The Bakken Isn't Going Away -- April 8, 2015; Wow! Look At This EV Headline

From Seeking Alpha:

ConocoPhillips bets on shale in major U.S. spending shift • 12:26 PM

Carl Surran, SA News Editor

ConocoPhillips says it plans to spend 50% more over the next three years in the U.S. and Canada - ~$11.5B/year - steering more funds to projects from Texas to North Dakota as spending winds down on major developments in locations such as Australia. The spending plan amounts to a vote of confidence in the future of North American oil, and COP’s operating costs - among the lowest in North America - allow the company to pursue such a strategy.

COP also sets a target of boosting production by 6.3% to 1.7M bbl/day by 2017.

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Wow! Look At This Headline

CleanTechnia is reporting: US Electric Car Sales: No Surprises. Tesla Model S, Nissan LEAF, & BMW i3 On Top Again.

After reading that headline, one gets the feeling EVs are setting the world on fire (recall "Chariots on Fire?" -- brings back memories), almost making me want to rush out and get an EV before I'm the only one in town without one.

I believe auto sales are on track to set new records this calendar year (2015) hitting 17 million vehicles or something like that (don't quote me on that), so let's see what the top US EVs are doing, from the linked article, for March, 2015 (March, 2014):

• Tesla S: 2,000 (1,800) -- if you believe the numbers; only estimates; see below
• Nissan Leaf: 1,817 (2,507) -- huge decrease
• BMW i3: 922 (0) -- must be a new dealer in west LA, Brentwood, or Hollywood

Then skipping to number 5:

• Chevy Volt: 639 (1,478) -- dying a slow death
• Toyota Prius: 401 (1,452) -- wow, wow, wow -- put this one on the endangered list

And everyone's favorite:

• VW e-Golf: 181
• Chevy Spark: 151 (108) -- not looking good -- being outsold by the Volt -- wow

The Tesla numbers (from the linked article):

Speaking of Tesla, as you well know, it doesn’t report monthly sales (read: delivery) figures, and it doesn’t break out sales by country. Nonetheless, based on quarterly figures and statements from Tesla CEO Elon Musk, we can make some decent estimates regarding how many Tesla vehicles go to the US, and then just break out the pie cutter to segment that into monthly figures. The latter part is the most sketchy, btw — I break it out more or less evenly to better tell the story (realistically, Tesla makes the large majority of a quarter’s shipments to the US in a single month, for logistical reasons).

Best comment at the linked article:

The total sales for a year of all these models combined is 3 weeks of Camry production. Two weeks of F150 production.

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Someone Who Will Never Buy A Tesla

Speaking of batteries: the reviews are starting to come in on the Apple Watch and how long a full charge lasts. The news is .... drum roll ... extremely good. But I had to LOL when I read this comment at the linked article:

"By the end of each day, I was hyper-aware of how low the Apple Watch battery had gotten. After one particularly heavy day of use, I hit 10 percent battery at 7pm, triggering a wave of anxiety. But most days were actually fine. Apple had a big challenge getting a tiny computer like this to last a day, and it succeeded — even if that success seemingly comes at the expense of performance."

If this guy is triggered with a "wave of anxiety" because his Apple Watch hits 10% battery capacity left at 7:00 p.m. (about 12 hours of continuous use), something tells me this guy is never going to buy an EV. Can you imagine his "wave of anxiety" when he sees 10% battery capacity left in his Tesla in the middle of Wyoming?

He also needs to make sure he has a three-month supply of Valium when traveling overseas. Which I doubt he ever does.