Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I remember an Article in some car magazine that said that after driving 100 miles, it cost them 4.XX for electricity and 10.XX for gasoline to drive the Volt... My SUV was running on empty and I load it with $15 worth of gas and look at the amount of miles I had left with my current tank of gas which was purchased for $1.74 per gallon... it had more than 100 miles with my that... I couldn't help but laugh because the Volt was NOT doing better in terms of gas mileage if driven for long distances, its gas mileage was like my SUV... I suppose you could save a lot more if you drove less than 20 miles in any one direction but that seems expensive at $1.XX of electricity per 10 miles and a lot more expensive when compared to other fuel-efficient cars... I was waiting for my oil change while I was reading the magazine on the Volt... The Volt is a work-in-progress... actually the Volt isn't the problem, its the batteries that are the problem... we need better batteries...
In time we will actually be a exportig nation of crude and natural gas.But even a alterntive vehicle has to make economic sense and new infrastrcurure built to be practical for common use.
You can get a Prius Hybrid now with a solar roof that will recharge the battery while it is parked in the sun. Imagine living in Phoenix. If you don't use the AC and just drive to work and the grocery ect--you could possibly go months without buying gas or even plugging the thing in.
You guys who are complaining it's not cheap enough or it doesn't go far enough are completely missing the point.
When GM abandoned the EV-1 to focus on more profitable SUV's they allowed the Japanese to spearhead hybrid car development. Had they followed a more long-term goal then perhaps Toyota and the Prius wouldn't be the world leaders in Hybrid technology today.
GM is doing it RIGHT this time around with the Volt. The Volt was never intended to take the market by storm, selling in numbers that would threaten mainstream cars. A 10k car sales goal is minuscule in the car world, but it's what is necessary to develop the product for future iterations. The Volt powertrain, and all the systems that entails are a whole leap ahead of current hybrid tech. It isn't trying to compete with e the Prius now, or even in the future, its' intended to leapfrog the Prius.
Bob Lutz called it GM's "moonshot."
Quote from a car forum I'm on...
Quote:
... I look at it kind of like....say....BMW's M cars, or the MB S-class, or the Lexus LF-A. They're expensive, out of reach of the ordinary man, and embody advanced, next-generation technologies. But the lessons learned from implementing such advanced technologies into such advanced cars eventually reaches every corner of the line. In the case of the Volt, its development enabled the development of at least a dozen new models coming out over the course of the next two years that use technologies originally developed for the Volt, and probably a dozen over the next five. They'll sell more eAssist Malibus, LaCrosses, Regals, and Equinoxes in a week than they'll sell Volts in a year.
It really is like the Apollo program, in a lot of ways. Yeah, okay, we spent a lot of money [racing] with the Russians to get to the moon...but it wasn't like that's all we got out of it. We got GPS, communications satellites, reliable launch vehicles, Hubble...
Because of Volt development, and early-adopter real-world testing, GM (and by extension, the USA) is becoming an industry leader in all things EV, from batteries, to charging and all the systems surrounding it.
The Prius had big incentives in the beginning to. Hundreds (thousands?) of industries reap tax benefits from certain purchase or endeavors. The next-generation Volt will be cheaper, and better in every way and gradually become a viable mainstream buy.
Be glad it's an American company, with it's own Government's support, spearheading this development. This isn't a Left vs. Right issue, it's about American company being a world leader in emerging technology. But this stuff isn't invented overnight, nor cheaply.
Another quote from the car forum....
Quote:
OPTION 1: GM shouldn't do anything about advancing the EV until the battery efficiency/value is here. And at the same time... permit nearly every other competitor... American or German. Chinese or Japanese to leap ahead as they attempt to sell EV with the typical ramifications of such new product (early adoptor premiums). As they learn the ups and downs of not only the design and engineering, but integration and validation... and then marketing and sales... and service. Because it makes more sense to just wait and try to play catch-up later... after somebody else has invested the effort to figure out the details... and fail, because you lack the experience of working out the details well later once your competitors have a huge lead on you, because you sat back and decided to wait. And fail, because then your image would reflect the Old GM Mentality that you had created for yourself for letting an opportunity like what brought about the Prius over a decade ago. You'd be perceived then as yet another failure... unchanged. Typical. Worthless. Etc.
OPTION2: GM should invest hundreds of millions (private and/or federal) in advancing batteries, but we should NOT attempt to sell them until somebody determines that they are "affordable enough". Until then... 5, 10, 15, etc. years... the companies will just swallow that cost (i.e. Lose hundreds of millions of dollars, because investors don't mind when you do that.) and just hope for the best. And... (see above option 1).
Those, in general, are the options. And they both result in the real "fail".
CONCLUSION: Damned if you do. Damned if you're GM.
Quote:
... GM understands this well. So did Panasonic or Sony when the first DVD player came out. Or the various car companies at the beginning of the 20th century.
For the 11-ty billionth time... the Volt was and has always been about Early Adopter Customers (i.e. People with money that wanted to make a statement.). It cost a lot of money, because the hardware (and software) and development... COST A LOT OF MONEY! Just like it did in early cars or LCDs or microwaves or whatever.
I'll put this here... for the 10th time (at least)... (i.e. It's the GOALS of the Volt and it was publicized to many in the automedia, etc. during its launch.).
Note: No where in there did it say, "Cost $20k", "Seat 5 NBA players", "Save GM", "Force utilities to reduce coal emissions", "Save baby seals", etc.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
