The West Is In An Unnecessary Energy Crisis

On August 30, 2022 By Steven SymesIn Automotive

And it’s of our own making.

If you haven’t seen your energy bill climb by several factors, get ready, because it’s coming. While some of us have tried sounding the alarm of spiking costs for electricity, natural gas, and oil across the West, others have been busy rationalizing this phenomenon away. For example, when a relative of mine shared my post about electricity making recharging EVs in Germany expensive, warning associates the effect is rippling through countries, someone dismissed the information: “That’s Germany.”

Unfortunately, this isn’t voodoo magic where supposedly if you don’t believe in rapidly increasing energy costs they won’t affect you. I’ve pulled an anecdote from Twitter to demonstrate what you might be seeing soon in many other countries, including the US and Canada. One is a café in Leicester, UK where the electric bill has essentially tripled. Think about that: what would you have to do with your budget if what you spend jumped that much overnight? There are more stories like this and soon you could be one of them.

Porsche’s EV Blows Away Tesla

On August 10, 2022 By Steven SymesIn Automotive

This thing is fast!

Porsche proudly declared today that it set a new record for a production electric vehicle lapping the Nurburgring Nordschleife, which is a big deal in the car world. Using a Taycan Turbo S, a driver got around the Green Hell in 7minutes 33.3 seconds. In case you haven’t been keeping track, that edged out the previous record held by the Tesla Model S Plaid at 7 minutes 35.6 seconds.

For quite some time, automakers have been using the Nurburgring Nordschleife as a measurement of overall performance for production vehicles. Considering the 12.92 mile track comes with a little bit of everything from tricky chicanes to elevation drops and big straightaways for hitting top speeds, enough people consider it to be an important measurement.

That Time Daimler Made The Weirdest Car Ad

On August 6, 2022August 6, 2022 By Steven SymesIn Uncategorized

I would’ve loved to have been a fly on the wall when this was discussed in marketing.

I want to share a lighter topic, a photo montage shared by Daimler back in December 2014 to promote the Smart Fortwo Brabus. That’s right, the high-performance tuner took a shot at the all-electric version of Daimler’s two-seater microcar. For some reason, marketing thought the best way to promote the vehicle was parking it inside a mall in Berlin featuring a model dressed as Santa Claus and an angel.

In a way I can see what they were aiming for. The marketing copy accompanying the photos talks about how impossible it is to find a parking spot in Berlin, something anyone who lives in a dense urban area can certainly identify with.

Electric Cars In Germany Are Getting Expensive To Charge

On August 6, 2022August 6, 2022 By Steven SymesIn Uncategorized

This defeats a major talking point used to promote EV technology.

Photo via Reddit

Just a quick note to keep everyone apprised of a developing situation in Germany. I ran across an article from German domestic automotive site Auto Bild which is very revealing. What it comes down to is energy costs in Germany have been soaring, something anyone who’s been paying attention to the situation knows about, and it’s so bad that the cost of operating an electric car is about to surpass that of driving an internal combustion vehicle.

For years electric car enthusiasts have been incredibly smug about the lower costs associated with their vehicle of choice (never mind that the acquisition costs exclude most of the population). Pretty much everyone has seen the quippy personalized plates like “GASLOL” to taunt all the plebs who haven’t made the switch. Well, who’s laughing now?