Hello,

First of all, sorry for the lack of an intro this past Tuesday. I inadvertently deleted a field in bouncing back and forth on more than one upcoming newsletter, which then forever prohibited me from writing the intro.

So - this coming Monday, Ford is going to be announcing their Model T of EVs. Rumor has it it will be a mid-size pickup truck, which is one way to keep costs down as long as it's not a crew cab monstrosity that all full size trucks seem to have become.

Back in 1971, my dad bought a C10 for $2800 after buying a Chevy Malibu the prior year for $3600, iirc. Trucks were the cheapest thing on four wheels back then, which is THE reason they became the most popular selling vehicles in America to this day - sheep, fashionability lemmings, posers, and the phallically-challenged, notwithstanding. Now a truck can bust a hundred grand - more than a house costs in a flyover state.

Here's hoping Ford's "Model T of EVs" is a cabover design, like the now defunct Canoo, which significantly reduces the amount of material and weight in the vehicle and also makes it a much shorter length for operating in city environments. Developed by a "Skunkworks" team, distanced from the traditional way things are done by the ICE crew at Ford, perhaps we'll see some innovation and a move away from the influences that birthed the F-150 Lightning and its cavernous, conservative, ICE-snout layout.

In the spirit of our readers being armed to analyze the "Ranchero" (rumored name), I've pulled a few of my blogs from recent archives on things we might be looking out for in new, mainstream, EVs.  I've also included my blog on upcoming EV chemistries, since the "Ranchero", like GM's upcoming Chevy II Bolt (Boltium, Bolt II, Bolt 2.0?), is rumored to use allegedly lower cost LFP chemistry in its traction battery. 

Also in this newsletter, we have articles on bi-directional EV charging and an automotive grade memory chip for ADAS systems.

With over a hundred "Brands" of trade journals under the Endeavor Media umbrella, you may get a chuckle out of where I pulled the articles from on changes to the copper tariffs (I wrote, recently, about how foreign-interest mining operators were lobbying for tariffs and now they are no longer protected by tariffs in a sudden change...hmm...thanks for being among our readers) and on some of the latest in firefighting equipment and methods for the rare occurrences of lithium batteries aflame. 

My favorite gear, originating in the EU, doesn't seem to have reached mainstream American consciousness, where the vehicle floor and top of the traction battery cover is lanced and then the pack is flooded to cool the cells down to well below runaway temperatures. Oh well, at least we're keeping Portland weird by having those lancing rigs deployed here.

enjoy,

AndyT