesla is one of the more successful EV makers in the US, BYD is the big dog in China.

JR
We did a special “new product release” launch function for Tesla at the end of 2014. This announcement was for the first time release of the Model S in this country. There was certainly a lot of doubt back then as dealers were reluctant to get behind a product with no infrastructure in place for national road usage. Roll on a few years and Tesla is the main EV in Australia after for a while being the only one.
 
A new Indian airline just ordered 150 Boeing 737 Max aircraft. That industry is a duopoly so either fly boeing or airbus. China is trying to develop a competitor but not there yet.

I suspect they may have negotiated a slightly lower purchase price because of the news.

JR
 
A product being manufactured in "Taiwan" or in "China" doesn't mean per se it's "Junk" or "Trash".
There's many excellent products being manufactured in China.
Many good Western brands design great products and do a great quality control check and manufacture them in China. That might be the case with Klein

Writing this message from my 2012 Mackbook Pro, that still works perfectly everyday even after 12 years, it was the best computer I ever had in my life, it was manufactured in China
yup, many, many household names ... DSC, Visonic, American Dynamics, even Harley Davidson and Triumph manufacture in China...........
 
Ford...

Just announced a mega recall for the 1.000 CC EcoBoost engine. Same problem as Peugeot has with the engine in the Mini. Putting a belt in an oil bath doesn't seem a like good idea. Belts should last 150.000 miles, according to Ford, but they fail much, much sooner, destroying engines.

They also have problems with the five cylinder jointly developed with Volvo. Strangely, Volvo doesn't seem to have the same problem.
 
A new Indian airline just ordered 150 Boeing 737 Max aircraft. That industry is a duopoly so either fly boeing or airbus. China is trying to develop a competitor but not there yet.

I suspect they may have negotiated a slightly lower purchase price because of the news.

Last september, 43 of their pilots left the company...

I wonder where they'll find pilots to fly the 226 737 Maxs they'll have in the future, especially since Jhunjhunwala, the financier behind the airline, died in 2020. Jhunjhunwala was often referred to as the "Indian Warren Buffet".
 
You see a lot of burnt pavement from electric vehicles catching fire here. The fire department can’t put the fires out. They can only throw a blanket over them and wait for them to extinguish.
 
I’ve been happy with the quality of Crescent brand tools. They don’t make small electronics tools but what they do make is very good quality. A USA brand. I didn’t check the country of origin.
 
News and PR for "Booing" just keep going South.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/17/busi...ge-planes-after-boeing-breaks-down/index.html
The Boeing fuselages are assembled by Spirit AeroSystems in Wichita......not all that far from my hacienda.

Bri
As I understand it, Airbus also has parts made by Spirit Aerosystems. I am not aware of any problems in Airbus aircraft arising from parts manufactured by Spirit (I'm sure you will correct me if I am wrong :) ) but maybe Airbus has better QC at the Spirit plants than Boeing.
 
I believe aircraft used to be sold at a loss - the real return on investment in R&D and construction was the supply of replacement spare parts - to build a plane from spares would cost many, many times the original cost, as would a car. Maybe Ford are getting kickback from government funding or just hope to sell lots of parts like electric motors and batteries and body panels to panel shops.
Printer manufacturers, too. Printers seem to be sold at a loss, the cost being made up with the consumables. I believe HP will even disable some printers if non-HP consumables are installed; they want printing to become a subscription service.
 
Printer manufacturers, too. Printers seem to be sold at a loss, the cost being made up with the consumables. I believe HP will even disable some printers if non-HP consumables are installed; they want printing to become a subscription service.
That is a pretty well known business principle, to generate revenue streams. Even some new cars are looking for subscription models, I'm not sure for what.

JR
 
That is a pretty well known business principle, to generate revenue streams. Even some new cars are looking for subscription models, I'm not sure for what.
Sorry to contradict but it's not a new totally new concept for car manufacturers. GM has been getting a revenue stream from me since 2009 for the OnStar service, car phone cell service, human navigation assistance, crash alert and response, road service, etc. I only recently stopped, as the 2G cell service it is based on was sunsetting. One cool feature was real time telemetry and explanation of error codes, like the one time while I was driving and the check engine light went on during an extended highway trip. From what they told me I knew I didn't have to stop at the next exit and could keep on going.
 

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