Search results

Yes, and it wouldn't be the first time that either Russia or Ukraine have put old museum pieces back into service. Maybe those trucks aren't destined for Ukraine, but they very well could be. Good for a laugh, anyhow.

A convoy of cutting edge Russian military trucks is headed for Ukraine. They top out at 30 mph though, so it may take quite some time for it to get there...

We should ship both Sacks and Beck off to Moscow. They could room up with Steven Segal. Elon needs some higher quality friends for sure.

Lots of good info in the pdf. Looks like they have achieved pretty remarkable gravimetric energy density with both LCO and NMC cathode chemistries. Much better cycle life with high e- density NMC, though still not quite to EV standards, unless using battery swapping.

Ok, I will, but I'm curious about this 500 wh/kg battery that they did the big press release about, specifically. Is it LiCo, NCA, NMC, or another chemistry? Seems unlikely that it would be a "pure" LiCo chemistry. The press release was light on details. Cycle life at 100% DoD would be good to...

They must be combining the anode with a cathode to form a complete battery for those energy density figures.

What's the chemistry- NMC? If there's a lot of swelling during charging, that sounds problematic.

I could see heavily modernized M60 tanks being of some value to the Ukrainians. Taiwan has done that sort of modernization to their M60s. I suspect they wouldn't be eager to part with them at present, though...

I don't know, I think a bunch of cast iron coffins would be about as useful as M-48s.

The US is going to refurbish a number of M1A1 tanks rather than, or in addition to building brand new M1A2 variants in order to expedite delivery. This seemed like the most sensible approach from the outset, imo...

I hear he's going to fund Russell Brand's new movie- 'Get him to the Kremlin'.

I don't think either of the massive suicide truck bombs at the US marine barracks and the French paratrooper barracks in Beirut were exacerbated to any significant degree by munitions. The thermobaric truck bombs were extremely powerful- especially the one that leveled the marine barracks. At...

It seems that drone/s that destroyed the Kaliber cruise missiles in transit in Crimea were probably made in China. I wonder if that was a topic of conversation between Xi and Putin, lol.

I found this old WaPo article interesting- apparently conventional 155mm shells only cost the US military about $160 ($795 inflation adjusted) each when Jimmy Carter was president. I guess the cold war kept us on our toes...

Yeah, I don't know how that calculation works. Perhaps not all of the shells are 155mm. Or maybe a different value is ascribed to a brand new shell vs. one that's been in storage for 40+ years. It may be a volume thing, or the 3300 euro figure wasn't accurate to begin with.

Look again. It's mentioned in the first sentence of the article in bold print. :)

The EU is pledging to donate at least one million artillery shells to Ukraine over the next year...

Hardly an act of courage to sneak into Mariupol under the cover of darkness for a couple of hours. He probably felt he needed to show some spine after seeing Zelensky visit Kherson and other cities shortly after they were liberated.

Poland is sending four Mig 29 jets to Ukraine in a matter of days. It's a start...

It doesn't really matter if there was direct contact with the jet or not. The intent was clearly to crash the drone.

It looks like the fuel dump may have been what damaged the prop from that video. I would expect more damage from direct contact with the jet.

They may have nosedived the drone at high speed into the water to inflict maximum impact damage.

I would think a US demolitions team could drop some depth charges right on top of the drone provided the Russians aren't already on site.

The Reaper can be armed, but the one downed likely wasn't.

No, that wouldn't be practical. Though it would be pretty epic to see hundreds of gigantic catapults/trebuchets hurling massive concrete obstacles toward the Russians.

SpaceX CRS 27 mission launch scheduled for 8:30 pm est ! https://www.youtube.com/live/8tteM4Q2Lh0?feature=share

Nice. I assume that means there's a -.7% chance of a .5% rate increase. 😉

Looking positive!

It will be interesting to see what happens with interest rates. I'd be very surprised if we see +.5% now. .25% seems likely. Possibly even a pause.

I'm not surprised. Peter Thiel pretty much initiated the run on SVB. Calacanis probably didn't get his money out in time and wants to stir the fears of contagion so the govt. will step in quickly and make him whole.

Yes, I'd say coincidence. Rising gas prices and tightening budgets are surely more causitive for the drop in sales. Even with the decline in sales over the last few years, annual US light truck sales in both 2021 and 2022 were nearly double what they were in 2010.

A lot of the 20+ truck outfits will probably be looking at solar to supplement their grid power usage rather than replace or offset it entirely. If they can defray the bill by 50% after the installation has paid for itself, that would be significant.

Yes, I got that. I'm not impressed by his Tweets of late either. But that's no reason to spread FUD that likely isn't even factual.

Not that concerning, really. First, we have no idea if that number is accurate. And even if it is, the Pepsi/Lays trucks are essentially a pilot program. There will be some bugs to work out. I'll be concerned when Pepsi/Lays expresses concern over the performance of the trucks.

I think a downsized version of Semi would make much more sense than an upsized version of Cybertruck to address the class 4-7 segment.

Won't the demand for food be fairly steady regardless of the interest rates?

Ok, you're right. I believe a 2.5 MW array would require 10-15 acres of land area.

10 m2 is 100 sq meters. I haven't done the math, but 2.5 acres wouldn't do it for 2.5 MW, I'm fairly certain.

I just took a quick perusal of the new NEM 3.0 terms that were passed in California last year. Homeowners and businesses have until April 13 to submit an interconnection application in order to get grandfathered into NEM 2.0 terms for 20 years. The new terms definitely encourage adding battery...

Yes, and with net metering(assuming California is keeping that), the panels don't have to be on-site. The difficulty might be getting enough grid supply, I suppose.

US industrial output took off like a rocket during WW2. If anything, we're seeing the opposite of that in Russia today. The truth of Russia's economic situation is probably somewhere in between imminent collapse and business as usual.

I'm not very familiar with this RBC analyst, but he's quite bullish on Tesla. Nice to hear after the 15% slump since investor day. https://finance.yahoo.com/video/tesla-stock-clear-winner-analyst-224152853.html

Damn, did Powell just say something?

~$6 for a 25 kW charger? Prices really are coming down! :)

And where 100A of 3 phase power is available, the battery could be fully charged in around 11 hours. Grabbing an extra 50-100 kWh might be just the ticket to get to the closest DC fast charger station en route safely.

One of the big advantages that trucking has over rail is that the trucks aren't restricted to operating on rail lines. Having the option to AC charge would maintain that freedom of operation advantage. At least until the DC charging networks are as matured as today's diesel pump network.

You might be surprised at the variety of options available to the heavy trucking segment. It's fundamentally different from the passenger vehicle segment, in both volume and use cases. I'm quite sure that on board chargers won't be viewed as a useless option to some not insignificant percentage...

I don't see why on board chargers wouldn't make sense as an option available to buyers right off the bat. For the fleet owners who feel it's an unnecessary expense, they can select the DC only trim.

Yes, that is undoubtedly true. On the other hand, dozens of 100A AC receptacles/stations can be installed for the same cost as a single DC fast charger. And many locations don't have the capacity to support a megacharger. I see AC charging as a contingency option, that while perhaps rarely...

Obviously that's the case today. Such a 100A plug is much easier and cheaper to install than DC fast chargers. Many trucks may need AC charging extremely rarely, but others may benefit from it frequently.