Ionna.  We got our first Ionna location in Minnesota.  It is a "Rechargery Relay" in White Bear Lake.  That's the basic setup offering 6 CCS and 4 NACS stalls with food & restrooms nearby.  We have a larger "Rechargery" coming soon in Blaine and 3 other locations to follow (New Hope, Brooklyn Park, Lino Lakes).  Being so close to that first location, I took full advantage and filmed using both the CSS and NACS cords last month.  I showed how to search & connect using the nav-screen too.  Eventually, we will get the ability to take advantage of "Plug & Charge".  That's a new standard (ISO 15118) designed as a means of enabling automakers to provide a simple means of billing.  After setting up your account with billing information... in my case, the Toyota app... you will be able to enable a charger network... in this case, Ionna.  That's it.  Once that setup is complete, no more app interaction is required.  You literally just plug in and the rest is automatic.  That's easier than pumping gas.  Heck, that takes away a competitive advantage Tesla had.  Needless to say, I look forward to being able to film new stuff like that to share.  In the meantime, here's a link to my most recent again... CCS & NACS charging at Ionna

Critical Thinking.  That absence of critical thinking really got to me.  I couldn't let my own thoughts remain only in a log entry.  So before he had a chance to reply, I followed up my previous post with this:  Lastly, you are likely not taking into account efficiency gain a smaller battery brings about.  Besides it weighing less, everything else for vehicle structure can be reduced since there's less to support.  For that matter, smaller tires would naturally be used to achieve the lower price.  That would also contribute to weight reduction and result efficiency gain.

Shifting Paradigm.  Few recognize the circumstances and even fewer understand the motivation.  I asked which was it, "vehicles with small batteries" or the "truck market", because he kept switching argument focus.  He replied back with the same rhetoric.  I was annoyed and not alone.  Someone else had sounded off about the advantages he was dismissing.  I fired back when he switch focus again:  My question was absolutely relevant, since it identified context & audience.  You kept presenting facts as if the effort only targeted shoppers looking to replace their existing HD pickup with an EV model.  Ford did not state that was their intention.  Ford said they were creating a platform that would be significantly less expensive, able to compete directly with Chinese lower-priced advanced EVs.  In other words, Ford is acknowledging the very history they already lived through back in the early 80's when they got their butts handed to them by the Japanese and recognize those same economic & political pressures repeating again now.  There is already overwhelming evidence that 51 kWh (a large interior EV offering 175 miles summer, 110 miles winter) for around $30,000 will appeal to a large enough portion of the market to be sustainable.  It simply makes no sense claiming "range is much too low", especially when looking back to consider the way entry-level choices had been before the profit-desperate discontinuations came about.  Change is coming out of necessity, back to the high-volume low-profit paradigm as a matter of survival.  Ford knows this.

Efficiency Potential.  It's interesting how the potential is overlooked.  A lot more efficiency can be squeezed out from technology advances.  The most obvious shouldn't be overlooked either... a smaller battery-pack weighs less.  When such a fundamental part of the vehicle is reduced in size, everything else can be too... which also reduces weight.  That alone can provide efficiency gain.  It's much harder to quantify though.  People have become obsessed with bigger being better.  Heck, even the difference between 18-inch and 20-inch tires can be measured with bZ4X.  If Ford's new EV comes with only smaller tires for greater efficiency, so what?  Smaller tires will be required to achieve the lower price anyway.  Ugh.  I know, absence of critical thinking makes these online exchanges even more difficult.  Oh well.  I kept this reply brief:  btw, Toyota's next-gen eAxle (the one rolling out now) provides a more efficient motor along with the switch to SiC, which makes the inverter more efficient.  Combine that with a slightly larger battery and usable capacity, along with better aerodynamics.  It all equates to a 25% range increase.  Their next-gen eAxle already in development is expected to squeeze out even more efficiency.

51 kWh.  It's Friday now, that means quite a few exchanges with someone who did not like Monday's reveal of an upcoming Ford pickup with only a 51 kWh battery.  This is what he has posted repeatedly: "They will need to be in the 75-150 kWh range for mass adoption in North America especially in frigid parts of the continent."  Coming from someone who lives in San Francisco, that's quite amusing.  Knowing our band trailer only travels 40 miles round-trip in the winter, what's the problem?  So few people actually use their pickup as true truck, what does it matter anyway?  Hoping he'll step back from the logic to notice what really compels people, I fired back with:  Seeing the market through the lens of HD Pickup replacement is why you aren't recognizing the potential.  Some people just want a pickup for the basics, not hauling around a 10,000-pound trailer long distances.  It has a decent-sized bed and can haul small trailers around town.  Don't forget how popular the small pickups became decades ago when profitable gas-guzzlers fell out of favor.  Ford has seen the boom from Maverick, providing them a means of dealing that downfall of high-profit vehicles again.  Also, don't overlook what's happening with the ICE market.  When we reach that tipping point, sales of EV with supposed shortcomings will take off.  Know your audience.

Premature Conclusions.  Gotta love how enthusiasts feel the need to draw conclusions right away.  They see this new market opening up, where there is an audience of showroom shoppers and no tax-credits available.  That's a paradigm-shift they recognize but are unwilling to accept.  So, they proclaim an outcome even before it begins.  In this case, it is the idea that those who don't live in a house with a driveway will have no choice but to purchase a vehicle without a plug.  It is presented as an absolute, as if it was already a well proven outcome expectation.  I find that incredibly annoying.  I see the variety of new approaches being presented as solutions for offering a large quantity of chargers in parking lots & ramps.  It's bizarre how enthusiasts embraced technical challenges related to the vehicle itself but completely give up when it comes to infrastructure.  Realizing how narrow-minded their focus is, that makes sense for initial response to a challenge.  My guess is they feel overwhelmed or unqualified.  Perhaps they feel powerless, that influence of an automaker is feasible but not possible for landlords or policy.  Hmm.  Whatever the case, it's clear they aren't looking forward and don't have any patience.  I let them know that too, with:  Since the likelihood of level-2 becoming commonly available is very strong, it simply makes no sense drawing a conclusions already.  Don't be pushing a narrative of hopelessness for apartment & condo tenants.

In other words, the video review is an example of "highway robbery".  Shop around.  You'll find cheaper fast-charger prices.

Outdated Rhetoric.  It continued: "Don't get me wrong.  I think this manufacturing advancement by Ford is spectacular.  I'm simply mentioning that 51 kWh batteries are not going to be a thing in the American car market except in some very specific use cases UNLESS maybe such batteries can be charged in 5 minutes or less, but even then they'd be effectively useless for longer distance trips and certainly in bad weather.  Nope, North America is going to be heavily reliant on high energy capacity batteries which is why it's gonna take us an extra decade or two to switch over to electric vehicles compared to other more density populated and urbanized parts of the world."  That was quite predictable.  We're seeing the same outdated rhetoric return... enthusiasts who claimed certain specs are absolutely essential, that anything below their declared minimum will be dead on arrival.  Heck, remember how that was claimed about bZ4X?  Despite only minor upgrades, sales thrived in the well-established EV country of Norway.  What does that tell us?  Isn't Norway supposed to be the window to our future?  And what about the big upgrade for bZ4X that's coming?  Enthusiasts act as if technological advancements are impossible.  That's why that argument in the summer that went on for an entire month focused entirely on the past.  That enthusiast absolutely refused to acknowledge 2026 improvements.  All of his "evidence" was based on 2023.  He drew conclusions on his perspective, never considering an audience that is just looking for simplicity.  Ugh.  It is the reason why most of my posts to new short-sighted individuals is brief and open-ended... like I did for this reply:  Since there is already real-world data contradicting that "effectively useless" claim, from back when there were far fewer DC chargers available, I have no idea how to respond.

Small & Basic.  Gotta love how some draw conclusions with little to no data: "The point is: trucks typically consume more energy per mile traveled than passenger vehicles which means they are going to require larger batteries than passenger vehicles; passenger vehicles already cannot survive practically in North America on 51 kWh so EV trucks certainly won't be able to either."  That was what I got as a reply.  So much for critical thinking.  Of course, that completely contradicts what was see happening with the used EV market.  People looking for something small & basic are quite pleased with their finds.  Why wouldn't something new, with better specs striving to be affordable, have similar success?  Instead of arguing that, I provided a reminder:  Your point misses mine.  Rewind to a few decades ago.  Remember what small pickups were like?  Heck, there was even a Ranger EV... which is what I hoped to buy back in 1999, built here in Minnesota but sadly it was intended for meeting California's mandate.  Back then, it had a 65-mile range using NiMH batteries.  Anywho, that's what Ford is now targeting with a $30K offering but delivering much better range.  It's not meant to be a "do everything" EV like you envision.  Not everyone needs a large & powerful pickup.  It will be small & basic.

New Short:  Live Data.  The experiment with videos less than 2 minutes long and in vertical format continues.  That wasn't actually the plan originally.  Things just kind of fell into place that way.  It's interesting the way YouTube promotes them too.  They make it very enticing to leverage as an advertisement for your on content, since the bottom portion becomes a "more info" type link.  I suspect that will become something I will leverage in the future.  With the 2026, I will have many opportunities where a short video could be really handy.  Here's the one from today with the 2023:  Live Data for your EV from ABRP

Why Not?  This left me wanting to find out more: "Ford would be better off going PHEV like the GM Voltec system. 60-100 mile EV range, onboard generator for utility, and fuel when you need the extra range and/or hauling capacity."  That was what came about from a discussion looking at Ford's desire to deliver a small BEV pickup.  Rather than push what they currently offer, which feature massive battery-packs, the thought is to ponder the idea of what happened back in the 80's.  Remember Ford Ranger?  Popularity of small pickups thrived into the 90's.  They were basic utility vehicles, offering no-frills transport.  What's wrong with that?  It was the entry-level vehicle choice for someone who wanted a truck.  Hoping to actually stir critical thinking, I asked:  Better how?  We're seeing a variety of offerings in the 55-60 kWh range.  If someone's just looking for a short-range EV that can DCFC when needed, why not?

Fast Charging (document).  Here's the next in that series of shareable documents.  Just like the first, it was inspired from people asking questions at EV events.  They would look at our vehicles, then we'd be all over the place providing answers.  This is an attempt bring some focus to that process.  In this case, it's a popular topic I will need to update several times throughout the next year.  The transition to NACS, along with the introduction of Plug & Charge brings good things to this evolving market.  There will be new people asking new questions.  This gives me a handy means of staying on top of that.  Feel free to download a copy of the print files from this link... Plug-In Vehicle: Fast Charging

Impatience.  Gotta like how this absence of perspective, completely overlooking timelines: "At this point, Ionna is a joke.  The nearest one to me in Portland is 984 miles away.  PlugShare shows 21 locations in the entire country.  In Oregon, there are about 50 Tesla Superchargers locations.  About 30 are available to non Teslas.  We were in Ashland, Oregon in May.  There was an Ionna coming soon sign.  We're back there now and the sign disappeared.  Elon may be the champion of Vaporware for cars, but Ionna is battling for the charging title."  It took Tesla over a decade to build up that presence.  Ionna's achievement is just a single year of work.  For that group of automakers to deliver so much so quickly, seeing claims of "joke" is either a reveal of ignorance or a hint of fear.  We'll see how that attitude changes over time.  Meanwhile, here's I responded to that:  The nearest Ionna here is a few miles from where I frequently travel.  So, it is quite convenient... and hands down nicer than any Supercharger.  Watching Telsa let opportunity slip away like this is interesting.  But then again, many stations were only leased. So, even just upgrading to provide longer cords was always a wait & see.  Another Ionna is being built in the area is near a Rivian location.  We have several NEVI sites on schedule as well.  It's definitely a rapidly evolving market now.