Sometimes, it seems like EV charging is becoming pretty standardized. Sure, there are differences in things like what charging connector is used or who owns the station, but the general idea is that you pay for everything at your house while everything away from home is run by somebody else. … [continued]
In late summer, it’s not uncommon for a big storm to send a gush of water down an arroyo, a dry streambed that gets cut by monsoon storms in the Southwest. To the farmers who lived in the Imperial Valley of California in 1905, the weird early summer water that … [continued]
In Part 1, I discussed the methodology and assumptions that went into my comparison of the F-150 Lightning, the F-150 Hybrid, and a hypothetical plugin hybrid version of the truck. Now, let’s see how they stack up. I discuss my methods in Part 1, but to briefly recap, the production … [continued]
A while back, I read a very interesting article on The Drive estimating the lifetime emissions of electric pickup trucks. They concluded that electric trucks were still better than a comparable gas-powered truck, but that the point where the EV truck had saved enough energy to make up for the … [continued]
A few days ago, Aptera revealed the details for its Launch Edition vehicle. I won’t go into the full details here, but I wrote a detailed two-part article and a link to Aptera’s video presentation here. For the TL;DR crowd, the biggest details were that the Launch Edition will be … [continued]
In the last few days, there has been some bad news and some good news for Volkswagen’s heating and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. New owners might have to miss out on an efficient heat pump due to the chip shortage, but a near-production version of an upcoming vehicle looks like … [continued]
On the surface, doing right by the environment may sound like a simple thing. Do things that are good for the environment, and don’t do things that are bad for it, right? Often, that’s the choice we’re faced with, and we have to balance it with other things, like cost … [continued]
Why LEAF Battery Replacements Are A Big Deal There’s a good chance that if somebody mentions the Nissan LEAF, and you’re an EV enthusiast, the next words out of someone’s mouth will have something to do with battery health. The first LEAFs sold in 2010-2013 had what were possibly the … [continued]
Another thing Mercedes did to make the vehicle more efficient was to limit the frontal area. The EQX has a frontal area of 2.12 square meters. This puts its frontal area below that of the Toyota Prius or Tesla Model 3, which are around 2.2 square meters. Weight Reduction & … [continued]
A recent video at the Engineering Explained YouTube channel tells us about a vehicle that just might give Tesla and the other EV manufacturers a serious run for their money. Is it the fastest EV ever built? No. But, its efficiency is extremely impressive. The car is the Mercedes-Benz EQXX, … [continued]
