The TechMobility Podcast
Welcome to The TechMobility Podcast, your ultimate source for authentic insights, news, and perspectives at the nexus of mobility and technology. We're all about REAL FACTS, REAL OPINIONS, and REAL TALK! From personal privacy to space hotels, if it moves or moves you, we're discussing it! Our weekly episodes venture beyond the conventional, offering a unique, unfiltered take on the topics that matter. We're not afraid to color outside the lines, and we believe you'll appreciate our bold approach!
The TechMobility Podcast
Midwest's Renewable Energy Revolution, Smart Traffic Systems' State Initiatives, and Harbinger Motors' Bold EV Challenge
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Get ready to explore the intersection of technology, energy, and mobility in this exciting episode. Discover the untapped potential of Midwest farmland as we discuss how renewable energy sources like wind and solar can transform traditional agricultural landscapes into profitable energy hubs. Learn how farmers are navigating market volatility and weather challenges by repurposing less productive lands for solar farms, and understand the critical factors such as developer reliability and tax implications that are essential for making informed decisions in this burgeoning sector.
Explore the world of connected vehicle technology and infrastructure with us as we assess the promises and pitfalls of this rapidly evolving industry. Despite ambitious pledges from automakers like Ford, progress has been slow, prompting states like Georgia, Texas, and Illinois to take proactive steps in implementing smart traffic systems. We'll highlight the limitations of current measures, like reliance on cell phone integration, and emphasize the urgent need for a comprehensive approach to ensure road safety and efficiency. This segment offers invaluable insights into the current landscape and future possibilities of vehicular communication systems.
Finally, meet Harbinger Motors, an audacious EV startup ready to challenge industry giants like Ford and Freightliner in the medium-duty truck market. We'll unpack the safety dynamics of vehicle weight and how lighter vehicles can benefit fuel economy without sacrificing safety. Harbinger Motors' innovative engineering and product development strategies make them a formidable player in the EV space, and with significant new funding, their ambitions are within reach. Plus, don't forget to check out the TechMobility Podcast available on platforms like Apple Podcasts and iHeartRadio, where you can keep up with all the latest in technology and mobility.
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Speaker 2:I'm Ken Chester those of you that have been with me on this journey while I compete in the Entrepreneur of Impact competition. First of all, thank you. As of the time of the recording of this show, I'm in seventh place, and what that means is that I've survived three elimination rounds, but two more remain top five and then, finally, to take it all. And I still need your help. Two things One, the competition allows people to vote once a day, every day, during the competition. Two, towards the end of right before the cutoff, they usually turn on the ability that your vote would count twice, and it's a limited window where they do that, so to let you get more bounce for your vote, I appreciate that In order for me to win, I need everyone to vote regular over the next couple of weeks. I'm within shouting distance of winning. I need to get into the top five if I'm going to have a chance to win it all, and with your help, you got me this far. With your help, together, I can get over the finish line and win this thing, which would be monumental for me. That link is wwwentrepreneurofimpactorg. Backslash 2025, backslash Ken-Chester-Jr. Tell everybody you know to vote. It's quick. It'll mean a lot to me. Thank you so very much.
Speaker 2:I want to talk about something called a fundamental change in land use in the Midwest, and this is from a farming magazine, american Landowner, written by David Geiger, about this, particularly in this world of use and farmers being viable. For many years, if you were a farmer in the upper Midwest, you were either a crow-ropped farmer, meaning corn and soybeans mainly, unless you got into some specialty crops, or you were a livestock farmer, which typically meant either pork or beef, and in this case, iowa is a leader in all those categories One of the top five in soybeans, one of the top five in corn, one of the top five in beef production, one of the top five in pork production. Many years, many years, many years, many years. The challenge with farming, as anyone who farms knows, is you are at the mercy of a combination of things that are outside of your control. You're at the mercy of the markets too much product, too little product. You're at the mercy of the weather, whether the weather cooperates. You're at the mercy particularly if you are a egg farmer right now of disease, with avian flu starting across the state and resulting in the destruction of millions of egg-laying birds. Is there a way, as a farmer in rural America the upper Midwest that you can mitigate some of these variables and stay in business? Well, the question is yes.
Speaker 2:In the last 20 years, we've seen an explosion of renewable energy wind farms, solar farms. Wind farms are easy because the utility actually pays you a monthly stipend. They spend all the money and you can farm around them. What's a little more difficult is if you elect to have a solar farm, because of the way the panels are arrayed, you can't use typical farming equipment like you could for a regular field or if you were farming in a case of a wind farm. But to be honest with you, whether it's wind, solar or biofuel, farmers have been harvesting power on their land for decades. What's happening now is, as technology improves efficiencies, more landowners are seeing potential in it.
Speaker 2:I just talked about wind energy. Here's something you may not know Winds bring nearly a billion dollars in additional revenue for landowners and states using turbines. But compared to wind, the solar story is different because it requires a fundamental land use change. Let's talk about that. As the next generation of solar panels reaches 30% efficiency well above the standard 15 to 20% it is moving profitable and productive Midwest farmland to solar farms and for some it might actually be a good financial decision. Again, why? Because the income is fixed. You know it in advance and these are contracted rates. Much the same way a farmer may rent land to plant crops, the utilities are paying a fixed amount for the rental of that land to run these solar farms, meaning that, no matter what the markets do, that's guaranteed money.
Speaker 2:The challenge now becomes you look at large and high-quality farm ground that could take less productive corners of it and put it into community solar or something. In other words, if you've got pieces of ground that are not yielding profitably for you it's too wet, it's too high, it's too hilly, it's too rocky it might serve another benefit to be rented out as a solar farm. So you don't have to take your most productive land out of production yet you can take the land that is not as productive and still get revenue predictably for low input costs or no input costs at all. And it really kind of depends on the state you're in. With utility-scale solar and community-scale solar power options available. There are more states that are aggressively pushing toward solar production and more landowners showing interest Makes sense.
Speaker 2:They talk about for the landowner certain things that they need to consider. Get a good developer, check for its liability and insurance. Make sure to get compensation for lost access to the acreage. Think decades ahead about risks like tile need changes or law changes, tax implications, which you wouldn't think of, but income, land use, property taxes, things like that and sales taxes, how that income may be looked at relative for taxing purposes. And make sure there is a solid decommission planned. What does that mean? Like wind turbines, which have a life of 20 years, solar panels have a life too, and when it gets to the end, what happens? Will the company that put them in in the first place be the one to take them out? How would that look like? How do they return that land back to the way it was before? Entering into the contract for solar panels, you need to know that Solar leases are often funded through bonds, so make sure it gets paid and has enough available for the end of the lease, meaning that in order for that land to be usable again for the original intent by the land owner, they need to make sure that those that are leasing it for solar panels have a way to take that material out and return the land back to its condition because there is a cost involved.
Speaker 2:Also, we've talked on this program before about agrivoltaic farming, which is a way of farming around solar panels. That would have to. You'd have to look at your contract, particularly if you are looking at using less productive parts of your land. Is there still an opportunity to maybe get incremental value in and around the solar panels, maybe by planting something else? Some folks have used grazing, some folks have used different crops that thrive. Iowa State University has actually done a study about agrivoltaic farming. We talked about it a few years back. So it takes a different approach to the land relative to solar panels, which is why, really across the upper Midwest for the most part, particularly in Iowa, when you talk of renewables in Iowa, most of the time you're talking about wind energy.
Speaker 2:But again, as this article discusses as solar energy, as solar power becomes more efficient, landowners are taking a second look. Efficient land owners are taking a second look. Could this work in areas of my property that are not as efficient for row crops? Something to think about. And then they talk about the return. I won't get into the math Anything that helps our farmers be successful and stay on the farm and keep it in the family. All for that. A number of states are installing next-generation safety tech. We're the automakers. You are listening to the Tech.
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Speaker 2:Social media is the main place to be these days, and we are no exception. I'm Ken Chester of the Tech Mobility Show. If you enjoy my program, then you will also enjoy my weekly Facebook videos, from my latest vehicle reviews to timely commentary of a variety of mobility and technology-related topics. These short features are designed to inform and delight you. Be sure to watch, like and follow us on Facebook. You can find us by typing the Tech Mobility Show in the search bar. Be sure to subscribe to our Facebook page. Social media is the place to be these days. We're no exception. I'm ken chester, the tech mobility show. If you enjoy my program, then you will also enjoy my weekly instagram videos, from the latest vehicle reviews to timely commentary on a variety of mobility and technology related topics. These short features are designed to inform and delight you be sure to watch, like and follow us on Instagram. You can find us by typing the Tech Mobility Show in the search bar.
Speaker 2:For those of you that listen to podcasts, we have just the one for you. Hi, I'm Ken Chester. Tech Mobility Topics is a podcast where I upload topic-specific videos each week, shorter than a full show. These bite-sized programs are just the thing, particularly if you're interested in a particular topic covered on the weekly radio show, from Apple Podcasts to iHeartRadio and many podcast platforms in between. We got you covered. Just enter TechMobility topics in the search bar, wherever you listen to podcasts.
Speaker 5:Hi, this is my new Chevy wagon with flipped down seats, the 74 Caprice Estate, and this, well, she's my mother. The divided second seat folds right down and when you pull a lever, the third seat backflops over. And Chevrolet made it so you can operate all the seats from the same door. And this is the GlideAway tailgate we ordered. You just turn the key, ta-da, it opens.
Speaker 3:The 74.
Speaker 2:Caprice Estate Wagon from Chevrolet. Okay, first of all, this station wagon was the largest vehicle passenger vehicle that GM makes. The thing was huge the station wagon with its clamshell door, which was novel for GM, because it opened up like a clam. The windshield went into the roof, the other part went into the floor, which is pretty cool, as opposed to a liftback, which is what most people are used to now. And these things were nine passenger Back in that day. You entered the third row seat through the back door and it usually was facing the back, not facing towards the front. So many things about this car. 1974, that is, 51 years ago 51. They sold a lot years ago. 51. They sold a lot of them too. Chevy Caprice Classic Estate Wagon powered by a big old V8, three-speed automatic and was to the American countryside what SUVs, crossovers and minivans are now, which is why you don't see them anymore.
Speaker 2:Georgia, texas and Illinois they're just a few of the states that have or soon will implement technology that will enhance road and highway infrastructure, from giving transit signal a priority to emergency vehicles that approach smart traffic lights to connected infrastructure to inform signal timing and freeway management systems. Question is, where are the automakers and their connected vehicles. This is topic A. Let me take you back for a minute. The year was supposed to be 2022. And they were talking about this back seven years ago, in 2018. The Ford Motor Company at the time was saying we will have, we will pioneer, we will introduce vehicle-to-vehicle communication, vehicle-to-infrastructure, otherwise known as V2X, by 2022. By now, what was supposed to be happening is the fleet of vehicles privately owned vehicles were supposed to touch a whole range of smart infrastructure one to inform traffic, to regulate traffic lights, to reduce traffic tie-ups, to inform drivers of conditions ahead, enabling them to take alternative actions, or to be aware of road conditions or accidents, or even heavy traffic. All of this was supposed to happen three years ago and, to be honest, there were various experiments. Audi experimented in Las Vegas and Washington DC with smart traffic lights. Iowa designated a part of Interstate 380 between Cedar Rapids and Iowa City to do some things relative to smart infrastructure. There was a lot of activity by the states. The automakers, however, got hung up because it ended up being probably about 2020, two competing communication systems.
Speaker 2:But what bothers me here and what is disingenuous about this article in Automotive News? What bothers me here and what is disingenuous about this article in Automotive News is that, even though the feds clearly identified which technology going forward was going to be a thing, and even though the FCC had bandwidth available for over 20 years prior, they're still arguing oh well, we need to see more proof. We don't want to spend the money. Oh my goodness, I'm not buying any of it. I'm not buying any of it. Government typically moves slow and in this case, state government, state government, a number of state governments are moving forward to protect their citizens, to provide this content. What they've done, in the absence of the automakers, is they've transitioned that technology to cell phones, which is good and bad In some cases particularly we're talking about Illinois, for example they say they are a device agnostic system, that they are proving proof of concept with a cell phone.
Speaker 2:Why is that not the perfect solution?
Speaker 2:A variety of reasons.
Speaker 2:Not everybody owns a cell phone. Number one. Number two being part of the vehicle means that the vehicle is communicating with this stuff. Now, it may communicate through your cell phone, whatever, but by it being part of the vehicle means it's been optimized to interact and to proact and to give driver warning and, by the same token, the system is supposed to inform pedestrians and cyclists and safely inform consumers about traffic accidents, weather conditions, etc. Partially because, honestly, not everybody owns a cell phone number. One, number two even if you do, do you have it on your person 24-7? Maybe not. Maybe you ran out to the store, you left your phone at home, god forbid, or you can't afford one, so you don't have one, or maybe you have a low-cost, single-use burner phone. How do these systems, regardless, interact to protect a cyclist and a pedestrian? This article still doesn't answer that question, although they point out that pedestrians and cyclists are the most vulnerable populations in any traffic example. Obviously, cars, trucks, commercial vehicles have the right of way most of the time. Pedestrians we've talked about at length here are odd man out. Pedestrians we've talked about at length here are odd man out.
Speaker 2:These systems do little, in my estimation, to resolve that problem, and I don't know how that happens. While the cell phone certainly is a great start, because so many people do have them, I still I think it's less than perfect. It's less than perfect. What bothers me, though, and the automaker is talking about well, we don't know if it's safe. We don't know if it's secure. I'm like wait a minute Right now, in my 2018 Chevy Equinox, which is not as sophisticated as the new 2025 models that anybody's making right now.
Speaker 2:The vehicle, through Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, allows me to communicate through my phone. I can press a button on my steering wheel, say, to call my wife. The system will do so through my phone and through the speakers, which means they had to resolve a lot of that already. So when they're talking about what we don, we don't know, no, no, that's disingenuous, detroit. Disingenuous because you already have established the minimum security protocols for it to work in the first place. So I don't understand why you couldn't make that next leap. And it's not like you haven't been working on protocols either for everything else. When it comes to autonomous vehicles and smart vehicles and EVs, all of that had to be dealt with and there's been guidance now for almost 10 years at the federal level in terms of security. So the automakers there's a different reason. They don't want to spend the money, but they can do it. Here's a newsflash Heavier vehicles are not always safer. I will explain next.
Speaker 2:This is the Tech Mobility Show. Do you listen to podcasts? Seems that most people do. Hi, I'm Ken Chester, host of the Tech Mobility Show. If you've missed any of our weekly episodes on the radio. Our podcast is a great way to listen. You can find the Tech Mobility Podcast just about anywhere you can enjoy podcasts. Be sure to follow us From Apple Podcasts, iheart Radio and many platforms in between. We are there. Just enter the Tech Mobility podcast in the search bar. Wherever you listen to podcasts, social media, it's the place to be. We're no exception. Hi, I'm Ken Chester, host of the TechMobility show. Several times a week, I post to TikTok several of the topics that I cover on my weekly radio show. It's another way to keep up on mobility, technology news and information. I've built quite a library of short videos for your viewing pleasure, so be sure to watch, like and subscribe. That's the Tech Mobility Show on TikTok. Check it out.
Speaker 2:Conventional wisdom says that, all other things being equal, that surrounding yourself with the most metal possible would protect you best in a crash. While this has indeed been borne out by some studies, there's a point, believe it or not, where heavier will not protect you more. This is topic B. For many years, the conventional wisdom said the heavier the vehicle, the safer you more. This is topic B. For many years, the conventional wisdom said the heavier the vehicle, the safer you are, and that now, with all the technologies that are available to all vehicles. That's true up to a point and, believe it or not, the point's not is nearly as heavy as you think it is. According to recent articles and a piece from the Institute, the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety, it seems that the threshold for safety of diminishing returns is actually 4,000 pounds. Your average pickup truck weighs more than that. It usually comes in at about 2 a half tons, about 5,000 pounds. But what they're saying is and I'll get into this a little deeper that up till 4,000 pounds if a heavier vehicle that's on the heavy side hits a lighter vehicle, the folks in the lighter vehicle will sustain more damage or are more likely to be severely injured or killed.
Speaker 2:It is becoming less of an issue today, and why is that? Two major things in their design. Prodding from the IIHS has resulted in the automakers changing the front structure of their heavier, higher vehicles so that their weight-bearing or safety-bearing chassis is more in line with the lower ones of cars and smaller SUVs and stuff, meaning that instead of riding over the car and resulting in it, instead of riding over the car and resulting in it, it's meeting that and giving the smaller vehicle a chance to absorb some of that energy, as opposed to getting it all from the larger vehicle. Larger vehicle has more metal to absorb and, regardless of the vehicle built, each vehicle has to meet federal motor vehicle safety standards, and even smaller ones have to meet a certain standard, chances are. However, all of these vehicles are engineered to absorb crash forces and this is something this is a concept I need to try to explain because a lot of people don't understand. Oh yeah, that car was in an accident and it all got tore up and it looks terrible, and you know, my 57 Chevy didn't do that. There's a reason, folks.
Speaker 2:New vehicles are designed to sacrifice themselves in taking more and more crash energy and deflecting it away from the passenger compartment. That means it's engineered to wreck. It's engineered to absorb that energy, and absorbing that energy means crunch. Space is something. So it looks terrible, but chances are and you've seen it time after time even in wrecks where maybe 20 years ago you wouldn't have walked away from, they're able to open the driver's side door and get out, and in some cases this vehicle's crunched all the way to the firewall or all the way to the rear window. But because of how it's engineered, it's designed to do that, to take that energy and deflect it away, and in doing that it transforms and it absorbs it and it looks terrible, but the people survive.
Speaker 2:In the older vehicles, steel didn't do that. It wasn't engineered to absorb. Steel actually transferred that crash energy, meaning you could be in a bigger vehicle, but that energy, instead of being deflected away from you, was transferred to you, so that in today's world, if you're driving an older vehicle and you meet even a smaller, newer vehicle, chances are at worst it would be even now, and at best the driver of the smaller vehicle lived to tell the tale. It's an interesting thing here. A new study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety puts a bit of detail in the numbers and basically what they're saying is as safety systems in all vehicles have improved think airbags, automatic emergency braking and the way bumpers are designed the role of vehicle weight has declined. In other words, the safety features have come up to the point where sheer heaviness is not a guarantee of more safety. It doesn't offer as much benefit as it once did because of all the systems preventing accidents or mitigating the effects that all modern vehicles are increasingly equipped with the IIHS study used the fatality analysis reporting system.
Speaker 2:It's a federal system data from 2011 to 2022, focusing on vehicle crashes in which the vehicles were between one to four years old and there was at least one resulting driver fatality. Let me give you a difference here. Let me give you some perspective. Let me give you a difference here. The total over that time, of traffic fatalities was 440,604. When they applied that information to give an idea how much things have improved within that time frame, it went on down to them investigating only 9,674 deaths. It means that over 434,000 deaths could have been avoided with the adoption of more modern equipment over that same period. That's incredible.
Speaker 2:Again, the IIHS found that heavier vehicles confer safety benefits to the driver than increased by weight, but the fatality rate in the other vehicles increases at a comparatively small amount. In other words, once you get above 4,000 pounds, while the benefit is still to the driver of the heavier vehicle because of all the modern safety features, an additional weight does not mean an equal and opposite increase in fatalities for smaller vehicles that hit it. That's a thing. Drivers of those vehicles above the two-ton threshold do not see an additional safety benefit of any additional weight, an additional safety benefit of any additional weight. So if you look and, like I said, the average pickup truck is heavier than that and if you're looking at like a truck-based SUV or EV, it's heavier than that still. So these very, very heavy vehicles are not inherently more safe once you get above 4,000 pounds.
Speaker 2:Let's look at the flip side. What does that mean if you are a car that hits one of these things? Okay, hard truth. Bottom line A bigger, heavier vehicle provides better crash protection than a smaller, lighter one, assuming no other differences. But in recent years, automakers have reduced that threat that suvs pickups posed by lowering their energy absorbing structures so that they line up with those in cars, meaning that they will absorb some of the energy of hitting them, rather than transferring it all to the smaller vehicle. Here here's something else they argue that making the heavier vehicles a little lighter, while it won't compromise safety, but actually may improve fuel economy, but still provide that level of comfort that people are used to in the heavier vehicles. They did a study between the 2018 Kia Forte and a 2018 Toyota Yaris IA and they hit a full-size pickup truck with them, and although both these vehicles had top-level ratings from the IIHS, it was still ugly because, again, weight matters to a point. The thing is, it could have been more ugly if the vehicles were older. The name is Harbinger and the EV startup believes it can best Ford and Freightliner.
Speaker 2:We are the Tech Mobility Show, the Tech Mobility Show. To learn more about the Tech Mobility Show, start by visiting our website. Hi, I'm Ken Chester, host of the Tech Mobility Show. The website is a treasure trove of information about me and the show, as well as where to find it on the radio across the country. Keep up with the happenings of the Tech Mobility Show by visiting techmobilityshow. That's techmobilityshow. You can also drop us a line at talk at techmobilityshow. Did you know that Tech Mobility has a YouTube channel? Hi, I'm Ken Chester, host of the Tech Mobility Show. Each week, I upload a few short videos of some of the hot topics that I cover during my weekly radio program. I've designed these videos to be informative and entertaining. It's another way to keep up on current mobility and technology news and information. Be sure to watch, like and subscribe to my channel. That's the Tech Mobility Show on YouTube. Check it out.
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Speaker 2:Social media is the place to be these days, and we're no exception. I'm Ken Chester of the Tech Mobility Show. If you enjoy my program, then you will also enjoy my weekly Instagram videos From the latest vehicle reviews to timely commentary on a variety of mobility and technology related topics. These short features are designed to inform and delight you Be sure to watch, like and follow us on Instagram. You can find us by typing the Tech Mobility Show in the search bar.
Speaker 2:Harbinger Motors, an EV truck startup based in Garden Grove, california, believes that it is building a better product with more capable engineers in a segment that legacy original equipment manufacturers, better known as OEMs, don't care about. They're quote, not mine. That's drone talk from the company's CEO. This is Topic C. This story comes from Fleet Owner Magazine and this fellow is talking about meeting the medium-duty strip chassis marketplace. All the vocational trucks you see, from bread trucks and delivery trucks and things like that. That's class five, class six, which is called, for weight purposes, medium duty. To give you an example, your over the road heavy trucks are considered heavy duty. They're class seven. Class eight Heavy trucks are considered heavy duty. They're class 7, class 8. And your pickup trucks, particularly your heavy duty pickup trucks like F-250s, 350s are typically light duty. 450s, 550s start to impede into what they call medium duty.
Speaker 2:This is an EV startup. You know, over the years we have covered a variety of EV startups. Some have made it, some haven't. I'm thinking about Karma Automotive. I'm thinking about Fisker Automotive. I'm thinking about Nikola and Workhorse companies that had grandiose ideas and thought they would come into the market. And Fisker that was his second time around crashed and burned.
Speaker 2:Why does this fellow think that he is all alone in the medium-duty truck market, particularly for EVs? Let me name drop for a minute A company that's already building medium duty EVs for sale right now. That's General Motors, through their Bright Drop subsidiary. And they upped the ante by relabeling them as Chevrolet so they could tap into the big Chevy dealer network and the big Chevy dealer network and the big Chevy commercial network. And he doesn't mention Chevrolet or Bright Drop in his comments. He's got his eyes on Ford and Freightliner because he's convinced Ford doesn't care about medium duty. Freightliner doesn't care about medium duty, and put a pin in that because we're going to talk about both of those companies in a minute. Care about medium duty and put a pin in that because we're going to talk about both of those companies in a minute. They've raised $100 million recently, for a total of $200 million since its inception four years ago. They claim to be holding orders for 4,690 trucks valued at roughly $500 million, from two companies Bimbo Breakeries USA and Thor Industries.
Speaker 2:Let me tear this apart. Number one $200 million sounds like a lot of money. In the auto industry, that's barely a rounding error. When you get into building anything, it is capital intensive. You need the plant, you need the product, you need the plant, you need the product, you need the overhead, you need the dealer body, you need the parts and service support. You need all of that and it costs money, billions of dollars. Case in point Nissan tried to break into the full-size truck market with its Titan pickup, which was a nice pickup, came out in 2004. Market with its Titan pickup, which was a nice pickup, came out in 2004.
Speaker 2:Nissan fought the good fight for 20 years and couldn't make a dent and gave up. They even tried to build and sell for a minute full-size vans, commercial vans based on the Titan chassis, and it were pretty good. But again they didn't get the kind of penetration they needed to make the business case to sell them. So they gave up, got out. Harbinger is going to need way more money than this. Even one of the first companies we talked about that is competing in this same space Bollinger Motors, doing the same thing right now, sold part of their company for $165 million to Mullen Automotive, and the Bollinger B4, which is a stripped medium-duty EV chassis, is rolling off assembly lines right now and they still had to incorporate a third party to do the manufacturing Rush Industries and they were years in development and, at the end of the day, needed a partner.
Speaker 2:We've talked about Faraday Future. I won't beat that dead horse. We're still waiting for the car the FF1, that we don't think we'll ever see. And if you were unfortunate enough to order and actually take delivery of your Fisker Ocean SUV, you just outlived the company and it's going to be a question of whether or not you get any kind of maintenance support out of the thing, because Fisker doesn't exist anymore or Workhorse Nikola was supposed to create. Workhorse had the endurance. It was promising. They ran out of money. Pickup truck couldn't bring it to market. Nikola had one called the Badger, which would have been amazing because it was a dual-power pickup truck that included battery electric and hydrogen electric fuel cell together for an amazing range of 600 miles, which made it relatively fuel agnostic, which was awesome because then you wouldn't have to worry about charging, depending on your system. But it ran afoul.
Speaker 2:And now, nikola, as a class eight, is questionable whether they're going to survive. I think this man is pipe dreaming, because he's going to need many more millions, if not billions, of dollars to do what he said he's doing. And here's what he said. They claim that their Class 5 strip chassis will be sold at a price comparable to diesel and gas-powered vehicles, taking advantage of only the Inflation Reduction Act, tax credit and no state or federal incentives. Guess what? Right now, the current administration has put a pause on all kinds of EV credits, so his model is already in danger because those credits may in fact not exist anymore.
Speaker 2:Yes, they're buying battery cells off the shelf. They're buying ready-made stuff. That's good and that's bad, because you're only as good as performance in the commodity market. But they're buying cells, not complete systems. They're buying the cells and engineering a battery management system for the battery pack, because they argue that if you buy the complete pack, that there's labor overhead and profit built in from the manufacturer. The whole thing. That makes them uncompetitive. They're buying the actual sales and building the packs themselves. However, honestly and I left out Rivian, which is building delivery vans right now for Amazon, and they extended their market to include others that they will be selling these vans too, and they're in production right now and have been now for over a year, going on two years. So whether or not this company is just another flash in the pan or whether they can get some real traction, and I left out a score of companies you've never heard of that are competing in that same medium duty space with EV stripped trucks.
Speaker 2:It is the place everybody is running, but he thinks better engineering Now. His people have come from all over the auto industry Volkswagen, bmw, ford, rivian, tesla and even SpaceX, and some even came from the bankrupt Faraday Future and Canoe, which just went broke Because, he claims, once that's burned into your mind, you will do whatever not to repeat it. So the question will, harbinger, be another historical thing Will they make it? Will they not make it? I'm betting against them. I am. We've come to the end of our visit. Be sure to join me again next time. Right here, you have been listening to the Tech Mobility Show.
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Speaker 2:For those of you that listen to podcasts, we have just the one for you. Hi, I'm Ken Chester. Tech Mobility Topics is a podcast where I upload topic-specific videos each week. Shorter than a full show. These bite-sized programs are just the thing, particularly if you're interested in a particular topic covered on the weekly radio show. From Apple Podcasts to iHeartRadio and many podcast platforms in between, we got you covered. Just enter Tech Mobility topics in the search bar. Wherever you listen to podcasts, Social media, it's the place to be. We're no exception. Hi, I'm Ken Chester, host of the Tech Mobility Show. Several times a week, I post to TikTok several of the topics that I cover on my weekly radio show. It's another way to keep up on mobility technology news and information. I've built quite a library of short videos for your viewing pleasure, so be sure to watch, like and subscribe. That's the Tech Mobility Show on TikTok. Check it out. To learn more about the Tech Mobility Show, start by visiting our website. Hi, I'm Ken Chester, host of the Tech Mobility Show. The website is a treasure trove of information about me and the show, as well as where to find it on the radio across the country. Keep up with the happenings at the Tech Mobility Show by visiting techmobilityshow. That's techmobilityshow. You can also drop us a line at talk at techmobilityshow.
Speaker 2:Do you listen to podcasts? Seems that most people do. Hi, I'm Ken Chester, host of the Tech Mobility Show. If you've missed any of our weekly episodes on the radio, our podcast is a great way to listen. You can find the Tech Mobility Podcast just about anywhere. You can enjoy podcasts. Be sure to follow us from Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio and many platforms in between. We are there. Just enter the Tech Mobility Podcast in the search bar, wherever you listen to podcasts.
