What is battery swapping? Battery swapping refers to a technique where an empty battery of an electric car is replaced rather than charged. The replacing, or swapping, happens in a swapping station. The swapping process itself can be partially manual, partially robotic, or fully robotic. The batteries are recharged either at the station itself or at a centralized charging facility. The ownership of the battery usually lies with the car maker, a utility, or the battery-swap company, not with the owner of the vehicle....

I mean, why wouldn’t I trust you about this? You told me you were in charge of the Italian army’s mid-century stealth programs, which is why I agreed to give you my Social Security number in the first place. Also, I don’t get why you need my bank PIN code, but I guess you know what you’re doing, right? Fun fact, there was a factory option for ONE center-mounted foglight!...

The Thames 400E was a very useful little light commercial van released in 1957, and of the same forward-control design like the Volkswagen Type 2 Transporter or Ford’s later Econoline or Dodge A100 and many more. Built almost unchanged to 1965, the van came in a dizzying variety of body styles, including pickup truck and chassis-cab options. They’re really appealing little vans, as you can tell from the tomato-red one I saw in that parking lot....

I mean, I still enjoy a good globe – I have an illuminated one right here not four feet from where I’m typing this, for example, and I always thought one of those huge ones that had a bar inside it would be cool. Anyway, those first-gen Twingos sure were incredible. Did you know the antenna was mounted to the side mirror to save on cable length? It’s true!...

Are you familiar with these sorts of digital rearview mirrors? They’ve been around for a few years, and they seem to offer a lot of benefits: because the “mirror” (again, it’s not really a mirror at all, it’s a screen in the shape and location of a traditional inside mirror) is fed via a camera mounted at the rear of the car, nothing inside the car – passengers heads, luggage, pillars, errant balloons, whatever – can block your rear vision....

And it’s the Beetle by a mile, as I suspected it would be. I don’t know what it is about these slow, primitive, goofy-looking little cars that is so imprinted on the collective unconscious, but it’s undeniable. My biggest problem with this one is that it’s white; it would be hard to resist painting Herbie stripes and roundels on it and calling it “Ocho.” All right. Today’s choices are from Philly, a city I have visited but don’t know much about, other than there’s a lot of Revolutionary War history there, it’s the Fresh Prince’s hometown, and there’s some sandwich they’re really proud of....

Uggg, I just threw up a bunch of reddish fluid. It was kinda sweet, reinforcing my antifreeze theory. Get it together, Jj! David’s gonna be on my ass if this doesn’t meet our “Double E” standard of entertaining and educational, so, um, Saviem was a French truck company and their name is an acronym for Société Anonyme de Véhicules Industriels et d’Équipements Mécaniques which, to English-reading eyes seems like a secret society of anonymous people who build construction equipment....

These are real, significant problems, though, and they’re the sorts of things that affect how your quality of life with your car is, and, remember, that’s a relationship that will last, at least on average in America, over 12 years. Europe is about the same, and while Japan and China are a bit less, plenty of the world is older. Cars are more expensive than ever, and they last longer than ever, too (On average, apparently....

[Editor’s Note: I’m kind of delighted to see anything related to “friendly” a winner in the context of pickup truck design. – JT] It’s important for a designer to have a clear idea of exactly what kind of vehicle they want before they start sketching, even within a given brief. For example remember our EV All-American Wagon? We wanted that to be traditional, without being overtly retro. It could have been super modern or had a raised ride height and still fit the criteria, but that wasn’t what we were going for....

Welcome to The Morning Dump, bite-sized stories corralled into a single article for your morning perusal. If your morning coffee’s working a little too well, pull up a throne and have a gander at the best of the rest of yesterday. Hertz Settles Theft-Related Lawsuits You can add legally renting a car to the all-too-long list of reasons people have been arrested in the U.S., though at least this time the arrestees have seen some small measure of justice....

It’s no secret that starting an engine from cold isn’t great for emissions. While there are a litany of reasons why cold starts are bad for the environment (high losses from thick lubricating fluids, high losses to metals due to high deltaT between combustion reaction and surrounding metals, etc), but let’s focus on how fuel behaves when cold. Gasoline from the pump is generally (unless you’re doing something really wrong) a liquid, but before it’s injected into a combustion chamber, it’s atomized to ensure nice mixing with air and therefore efficient combustion....

Last summer, I got pretty darn sloshed at my parents’ house [Ed Note: Damn that’s a way to open up a blog! -DT]. While I swam in their pool with my phone–an activity that probably zero out of five doctors recommend–I looked at a 1985 U-Haul CT13 nearly 400 miles north in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. I’m not entirely sure if it was the Malort, a drink that Illinois residents give to their enemies, or my insatiable lust for weird campers, but I told the seller to hold it because I was going to drive from Illinois and through the entire state of Wisconsin to buy it....

Welcome to The Morning Dump, bite-sized stories corralled into a single article for your morning perusal. If your morning coffee’s working a little too well, pull up a throne and have a gander at the best of the rest of yesterday. New Cars, Weird Time It’s that time of year, isn’t it? Automotive News (sub required) has the big annual rundown of new cars we can expect to make debuts next year, and it’s a pretty interesting list....

See that picture up there? That’s David’s garage. See how much is packed up? The number you’re looking for is called, technically, “fuck all.” As in none. This man that I’m in business with, that I’ve tied to my literal financial future, is a monster. Plus, I learned that he eats in the shower. Who does that? Spaghetti! He fucking eats fucking spaghetti in the shower! Who is this animal?...

Yeah, I think I’m with you. Generally I’d prefer the El Camino, but if it’s that Ranchero versus that El Camino, then the little white truck is the better choice. Now then: When you think of fun-in-the-sun open-air motoring, I know the first country that comes to mind is Germany. I mean, it never rains there, and the Germans are so well-known for their easygoing carefree spirit that of course convertibles are going to be their car of choice....

[Full disclosure: Mazda Canada graciously let me borrow this press car for a week, so long as I returned it with a full tank of fuel and wrote an article on it. I must say, there’s nothing quite like pushing that button for 93 octane gasoline after a week of driving.] So, what answer am I looking to get from this anti-hot hatch? Well, it’s a two-part question. The first is a case of fun....

The biggest number in the latest press release on the Super Duty is maximum towing capacity of 40,000 pounds. However, there are a few caveats to that number. For starters, it’s for the F-450. If you want to compare one-ton dually apples-to-apples, the F-350 has a maximum gooseneck capacity of 38,000 pounds, handily pipping the Silverado 3500 HD’s maximum of 36,000 pounds and the Ram 3500’s 37,090 pounds. It’s not an enormous lead, but it’s still class-leading for now....

Welcome to The Morning Dump, bite-sized stories corralled into a single article for your morning perusal. If your morning coffee’s working a little too well, pull up a throne and have a gander at the best of the rest of yesterday. The World’s Best-Selling Car Nameplate Gets A Fresh Update While the GR Corolla is the Toyota Corolla we all want, there’s something to be said for having one reliable car and one really dumb toy in the garage....