Buick gets a new badge....

[electra225]

... and a revivAL of the Electra moniker. Don't get too excited. All Buicks will be electric by the end of the decade.....

https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news/bu ... 9f26b26fdf

[19&41]

Gonna be kind of lonely for them.

[hermitcrab]

The dealership I drive for has the distinction of being the first Buick dealer in the country ... how times are changing...

[electra225]

Grandpa thought the world had ended when he learned Buick would discontinue the Straight 8.......

[TC Chris]

Electric vehicles can be very good performers. I got to drive a new electric Mustang and it was quick. I'm as nostalgic as the next guy about V-8 rumble (got new tires on the Mustang; they are quieter and I was enjoying the lovely exhaust note at highway speeds when I drove home last night), but EVs are really the future.

My high school chemistry teacher gave me an after-class lesson in physics one day. He noted that reciprocating gas engines are inherently inefficient. They waste much of their energy as heat (via the radiator, the exhaust) and the process involves accelerating a bunch of pistons in one direction, then slowing them down and reversing direction, then repeating that over and over. Accelerating something from a stop, then slowing it down to another stop, it's incredibly wasteful. It's why we don't fly on piston-driven airplanes, for goodness' sake, and why Chrysler tried to engineer a gas-turbine car.

OK, I love my V-8s, my sixes, my fours. But I'm not going to moan about EVs and lament the good old days. What I will gripe endlessly about is the end of the manual transmission.

I jut counted. I've owned one straight 8; 5 V-8s, 2 sixes, and 3 fours.

Chris Campbell

[Firedome]

I agree, I love my V8s as much as anyone, but ICE technology is 150 years old, it's past time to move on. Ever since the Chrysler Turbine in 1964 I've always pined for a turbine car, and the rotary is cool but didn't pan out, but from a science/physics standpoint I think Hydrogen is the future, both for cars and energy for houses and buildings, however that'll be a while yet. Meantime electric cars are the future, they outperform and are simpler drive-train-wise than ICE cars, and they average 40% less maintenance, I just wish they wouldn't load them with all the tech gizmos. They think, mostly correctly, that electric buyers are early-adopters and want all those tech bells & whistles, well I don't. One of the best things about our xTerras is no computer screen and very simple and functional mechanical controls. One of the reasons Toyota always tops the reliability lists is that they're super conservative in introducing new features.

[electra225]

There will be ICE vehicles available in our lifetimes. I don't plan on buying an electric vehicle. I see issues with them coming. Rolling blackouts, recycling issues, availability of the materials needed to build batteries. IT won't be all beer and skittles.

[hermitcrab]

I'd imagine the pushback today is about the same as back in the day when people were upset the horse and buggy being replaced by those dangerous and explosive gasoline engines , it is human nature to not accept changes good or bad... I myself still thinks Hydrogen is still a viable alternative ...

[Firedome]

A solar installation would make blackouts a moot point.

As for batteries, the Salton Sea area of S.Cali could make the US the Saudi Arabia of Lithium.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/11/business ... index.html

Technology for vastly improved batteries is ready, the Li battery co-inventor, Nobel Prize winner Stanley Whittingham is a Prof here at Binghamton Univ, and his group is spearheading a new Li battery giga-factory now under construction here:

https://www.pressconnects.com/story/mon ... 318704002/

Anyone who hasn't driven an electric car should try one, the torque and acceleration is amazing. and 40% less maintenance, which studies show is the case, is very appealing. I can't wait to get one. Ultimately Hydrogen will win out however.

[electra225]

Yeah, they may require 40% less maintenance, but the maintenance they DO require will break the bank. The common guy won't be able to buy an electric car. They will lease them. Maintenance will have to be included in the lease. There is a guy I work with who owned a Prius. The brake booster went out. $3500 for a brake booster, specially made for a hybrid car. He traded it in for a Corolla. You won't be able to save money driving an electric car. How do you get charged road tax? The powers that be will want their cut of taxes. You will trade high gas prices for other costs, so savings will be nil.

[Firedome]

Well the report said the studies showed a 40% less COST of maintenance over a 5 year period from new, so there's that.
Andrew Burnham of Argonne National Laboratory co-authored a recent report about the total cost of gas vs electric vehicle ownership. Just the facts, ma'am:

“Over the lifetime of a vehicle, the maintenance and repair for a gasoline car might be $25,000 or so – so a very significant amount,” he says. But he says these long-term costs are typically far less for electric vehicles.

EVs have fewer parts to service, as they don’t need oxygen sensors, spark plugs, motor oil, or timing belts. Burnham’s team using 5 years of data calculated that scheduled maintenance for fully electric vehicles COSTS about 40% less than for gas-powered cars. “There is a potential for a very large amount of maintenance and repair savings over the lifetime of an electric vehicle versus a gasoline one,” he says.

"EV drivers can also save even a greater % of money on fuel, figures not included in the maintenance data.
The electricity required to drive 15,000 miles per year in a compact electric vehicle costs an average of $546, while the amount of gas required to drive the same distance costs $1,255 (OR 130%!) more."
{And I'll add that of course electricity will be even less if one has solar power for charging!}

Anecdotal stories based on Prius costs aren't a great comparison here, Prius is a hybrid, not a pure electric, so it has essentially 2 drive systems, and Toyota parts prices have historically always been very high. Even so we know a woman who bought the very first year Prius (2009, 2010?) and had almost zero problems, she traded it in in 2019 still with original battery for a new Prius. Maintenance COSTS for pure electrics will be cheaper than gas by far, so says the data. Now whether one actually wants to drive an electric exclusively is another story, we'll always keep one or 2 gas cars, but our daily grocery-getter will be a full electric asap...the sooner that happens the sooner those big savings begin. No doubt it'll be out last vehicle.