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Showing posts from 2018

EVs and the Coming Oil Glut?

The other day I read this article . The author, Ross Tessien seems to have created something of a stir.  His basic premise is that the demand for EVs has already quietly started a rapid journey to 100% adoption by 2026, we have not correctly interpreted the signs yet, and all of this will amount to a historically significant oil glut as early as 2023 (when everyone realizes oil is being massively overproduced). Here's a great, very friendly video explanation by the guys from "Now You Know". Be forewarned that all of their content seems to be heavily Tesla-centered and slightly fanatical, so they are likely to be more bullish on this hypothesis. Despite the fact that I more-or-less believe that this is the ultimate outcome, I think there are some factors that Tessien has not considered: "Gas Grab" - A subset of people who just want cheap transportation will be happy to buy and own their gas-powered cars when gas prices drop, causing a hesitation in

Plasti-Dip Chevy Volt Emblems and Rims

Now that I have had my Chevy Volt for a week, I had to take care of some high priority items in order to make it driveable.  The first one, of course, was to black out the rims and gold Chevy emblems. I used a product called Custom Wrap by Dupli-Color. It's the equivalent of a better-known product called Plasti-Dip.  You spray it on, and it peels or wipes off when you want it to (assuming you did it right).   Wheels  Started with some serious cleaning of the wheels.  I used Simple Green mixed with water, a sponge, and a lot of elbow grease. I chose to remove the wheels for application, but that is not expressly necessary.  In my case I didn't want to worry about over-spray onto the car or rotors, and felt I could do a better job of getting all the nooks and crannies.  I didn't mask anything at all; I just made sure to do lots of (4-5) coats on everything (including the tires) so it would peel nicely off.  The whole wheels job used 2 can

How the Gen 2 Volt Drivetrain (Really) Works

Is the Chevy Volt a parallel hybrid or serial?  Does the engine drive the wheels after the battery is depleted?  Or does it generate electricity to run the motors, like a range-extended EV?  There are tons of opinions about what class of hybrid the Chevy Volt fits into, and there is good reason for this. The truth of the matter is, it is all of these things and more. If I have lost you, don't feel bad. After reviewing multiple sources of information about how the 2nd gen Volt works, it seemed to be something I would never get my head around (and still haven't).  Let me try to break down what I know and give you some valuable references. Components of the Chevy Voltec Drive System There are 5 main components involved in the Chevy Voltec drive: 1.5L ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) Electric Motor/Generator A (EMG A) Electric Motor/Generator B (EMG B) Planetary Gear A (PGA) Planetary Gear B (PGB) How They Interact The Planetary gear PGA is connected to EMG A and t

Why I Got a Chevy Volt

Why I chose the Volkswagen "Buy Back" Last month, I sold my VW Golf TDI back to Volkswagen.  It was included in the emissions scandal, and I had the option to sell it back for more than I paid for it.  Even though I mostly loved the car, I had my reasons for choosing to sell it back. Here are some of the reasons which tipped the scales for me: There were quirks that drove me nuts (3 sec. delay in acceleration, always complaining about my key not being in range, bluetooth microphone not working for media audio, worthless voice recognition feature, many more) The mileage and age of the vehicle were getting to the point where things start getting expensive to maintain (90K).   The fuel mileage was averaging about 35 mpg, which is not hard to beat using even a NON-hybrid modern gas vehicle. To further this issue, a gallon of diesel comes at about a $.50 premium over gas, negating any fuel mileage advantages. Also furthering this issue, is the relative difficulty of find

Monitor Connector Preferences

When it comes to connecting a computer to a monitor, you have a lot of choices these days.  Recently I was asked what I would use, and I made a list of my preference in descending order, depending on what is available: DVI to DVI HDMI to HDMI or DVI to HDMI (using adapter or special cable) Etch-A-Sketch controlled by an artistic robot that draws a representation of what is on your screen 15-pin analog VGA to whatever