Electric cars

[PHXPhlyer]

Rivian is fueled by a powerful force: Jeff Bezos' desire to spite Elon Musk

https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/14/economy/ ... index.html

New York (CNN Business)Rivian, the electric truck maker that's rocketed overnight from relative obscurity to $100 billion Wall Street darling, owes much of its breakout success to one very powerful fanboy: Jeff Bezos.

And, less directly, to that fanboy's archnemesis Elon Musk.
When the Amazon founder this summer became the first American entrepreneur to hurl himself to the edge of space on his own private company's rocket, Rivian trucks shuttled Bezos and his fellow astronauts to and from the West Texas launch site.

Rivian's blockbuster IPO shows how far we've come since Tesla's debut
The Rivian shuttles during the widely publicized event were, of course, strategic product placement by Bezos for his handpicked contender to take on Tesla. At the time, Rivian was still a private company with no actual products on the market. But Amazon had made a big bet on Rivian in 2019, taking a 20% stake in the company. The famously (or notoriously) calculating Bezos was bringing two of his pet projects — Blue Origin and Rivian — onto the global stage at the same time.
The cherry on top: It was also a big middle finger to Musk.
Bezos and Musk spent much of the past year yo-yoing between the titles of Richest and Second Richest person in the world. Their feud goes back years, centered on their competing space travel ambitions. Bezos' Blue Origin has been fighting NASA over the agency's decision to contract with Musk's SpaceX to build a lunar lander intended to take humans back to the moon.

So far, all of Blue Origin's efforts to fight NASA's decision have fallen flat.
But Rivian's blockbuster IPO — the strongest debut by a US company since Facebook listed its shares in 2012 — gives Bezos something of a win in the ongoing proxy battle he's fighting with Musk.
Two years ago, Amazon led an investment of $700 million in Rivian and announced it was ordering 100,000 of its electric vans. At the time, the EV field was crowded with upstart brands such as Nikola, Lordstown and Fisker, all of which were vying to position themselves as the next big thing. Since then, Rivian has emerged as the heavyweight (helped as much by investments from Amazon and Ford as by serious regulatory investigations into would-be rivals Nikola and Lordstown).
Rivian can also thank Musk for fomenting the EV hype that investors have been getting drunk on for the past few years. Many analysts say Tesla, with a market cap of around $1 trillion, is wildly overvalued, but it keeps on climbing. FOMO is a powerful force on Wall Street, and those who missed out on Tesla a decade ago may be trying to make up for it by buying Rivian, a 12-year-old startup that hasn't yet delivered any products to customers and somehow is worth more than Ford (F) and GM (GM).
Whether Rivian can live up to the hype is anyone's guess. For an investor, it's a comfort to know that Rivian has the backing of someone with pockets as deep and grudges as bitter as Bezos'.
Investing is always risky. But one thing we can count on is that uber-rich men will literally buy entire companies to spite their enemies rather than go to therapy.

pp

[Undried Plum]

Notice the existing normal kerbside parking charging.

Look at the future:



Within a decade or so this will be quite normal.

[TheGreenGoblin]

Notice the existing normal kerbside parking charging.

Look at the future:



Within a decade or so this will be quite normal.

Not kerb "crawling" then....

[Undried Plum]

Here's a glimpse into the future for the rest of us:

[OFSO]

Actually, the future is public transport, not individually-owned frightfully expensive little tin boxes.

[PHXPhlyer]

Lucid Air named MotorTrend Car of the Year

https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/15/business ... index.html

New York (CNN Business)The Lucid Air, the first model from California-based electric car start-up company Lucid Motors, has been named MotorTrend's 2022 Car of the Year.

It's the first time any automaker has won the award with its first car. MotorTrend's panel of judges lauded the Lucid Air for its extraordinary range and efficiency -- some versions can go up to 520 miles on a single charge -- as well as its performance and luxurious interior.
In its announcement, MotorTrend called the Air "the new [electric vehicle] benchmark." The Air's electric motors were developed by Lucid itself. With no space taken up by a gasoline engine, the Air has a large cabin area with ample storage space in the trunk as well as under the hood.

A Lucid Air is the most efficient electric car sold in the United States, according to EPA estimates.
While the judges generally liked the Air's interior design, they did criticize what they saw as an over-reliance on touch screens for many basic controls. The judges praised the car's Lucid-designed stereo-system.
It's not the first time a start-up automaker has won the award. The Tesla Model S won it in 2012. But the Model S was Tesla's second car, after the Tesla Roadster. The Air is Lucid's first car, and it only recently went into production.
Despite its high cost, MotorTrend's judges thought the Lucid Air represented a strong value. They tested the Grand Touring version with a starting price around $140,000. Less expensive versions, with prices starting around $77,000, will be available later, but they won't have the driving range and power of the pricier cars.
Lucid's CEO, Peter Rawlinson, once worked at Tesla and helped engineer the Model S. In creating the Lucid Air, he has said, efficiency has been a primary focus. The Lucid is actually the most energy efficient electric car sold in America, according to EPA estimates.
The MotorTrend Car of the Year award is given to cars and not trucks or SUVs, for which there are separate awards. To be eligible, cars must be completely new or substantially redesigned for the model year. Other finalists included the Mercedes-Benz EQS, also fully electric, as well as the gasoline-powered Mercedes-Benz S-class, Hyundai Sonata and Honda Civic.
The cars vary enormously in price, size and performance, but all were judged based on efficiency, value, advancement in design, engineering excellence, safety, and performance of its intended function, according to MotorTrend. The cars were tested on public roads as well as at Hyundai's California proving grounds.

PP

[CharlieOneSix]

Actually, the future is public transport, not individually-owned frightfully expensive little tin boxes.

Well I suppose the 9 mile walk to any public transport would keep me fit........

[OFSO]

Must say I'm prejudiced. All public transport where I live is free, by the front door, and every few minutes...

[Undried Plum]

Actually, the future is public transport, not individually-owned frightfully expensive little tin boxes.

Right on!

That Costa Rican bint got it right. Electric buses are the way to solve the pollution problem and some of the financial problems of massive over-dependency on single occupancy cars.

Make buses free and oodles of people will happily bin their expensive stinky petrol/diesel cars.

Dumping the military would also make a massive contribution to the advance of civilisation too. Costa Rica proved that, counter-intuitively.

[CharlieOneSix]

Well, I'd far rather listen to Monica Araya than that blah blah blah Thunberg woman who has nothing positive to contribute. It's not often that I can sit for 15 minutes totally enthralled by a public speaker but Monica had me in her grip. Thanks for posting that UP - well worth listening to.

[OFSO]

Trolley Buses. No need for huge heavy batteries. And fireworks when the pickups came off the overhead wires on corners. Or trams. Happy memories of the last tram home up the Bergstrasse to Jugenheim on a Saturday night after rousterouness at the Gröhe brewery in Darmstadt.

[G-CPTN]

We had trolley buses in many towns.
Bus companies are currently investigating electric buses, mainly battery operated, though some are exploring hydrogen.

Go North East

[Undried Plum]

Trolley Buses. No need for huge heavy batteries. And fireworks when the pickups came off the overhead wires on corners. Or trams.

Damn right!

I remember them in London. And I remember the tram lines being ripped up in central Edinburgh at the end of the 1950s.

Sometimes I think we are going backwards in our civilisation.

[Undried Plum]

some are exploring hydrogen.

I dunno how to reproduce a sound track of Arnie saying: I'll be back.

[G-CPTN]

I remember the tram lines being ripped up in central Edinburgh at the end of the 1950s.

And re-laid in the 2010s.

[CharlieOneSix]

Ah, memories of trolley buses when at school in Bournemouth - from there to Fisherman's Walk, Southbourne on the No. 21. One penny fare! Also remember the conductor often having to get a pole out to reattach one of the arms when the driver messed up going round a bend.

We have 15 hydrogen powered buses on trial in Aberdeen. Back in April they had totalled 100,000 miles of use.

hydabz.JPG (112.2 KiB) Viewed 302 times

[Undried Plum]

First time I ever saw a deid body was a cyclist who got stuck in the groundtrack rails at the top of Leith Walk and got run over by something big enough to squish him.

Just saying, like.

Lycra? Pah!

[OFSO]

Cycling home on my fat-tyred mountain bike from the Irish pub in Darmstadt I frequently got stuck in the tram tracks and ended up in the town depot.

Yes UP, agree unreservedly. Electric trams and trolley buses, electric milk floats, an ecological past. All gone...

[ricardian]

No public transport up here unless you count Orkney Ferries (www.orkneyferries.co.uk) with its twice a day round trip from Kirkwall. Alas, thanks to COPD, I can't manage the short walk from the house to the pier and have to rely on getting a lift from my friendly, octogenerian neighbours.
I do remember the trams and trolleybuses in the late 1940s and 1950s - and I remember how COLD they were in winter as there was no heating whatsoever.

[Undried Plum]

Electric trams and trolley buses, electric milk floats, an ecological past. All gone...

And your lesson is .... ?



Petrol whackers?