Talk of Tacoma powertrain upgrade from head guy at Toyota US...

I live in an area where there is alot of logging, some done the right way and some POS's just go in and butcher the land. That being said we have an old saying, Next time you take a shit try wiping your ass with plastic!

 

Hard to argue , however , do you think concrete and steel have a better contribution as far as life / duty cycle carbon sequester and renewability ?

 

A local guy I know has an EV motorbike , its pretty cool

 

yeah they are pretty cool. KTM dealer I know in AZ has been testing the KTM eFreeride, maxes out at 13 mile range, recharge is only 35-45 minutes. Be ok for a short loop playing around at the house.

But like the auto's need more refinement for me to buy one.

 

Not according to them, oil is bad period

Say they wave their magic wand and all cars and trucks and other vehicles are electric

Oil refining will be reduced considerably, less gas and diesel will be made and less by products to make plastic from

Plastic would be a lot more expensive

 

Well , I guess we will find out

 

I am no greenie, and view oil as stored solar energy...and well...that is exactly what it is. We need oil to make our modern way of life function.

That said, I like little waste and try to conserve where I can...nothin' is perfect, but less in the landfill is a good thing, imo.

Do like my infinite use vacuum insulated stainless coffee cup, it does have a plastic lid, but isn't meant to be thrown away. Starbuck's coffee isn't the best...rather make mine at home, save much more money that way. Not much a of coffee snob, but for roughly one fancy SB drink plus $1.00 tip, I can buy a pound of it at the local grocer. That and I toss the grounds in our compost pile...(we grow about 95% of our own veggies). there was a point I wanted to try to make my own biodeisel...but I am busy enough as it is, don't want to fuss with it. Processing all those veggies, takes up a huge amount of time.

Prefer glass storage containers over plastic, you can sterilize it, or even melt it down and make something new out of it, and still be has strong as the original product...not true with recycled plastic.

Tesla...hmmm, anyone else think it is just a huge scam, and Elon Musk is just con-artist?

Guess you could recycle all that plastic and make it into diesel fuel so it doesn't go sit in a landfill.

 

No

 

Having worked on projects where SpaceX was involved, it's some yes, some no. He's a salesman for sure and none of his endeavors work without serious government subsidies (Tesla, SpaceX and Solar City got at least $5 billion in incentives, rebates, tax breaks, etc. and probably more by now). He's got to put his money where his mouth is with the Falcon 9 now that he won entry in the EELV market to compete with ULA. Boeing and Lockheed (who jointly own ULA) may enjoy no-bid work (to the tune of $2 billion annually) for the USAF and NRO, but their record is there to review and decades long (the Atlas and Delta rocket have been evolving since the 1950s after all) of demonstrated performance.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solyndra lest we forget

 

Wow , a tech company went bankrupt , case closed

Lol

 

no a Solar Energy company scam that claimed bankruptcy and took close to $600 million Tax payer dollars with them

 

My whole problem with Toyota suddenly finding Jesus with regards to upgrading the lineup is just that: they sit on their corporate asses basking in their truck mediocracy, pumping out the same yawn-worthy powertrains & body 'refreshes' for years, all the while talking a good game. It's not until Ranger comes along that they wake up and smell the coffee. Toyota is not a market leader, they are a proven follower. I love Toyota and still believe they make the best vehicles, but the fact remains that Toyota's "me, too" mentality is only driven by the innovations of its competition. We can thank Ford for the better next-gen Tacoma.

 

I don't think they are a scam, but it sure set off my bull shit alarm when Elon Musk said that their model 3 production problems are due to diverting production of batteries for Puerto Rico. I do think electric vehicles are the future, but I don't get warm and fuzzies about Tesla. Their only advantage is that they took the risk first to prove the market. The big boys who really know how to manufacture are going to come in shortly and crush them on both price and manufacturing capacity.

 

This has been true for as long as Toyota has been selling cars. Their trucks were never so-called market leading. This is the company that copied a Chevy 235 I6 first designed in 1939 for their Land Cruiser engine in 1955 and used it (the F-series engines) until 1993, for almost 38 years.

The upside is (and why I bought one) was they ironed out issues and didn't keep changing things that didn't need to be changed. They used to be simple and reliable, lots of interchangeable parts over the years and generations.

 

That is correct, I learned that during employee orientation when I worked for Toyota North America. I found out just how much of a follower the really were in 2010 with the new Camry launch, and the 11th hour tooling change caused by competition. They completely reworked the door, hood, and trunk stamping tools when they learned that Hyundai was targeting a 3mm body panel gap instead of the normal 5mm gap. Toyota chasing Hyundai.

 

So at least we all agree EV is the future and coming soon

There has been some progress made in this thread

 

Why don't these agencies work on a machine that will clean the air instead of ruining our vehicles.

 

Mature forests are horrid when it comes to plant diversity and other then seed/nut eaters, tend to be a horrible food source for herbivorous land animals. Thinning and clearing allows for natural lower plant growth that many animals feed on and lets more diverse plant species grow and spread.

 

are you a forestry worker ?