EOY -- EVs -- December 25, 2023

Locator: 46387EVS. 

California ports and EV trucks, link here.

I don't even care -- just the fact a Chevy Blazer is more expensive than a Cadillac is all I need to know --

The Chevy Bolt: on again, off again.

• a salute to the Bolt, InsideEVs. But again, look how "challenging" it is for buyers. My hunch: the average car salesman has no idea what EVs are all about, how to explain the charging, the tire size, etc.
• GM to extend Chevy Bolt EV production through the end of December, 2023; link here.

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Losing Interest

Brian Gitt: link here.

WSJ: US consumers losing interest in EVs. Link here. 

Charging companies:  Link here. Charging companies no longer seen favorable by investors. Schadenfreude.

NIO: introduces the ET9. Much of the new technology is in-house design. Starts at $112,000. NIO describes it as its “Smart Electric Executive Flagship.” Link here.

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Link here. Car And Driver.

Link here. Autonomous vehicles have found a niche.

Link here. Honda Prologue: and Japanese answer to the Chevy Blazer EV (sales now suspended).


Link here. Chevy Blazer EV -- The Ultium platform is a mess.

Link here. From 2022 -- EV EPA efficiency comparison.

Link here. Range loss over time.

Link here. Usable battery. Looks like data is from 2024.

Link here.  Chevy Blazer EV price range and range, 2024. Sales suspended December 23, 2023.

Link here. CCS vs NACS, US News.

Link here. With minimal EV penetration, Netherlands grid is not up to the task.

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Hydrogen

Link here. Hydrogen tracked here. The blog. Locator: 10001H2. 

Link here. Leaked White House proposal undermines hydrogen start-ups, initiative. Financial Times.

Link here. Bad news for blue hydrogen.

Merry Christmas! 2023

Locator: 46386B. 

I didn’t want to miss my daily streak of posting.

Right now on twitter, “iPad” is trending.

With literally two clicks using my iPencil I’m watching the football game. There is no device faster. Not even cable television. Period. Dot.

Amazon is practically giving away refurbished older iPads that are every bit as newer models for streaming. 

Apple needs to market the heck out of there iPads. Literally, every member of a middle-class family should have her own iPad.

And those QR codes. In two clicks I can order almost anything.

US Economy -- December 24, 2023

Locator: 46385ECON.

Running on all cylinders.

Link here. A year ago, who wudda thought?

One wonders to what extent relatively low energy prices and an independent US with regard to OPEC is responsible for much of this?

Inflation? Link here. Eggs, rent, and used cars.

Or directly to the link.

More from the article

The headline personal-consumption expenditures price index slid by 0.1% in November from the previous month, marking the first decline in prices since April 2020. 

The index is still 2.6% higher than one year ago and the core index, which strips out energy and food prices because of their volatility and is thus viewed as a better gauge of inflation by the Federal Reserve, rose by 3.2% year over year.

That’s still above the Fed’s goal of 2% inflation, but it’s inching closer as the core PCE index has fallen from its peak of 5.6% in February 2022.

Inflation’s retreat has been uneven. Prices for goods have declined since September and dropped 0.7% in November from the previous month.

Prices for services, on the other hand, have risen, advancing 0.2% in November compared with October.

Falling energy prices—down 5.6% from the previous month in November and 10% below the year-ago level—have contributed a lot to the reversal in inflation.

Fuel oil, mostly used for heating, is now 25% cheaper than it was a year ago

Excluding energy prices, the PCE index remained flat in November compared with October.

Did someone murmur OPEC? Link here. 

CNBC weighs in, link here:

Brick and mortar will take their time to lower prices. Thank goodness for Walmart and Amazon.

The 2024 economy? Obama said it best: don't underestimate Joe Biden's ability to f- things up. It's his (Biden's) economy to lose. 

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A Classical Music Interlude

A LIttle Christmas Humor -- Though Nothing About Christmas -- December 24, 2023

Locator: 46384HUMOR.

Link here.

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A Winter's Tale

One thing led to another and another and now I'm back in my Shakespeare phase. LOL.

I mentioned the other day that this was one of two books I checked out from our local library to read over the holidays.

• The Winter's Tale, The Everyman Shakespeare, William Shakespeare, c. 1991, editor, John F Andrews, Shakespearean expert.

Two other sources:

• Warm days will never cease, blog. Really, really good. 
• Folger, the play.

Once one knows the true writer of the Shakespeare plays, the plays make so much more sense and so much more fun to read, and that's so true of The Winter's Tale.  

I don't recall having ever read The Winter's Tale seriously so this has been a lot of fun.

Somewhere along the line, I said to myself: I know this story. It happened in real life -- of course, not all of it but the central theme certainly did.  

The play is set in Bohemia (and Sicily) and was staged for Queen Elizabeth's wedding -- no, the other Queen Elizabeth

Elizabeth Stuart (19 August 1596 – 13 February 1662):

Electress of the Palatinate and briefly Queen of Bohemia as the wife of Frederick V of the Palatinate. 

The couple's selection for the crown by the nobles of Bohemia was part of the political and religious turmoil setting off the Thirty Years' War.

Since her husband's reign in Bohemia lasted over one winter, she is called "the Winter Queen."

Princess Elizabeth was the only surviving daughter of James VI and I, King of Scotland, England, and Ireland, and his queen, Anne of Denmark, and she was the elder sister of Charles I. Born in Scotland, she was named in honour of her father's predecessor and cousin in England, Elizabeth I. 

As a reminder, origin of the name, biblically:

Elizabeth "My God has sworn," was the mother of John the Baptist, the wife of Zechariah, and maternal aunt of Mary, mother of Jesus.

That's one source. It is unclear exactly how Mary, mother Jesus, and Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist, were related. No one knows. I like the "theory" that Elizabeth was the maternal aunt of Mary.

If one assumes that is accurate, then the symmetry is as good as the symmetry in Brontë's Wuthering Heights. 

The symmetry:

• Elizabeth is the maternal aunt of Mary, mother of Jesus; and,
• John the Baptist is the maternal uncle of Jesus.

Another bit of trivia with regard to The Winter's Tale. The play was already written and staged in Shakespeare's time. Shakespeare pretty much took the earlier play and re-staged it with minimal changes, something Shakespeare almost never did. There, however, was one big change, and I've seen no one comment on it yet (although I've read few analyses / critiques of the play, so I assume others have also noticed.)

The one big change that Shakespeare made: In the original play, Pandosto: Triumph of Time, by Robert Greene, there were two kings, the king of Bohemia and the king of Sicily. In Greene's play, the King of Bohemia was the "gad guy" and the source of the family's tragedy. 

Shakespeare would stage the play for the wedding of Princess Elizabeth, the real Perdita. But there's no way Shakespeare could stage the play for Elizabeth, with her father being the "bad guy."

So, Shakespeare simply reversed the characters' roles, making Elizabeth's father, the king of Bohemia as the "good guy" and the king of Sicily the bad guy. 

All's well that ends well. LOL.

Helms On October Production -- October, 2023 -- Posted December 24, 2023

Locator: 46383B.

Link here, part 1 of 2: 

Link here, part 2 of 2:

Recent DUC update, from a reader.