DID YOU KNOW:
...That electric vehicle sales more than doubled in 2020? When we said thy were “coming,” even we didn’t realize by how much. Chevy alone saw huge gains. In fact, the Chevy Bolt (dumpiest car name in history) doubled in sales. To the point, GM with their new lower case lettered logo (they think it better represents the electric vehicle side of GM...whatever) used the famed Consumer Electronic Show this month in Las Vegas to introduce a number of electric vehicles, including an electric powered pickup truck.
...Auto sales for 2020 were down from 700 million to nearly 400 million? A significant sales jump for 2021 looked promising: good for the automakers, good for the U.S. economy. However, this quickly stalled because of a huge gap in microchip deliveries. Today’s automobiles use a lot microchips, from “door ajar” to managing engine and transmission functions. No chips, no build. Sounds like a small issue, but trust us this is costing billions of dollars. Japan is the number #1 supplier; fingers crossed they catch up soon.
For this who worry about fuel octane levels, let us put your mind somewhat at ease. The manufacturers post their vehicles' octane requirement in the gas door area of the vehicle and most of us try to honor that requirement, but higher levels of octane cost more at the pump. So, is there a safe time to try to cheat them? Well...kind of. Summer is the best time to try and save a little money by coming down one octane level, though this should only be done with every other tank full and you may notice a slight loss in performance as the engine management system adapts to protect the engine. Wintertime is the critical time to run the higher octane as fuel and air densities are greater. We’re not endorsing this practice, but if you need to save a few bucks over the summer this would help.
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