Tesla and Ford Deal a Game Changer?

If you have been following the EV race at all, it is clear that most major automakers are turning to EV technology in some fashion or another, with some electrifying their entire fleets and others electrifying portions of them.

Regardless of anyone's opinion about the entire idea from a political or practical standpoint, before you know it, and rather quickly, we're going to be seeing many more electric vehicles on our nation's roadways.

The biggest hurdle, beyond whether or not we have the power grid capacity to keep up with the massive future additional demand for electricity, is where you can charge your car? Especially if one intends to take a longer road trip, which currently requires quite a bit of forethought and planning since EV charging stations are not nearly as ubiquitous as traditional gas stations.

Tesla has been working to change this and they have good reason to do it. If there is more widespread access to charging stations for their cars, they potentially can sell more cars. And to date, Tesla currently owns the largest number of chargers in the country.

Enter Ford, a company that I have said stands a good chance to become a strong competitor in this sector of the auto industry due to the vehicles they are making and the appeal of them. The Ford F-150 Lightning and the Mach-E Mustang both have strong consumer appeal, offering utility on the truck side and performance and driving experience on the Mach-E side. One has to consider that even if you are not yet quite onboard with the idea of owning an electric vehicle, the Mach-E is pretty slick.

Part of the issue with charging stations is that all other automakers except for Tesla use a universal charging apparatus and Tesla has a proprietary one. Meaning, if you are driving a Ford Mach-E and you need a charge, you can't use a Tesla charging station to do it.

When I praised Rivian over Tesla, I considered two things. One, that Rivian's vehicle offerings look better and offer more of a driving experience. While Tesla appeals to a more environmental conscious and tech interested crowd, Rivian appeals to drivers much in the same way most traditional automakers do. Plus two, Rivian chargers are the same as all other automakers have chosen to use.

For those reasons, I have considered Rivian to be a better, more appealing stock market play over Tesla, and based on my thoughts about Ford being a strong contender in the EV race among traditional manufacturers, I prefer Ford over the others.

Granted, I have owned Ford stock for many years and Ford has always appealed to me in this sector anyway. The thinking that Ford can have a strong chance to become bigger in EV is just an added bonus.

That all said, Ford and Tesla are now talking about teaming up in the charger space. Ford says it prefers Tesla's charging technology and will work to encourage all other automakers to make the switch as well to what Tesla uses. 

Starting in 2025 Ford will outfit their electric vehicles with the NACS system, or North American Charging Standard that Tesla uses. In the meantime, current owners of Ford EV's can buy an adaptor for a couple hundred dollars to use NACS chargers as well.

Will those adaptors also be available to other EV owners? I would say it is likely that they will be.

I still hold the opinion that from a driving experience viewpoint as well as overall body style, Tesla cars are simply behind the curve. Frankly, in my opinion, they're just ugly. At least for now. And they are still more technology driven than driver driven. They are still appealing to a select group of people, in my view, limiting Tesla's growth just a little bit based on that.

But when it comes to charging technology and increasing the availability of charging access across the country, I think Tesla wins that race if it happens that NACS technology becomes the standard. And if Ford goes that way, which it will, it might encourage other automakers to follow suit, especially since Tesla would be the one doing most of the work of getting more chargers out there for people to use.

In fact, it comes to mind that at some point Tesla may not focus as much on being a carmaker as it might focus on becoming a charging behemoth similar to what oil companies became to gas cars. Can Elon Musk and Tesla become to EV charging what John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil become to internal combustion engines?

The possibility is out there. And it changes my mind just a little bit about whether or not I see Tesla as a possible company to own. In this space overall, Tesla for me would remain a strong #3 in my portfolio, if I choose to buy shares, with Ford being #1 and Rivian being #2. But I think it is an idea worth considering. 

If Tesla at some point owns the majority of charging infrastructure, that's going to bode very well for Tesla as a whole and I think it is something to watch very closely for the foreseeable future.

This is not without some consideration that the biggest hurdle of all is going to be for Rivian. It has to ramp up production and delivery. It has to successfully launch its coming R2S line. And it has to break free somehow from their exclusive commercial vehicle deal with Amazon so they can sell their commercial vehicles to other businesses.

Still, I think Rivian has legs and I think they can make some very good inroads here.

In summary, I happen to think that Tesla may be positioning itself well not so much as an automaker, but in becoming the go-to when it comes to fueling the entire concept of EV now and in the future. If they can bag NACS and it becomes the universal standard to all EV charging, that's a game changer.

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Writing Update: May 25th 2023

Is this just more wasted space? Shameless promotion? I guess it is a little bit of both. I try to keep The Springboard here as "serious" as possible. That may be an overstatement, of course. But hey, this is my blog and I guess I get to make the rules.

I frequently promote my Facebook page where I compile a lot of the things I write about here and in other places. That's partly since I write a lot and I write in several places, and of course, if people like what I have to say or the way I write, I want to have a one-stop place where they can find more of me.

As such, I thought maybe it would be a good idea to occasionally share links here as well to other posts elsewhere that you may find some interest in. From more serious stuff to rambles to me trying to be funny. And I do mean trying.

If nothing else it helps to keep the page updated, and AdSense gets to advertise, why can't I?

Here are some of the more recent things I have posted in various places that you might want to give a quick read to. If not, no harm no foul. All I can do is let you know they are there and the rest is your choice.

Nonetheless. Onward and upward and here we go.

First Camp of 2023 on the Books

Does Anheuser-Busch CEO REALLY Get the Boycott?

Why We Can't All Be Rich

He Shot a Man in the Behind for WHAT?

One Stock I Have Trouble Owning

Where Was I, and How the Hell Did I Get There?

Can We Call Trump's Election Claims Lies if we Don't Know the Truth?

Busting Down the Barriers of Writing

What Do You Think About the J.K. Rowling Controversy?

And for this one, that's a wrap. I may post links once or twice a month depending upon how much new material is out there to share. And I hope I have not wasted anyone's time. That's all folks, and I will see you on the other side.

Media Reporting of LGBTQ+ Movement is Wrong

The manner in which the conservative backlash toward transgender and identity and the whole LGBTQ+ movement is being portrayed in the media is just more propaganda and false reporting. I would say the media is missing the point, but that's not the case at all.

The media knows exactly what they are doing.

And that's the same thing they always do. They are installing a narrative. The story is not the reaction by conservatives to handing Dylan Mulvaney a can of Bud Light beer with his picture on it. The story is not the reaction to Pride offerings in Target stores. 

The story is the force feeding of woke and cancel culture, which is a minority viewpoint, onto the majority. The story is forcing this ideology onto children. The story is forcing the majority of people to be forced to conform to a fringe societal view.

The fact is that there is only one thing that the LGBTQ+ community wants, and that's for everyone else to simply sit down and shut up and accept their viewpoint, or else.

Conservatives have simply had enough. And I think even to suggest that it is only a conservative movement is also false. But that's part of the narrative. That's what the media wants us all to believe, that in order to have a viewpoint that is different from the LGBTQ+ community and movement, one must be a conservative.

I think there are actually many liberals and independents also tired of it. Based on the impact and the numbers, I think only the latter must be true.

The fact is that the proper way to report any stories about any backlash toward transgender and identity and LGBTQ+ issues is this way. "A large portion of the American people are pushing back on the forced push of LGBTQ+ ideology."

Because that's what is really happening.

Granted, it may be that it is more likely that one with a conservative viewpoint will have a stronger opinion on the issue. However, it is not the whole story and certainly it is not a prerequisite to be a conservative for standing against these things.

Part of the issue is that what people are being asked (and I use the word "asked" very lightly here) to do is accept, without question, whatever it is that the left and woke and cancel culture wants and simply fall in line. People are being forced to be confrontational just because. 

If you think that taking down a statue of Robert E. Lee is wrong, you must be a racist. If you think that boys should only use boy's bathrooms, you must be a homophobe. If you think it is okay to enjoy a pour of Aunt Jemimah syrup on your pancakes, you must be in support of white supremacist movements. If you think that transgenderism should not be present in schools, you must be insensitive to LGBTQ+ issues.

I could go on, but I think anyone is aware what these issues are that are involved with woke and cancel culture.

What's being missed in the discussion, but again not by the media because they know exactly what they are doing as I mentioned earlier, is that other people simply have a difference of opinion and it so happens to be that MOST people disagree with woke and cancel culture.

Sure, one can make an argument that sets this movement alongside the Civil Rights Movement. At that time, it could have been argued that most people were of the viewpoint that blacks were inferior people and not entitled to the same rights as everyone else.

At that time, that majority viewpoint was wrong.

But hold up a minute. Was that viewpoint actually the majority viewpoint? I think it wasn't. I think most people were actually on the side of the black community. Had that not been the case, I don't think the Civil Rights Movement would have been effective at all. It never would have worked.

And let's face it, there's one other thing about the Civil Rights Movement that is important to keep in mind.

The movement made sense!

But there is also another element here which I think is important to understand. That is that I have serious doubts that most genuine people within the LGBTQ+ community agree with most of this stuff. I think the genuine gays and lesbians and trans people simply want to be live their lives quietly just like everyone else on the other side.

So, the movement, to my mind, is entirely on the fringe. It is an agenda not to try to bring people together. It is a movement to portray a certain, defined group of people a certain way for the purpose of winning political favor. It is a movement designed to further pit people against each other and create division.

It's why anyone who speaks out against Bud Light or against gender neutral Potato Heads is automatically assigned as a conservative.

Frankly, I think the real woke culture is the vast majority of Americans, and I think that is an important distinction to make. It is not just conservatives waking up to the reality that all of this "woke" stuff is bad. It's the vast majority of the AMERICAN PEOPLE who believe this. And they are fighting back. 

They are fighting back for history to be preserved. They are fighting back to save the children. They are fighting back to stop the division. They are fighting back to simply say, "Let me enjoy my breakfast. Let me enjoy browsing through the aisles of Target. Let me enjoy my M&M's and enjoy a cold beer. Let me enjoy a sitcom or a movie. Let me enjoy a football game. And let me enjoy it all without all sorts of politics and innuendo injected into it."

That's the story the media is failing to report. And again, it's not that they don't know what the story is. They simply aren't interested in reporting it. 

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A Couple of Ways to Deal with This Inflation

While it is true that the April 2023 inflation numbers dipped to 4.9%—still relatively high—it's much better than when inflation hit its peak of 9.1% back in June of 2022. So, while the rate hikes that the Fed began a little over a year ago seem to be helping curb consumer costs a bit, we're not out of the woods yet and things still cost more.

Mortgages, for example, jumped from 2.6% to around 6.3% for an average 30-year fixed rate loan, and credit card interest has jumped to a record average of around 21%.

There is also the question of whether or not we may still see a recession. Something we have not seen yet, but most economists would suggest that between inflation and rising interest rates, it may be sure to come despite any effort by anyone to try to avoid it. And while a recession is not good, and it's not the end of the world, it would not come without some additional pain as layoffs would likely occur, further stressing American's bottom lines.

On the flip side of this, as rates have risen, so have offered interest rates on certain bank accounts. Savers are getting the biggest bang for their bucks, benefiting the most from banks that offer so-called high yield savings accounts. So, looking into some of them, especially online, may be worth looking into if you have some money tucked away somewhere not getting the best rates. It would be worth the time to shop around as well since not all high interest banks are good.

Ally Bank for example, offers a 3.75% current rate, and CD offerings are northward of 4.5%. That's quite a bit more than the national average of 0.39% even if 3.75% still doesn't come near to beating inflation, a key factor when determining how to get the best bang for your buck.

Capital One also offers 3.75%. Barclays is giving 4%. And there are several others. You can go online and do a quick search to find the best rates and do some bank comparisons.

Beyond that, you really have to know your prices when you shop, and you have to be quite a bit more vigilant about shopping around, even visiting multiple stores to get the best deals on most things—especially food and common household items.

Make shopping lists, maintain a good inventory, and stock up on good deals as often as possible. This will also help to determine where you shop based on who has the best price so you don't have to visit multiple stores all at once. When inflation is tugging at your purse strings, every penny counts more than ever.

Of course, a money related post from me would never be complete without mentioning investing. Dividends are a great way to create new money—it is literally income. And besides, you should be invested anyway. If you are not familiar with investing, a very valuable book to read, and well worth the time and money, would be The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham. Creating money from money you already earned is a great way to at least hedge against rising costs.

One thing taking a significant bite out of people's pockets is also the cost of gas and diesel. Why not try to earn some cash back on some of that, and the Upside app lets you do just that. Plus, they also offer cash back on certain grocery stores and restaurants. I have used this app for some time and I have to tell you the savings do add up—and again, every penny counts.

On top of that, doing everything you can to reduce debt at a time like this is paramount. As I mentioned earlier, credit card rates are tipping the scales at 21%. Not only should you pay some of that debt off to save pennies, but you should also be less inclined to use credit to offset expenses caused by inflation. Borrowing when rates are higher, and inflation is through the roof is a good way to compound the problem. So, simply don't do it.

While it may be a more difficult thing to accomplish, provided your company is not laying people off or otherwise enduring other struggles financially, this may be a good time to ask your boss for a raise. You'll want to do some analysis so you can present a reasonable proposal, but the fact is that businesses already understand the impact of inflation on their bottom lines and won't hesitate to raise prices to help get through it. You are as much well within your right to ask for more as they are.

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Stop Calling Trump's Claims Lies When We Haven't Investigated the Truth

In reading some of the reporting about Donald Trump's recent CNN Town Hall meeting, which ran 70 minutes long on May 10th, I tend to have trouble with the constant assertion that, when Trump speaks about election fraud or stolen elections, that he is lying.

Maybe he is. Maybe the whole stolen election thing is a complete and utter falsehood. But at the same time, I have long said that there are many questions which have been asked, and you'd think that it would be at least a rather big concern for anyone who has an ounce of patriotism in their blood.

Why haven't we ACTUALLY looked into it?

Instead, all we have done, really, is to turn a blind eye, claim it as fact that it never happened, and leave it at that. Well, that and point fingers at so-called whacky mindless MAGA nuts. Okay, and silence anyone asking the question or suggesting it could have happened.

If there is nothing to hide, and the left wants to assert without question it is in fact a lie, why not use it as an opportunity to have an open and honest investigation to find out if it did in fact happen? Why would it not be paramount to at least try and set the record straight once and for all rather than simply wave a hand and deny it ever happened?

And maybe, just maybe, that's why Trump is still such a threat to the left and continues to be made into a target. Maybe that's why they continually want to shut him down and silence him, and maybe even get an indictment good and solid enough to bar him from being able to run for president ever again.

Because maybe he knows something, and maybe if he once-more has control of the Justice Department, he may have the means to actually prove that the election was indeed stolen.

Why else would they be going after Trump so hard? They (the left) supposedly won the hearts and minds of the American people. They got their way. Trump's out and they're in. So why so much effort and focus on the former president?

I mean, I will grant you, it's more conspiracy theory stuff. But I think it is still something to consider. The effort on the part of the left is just too heavy to deny there might be at least some reason behind it. If Trump posed no threat, they'd just leave him alone to enjoy a happy retirement in Mar-A-Lago and be done with him.

And about that lying thing, something Trump was accused of all throughout his presidency and continues to be accused of now. 

How many times have Trump's words turned out to actually be right?

Too many times to count. Yes. Trump embellishes. He always has. But are those really lies? Maybe we could call them simple tall tales. Okay, fine. He's guilty. But speaking of lies, how many times has Biden been caught in outright, verifiable lies? 

Again, too many times to count.

Why hold a "liar" to account who happens to actually be telling the truth a lot of the time and turn a blind eye to an actual, verifiable and certifiable liar?

The bottom line is that I am simply frustrated sometimes by the manner in which "news" is reported and with the assignment of certain words to suggest a true statement when in fact the statement is actually an opinion. "Trump is lying about election fraud and stolen elections" is not a fact. It is an opinion because there has never been an actual investigation to prove that an election was not stolen. 

So, we can sit here and argue all day about whether or not someone is lying. But until there is verifiable and incontrovertible proof one way or the other, all of it is conjecture. It's conjecture that it was stolen and conjecture that it wasn't.

The word "lie" does not apply here and nor should it.

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