$40,000
“he offered the fact that Chevrolet would be losing money on the first-generation Volt and Congress may offer up at $7,000 tax credit for plug-in hybrids anyway. So, in other words, we should be happy that it’s as cheap as $40,000, right? As for the car’s release date, 2010 is still looking solid.”
Let see who will kill the electric car this time.
Discuss
the consumer?
way too expensive for a hybrid imo. It would take a long ass time to recoup any benefits to this over a standard 20K 4 banger… even with a 7K tax credit.
The only way I see this as a success is if they make it with high grade materials/fit and finish to compete with other luxury type cars
wow. I’m gonna steal a line from AWDrifter:
I would love to see it come down to really make an effective “change”.
all new technologies start expensive… if they prove to be a good idea they get cheaper… so no surprises here.
OMG. All this fucking hype over another god damn hybrid. I mean it’s great that it can run only on the electric motor but the range without running the gas motor is still only about 40 miles.
What we need is %100 electric cars. I guess this is at least a step in the right direction.
from the comments.
sighs And once again people don’t get it. Jason. Grow a clue. These cars are designed to remove our dependency on foreign fuel and to transfer carbon emissions from the pipe to a centralized location like a plant that can with time be cleaned up. Its a hell of a lot easier to upgrade the tech at a single point like a nuke plant or whatnot vs. 1 million cars.
this isn’t about saving you money…yes it ISN’T ABOUT YOU…Sorry I know the American occupation is ME ME ME ME ME…but sorry in this case it isn’t.
ILI. ALot.
In Soviet American, electric car kills manufacturer.
I don’t see this thing selling well. You’d have to be a tree hugger and smart enough to be successful enough to afford one, and those two don’t tend to go together. 
my commute to work is 7 miles each way… so this would be enough for me to never visit a gas station in the course of my normal life. chew on that a little… now imagine some others do the same…
:fuzzyfish::fuzzyfish::fuzzyfish::fuzzyfish:
I disagree. I have been paying $800 a month in gas the last few months. I would gladly shell out another $200 on the car payment to save $400-$500 a month in gas. A lot of people need their cars and need to drive and I don’t think $40k is a lot.
So you’re getting a 4 passenger car with a small trunk for 33k.
It can run on pure electric for about 40 miles @ a cost of about .02/mile, compared to 4.20 regular unleaded @ .14/mile @ 4.20/gal in a 30mpg small car with similar interior space.
http://engineeringtv.com/blogs/etv/archive/2007/05/24/episode-41-the-chevy-volt.aspx
Ok, so lets say you do the average 12k/year, and lets say 10k of that is 40 mile or less trips where you can run on pure battery power.
Gas car cost per year: $1680
Electric car cost per year: $410 Disclaimer: This figure assumes the Volt would get 40mpg when running on it’s gas engine for those 2000 miles that weren’t 40 mile all electric trips. This is a wild ass guess on my part but seems reasonable)
So you’re saving $1270/year. Carsdirect says I can get a very nicely equipped 2008 Civic EX for 18400, a whopping $14600 difference.
So in 11.5 years you break even. When was the last time any of you kept a daily driver car more than 11.5 years?
And don’t forget the extra $1900 in NY sales tax you’re going to pay on the 40k Volt vs the 18.4k Civic. The Volt might be 33k after the government incentives, but when you walk out of the dealership you’ll be paying sales tax on the 40k sticker.
Sigh. So much for the electric car.
so why pay the added price for the gas motor that will never be used? Why not have a longer range %100 electric car that will EASILY suffice for your commute. chew on that.
If everyone got on board for electric cars, there would even be charging stations at hotels and such or pit stop.
However the good thing with the Volt, is that it CAN still drive longer range, and simply require a fill up at a gas station.
I love the idea, I just think we need to completely run away from the need for oil.
this is not the cost down ending point, it’s only the very start… 40 miles is not good enough for a highway trip… give it a generation, obviously the end game is to lose the gas motor, but it’s not practical yet.
same as when the first PCs came out at thousands of dollars in the 70s/80s and people said they would never catch on.
it’s the idea that matters, and as you can see the costs saving will be there with time. but more importantly, the reduction on gas dependence.
while I agree, we’ll never be able to live in a society without oil (not in our lifetime at least). Just too many things depend on it
i can see getting away from petroleum as a consumer fuel in our lifetime…
but soooo much stuff aside from that is petroleum based.
Real simple. Because a pure electric car is a toy, and a plug in hybrid is a legitimate form of transportation.
A pure electric car simply can’t replace your daily driver. There will be days when you need to go farther than the battery will allow and sitting at a charging station for hours for a recharge isn’t acceptable. So if you’re going to buy pure electric car you’ll still need another car to use when your battery powered toy won’t make it far enough. Start doing the math on the costs of having to buy two cars, two insurance payments, two maintenance routines, two registrations, two cars to store etc etc and you will NEVER break even on your gas savings. This why I laughed so much at the people thinking the Tesla was going to change the auto industry.
Will the electric car eventually have the range and speed of charge needed to be a replacement for gas? Probably. But today we need vehicles that can bridge the gap between 100% gasoline power and 100% “something other than oil” power.
while this is very true… which product line consumes more?
fuel oils or plastics?
srsly, I dunno.
i have to imagine that fuel oils consume WAYYYYYYY more.