Automotive Engineering - August 2021 - 29

READER
FEEDBACK
Munro the teardown king
Your June SAE article on Sandy Munro and his famous company
was deserved. In contracting the services of Munro &
Assoc. for competitive teardown and analyses, my company
(an OEM that will go unnamed here) found Sandy's team to
be honest, straightforward and fair. Munro himself is a no-BS
guy who tells it exactly as it is. There are other teardown
specialists and we've used them all. But when Munro digs
into them, no fastener is left unturned, unmeasured, or unweighed.
He tells you exactly
what metal it's made of. All your
questions get answered. They
follow up. A high-value outfit that
delivers what you pay for.
Name withheld by request
Brighton, Mich.
EV charging is not free
In most of the United States, coal,
natural gas, and nuclear energy
remain the primary sources of
electrical energy to charge the
battery of EVs. As a result, a small
gasoline-powered vehicle uses less
energy and emits less CO2 than
any of the current EVs. Well-towheels
efficiency and emissions of
EVs will remain non-competitive
until alternative energy becomes
the primary energy source to
charge the EV batteries.
Of course, no one would burn
costly diesel fuel in a power plant
to charge an EV, because coal and
natural gas are much less costly.
The Reader Feedback discussion in the June issue by Herb
Adams and George Kraus is useful in that it does show that
charging an EV is not energy free. Too many politicians assume
that most states have inexpensive solar, wind, and
hydro power available to charge EV batteries. The fact is most
states have limited zones where large-array solar farms and
wind turbines are efficient. We must pay double for California
PG&E power at our second home in Northern CA, compared
with what we pay for coal plus natural gas power at our primary
Indianapolis home. That is $0.34 cents/kWh versus
$0.16/kWh cents in Indy.
Our 2007 Toyota Prius, at 121,000 accumulated miles, and 45
mpg, will remain our primary Indy vehicle, and our 100,000mile
Honda Civic, at 31 mpg average to date, will remain our
Northern California car. An EV does not make economic sense
at this time, due to its lengthy charge time and high cost.
Joseph J. Neff
Indianapolis, Indiana
A useful Software roundup
The article on Software in your May 2021 magazine was interesting
and useful - it actually helped me land a job at one of
the companies mentioned by the author Terry Costlow.
Thanks to SAE for its detailed articles on the latest trends
in automotive. I have been an SAE member since getting my
engineering degree and continue to discover the membership
benefits.
Regina Lee
AVs and Big Brother
Increasingly, people looking at the
problem of autonomous cars realize
that it is not a technical problem
but a battle of technical and
governmental force against a tradition
of freedom that we are accustomed
to.
The result will be less safety, less
mobility, less convenience, less
efficiency and far higher vehicle
and roadway costs. The government
can set any speed it wants
to, for your car, so if you are being
harassed by another car you have
no chance to escape them.
Government can take you and
your car anywhere they want to.
And it will fall woefully short of its
goals. Finally, there is the question
of consumer acceptance which will
be difficult to achieve.
Carl Goodwin
Mr. Goodwin has been involved in
motorsports safety and authored a 1998 SAE Technical Paper
on the new highway barrier invented by racer John Fitch.
Stuart Birch retires
I liked your June editorial on Mr Birch. I was lucky to get my
first interview with Stuart back in the 1990s when I was an
engineering manager at Delphi in Luxembourg. He did a great
job. I've reflected on our exchange often in the past 25 years.
John Fuerst
SVP Technology and Innovation
Tula Technology Inc.
READERS: Let us know what you think about Automotive
Engineering magazine. Email the Editor at Lindsay.Brooke@
sae.org. We appreciate your comments and reserve the
right to edit for brevity and clarity.
AUTOMOTIVE ENGINEERING
July/August 2021 29
https://www.nxtbook.com/smg/sae/21AE06/index.php
Automotive Engineering - August 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Automotive Engineering - August 2021
