It’s still a GM :gay: lol 
Too bad Tesla is selling a TV that you can only watch for 3 hours then you have to recharge it for 45 minutes.
^lol.
So legit question.
Will I be able to buy a depriciated value Volt in 2 years for $13k? It IS a domestic afterall…
You might want to just STFU with your domestic hate. 
http://www.nyspeed.com/forums/showthread.php?t=79423
http://www.nyspeed.com/forums/showthread.php?t=78934
http://www.nyspeed.com/forums/showthread.php?t=78294
http://www.nyspeed.com/forums/showthread.php?t=76878
http://www.nyspeed.com/forums/showthread.php?t=45504
http://www.nyspeed.com/forums/showthread.php?t=45118
http://www.nyspeed.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40160
http://www.nyspeed.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36700
http://www.nyspeed.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36510
EDIT:
Based on the first 4, good luck with this:
http://www.nyspeed.com/forums/showthread.php?t=79450
:lol:
mature answer
Sorry, the truth hurts. He tried to claim that they’re applying the expensive HDTV model to the car industry. One major flaw in that claim; the fact that HDTV’s have no performance drawbacks compared to their tube TV predecessors.
Even if it works and eventually the price comes down to $20k for a Tesla sedan it’s still useless as a primary car. Every day people on a budget aren’t going to buy a $20k that doesn’t have the unlimited range of what they have now. If the consumer has to buy a 2nd car for their long trips they’re not going to be interested. 45 minute charge times or battery swaps aren’t a viable option.
Horrible argument for a car that gets 300 miles per charge.
The average person drives 12000 miles per year. 12k/356 days = 33.7 miles per day. So you are getting a car with 10 times the range of that. I would say that’s more than enough wiggle room.
Not to mention the fact that by the time these cars are affordable, the charging times may only be 10-15 minutes per charge.
Again, you’re not looking toward the future. No appreciation for starting point here. They are the ONLY company trying to jumpstart a movement towards electric only vehicles, and all you can do is blast them.
Not to mention, the possiblilty of charging your car while it’s parked and you are in the store shopping or eating at a restaurant or something. Pretty good way for parking lot owners to make some extra cash. If 45 minutes is a full 300 mile charge, then 15 minutes in the grocery store can get you another 100 mile range.
People don’t drive their 12k miles per day evenly spaces out over 365 days though. They take vacations, visit relatives etc etc. If a car can’t do it they’re simply not going to buy.
Don’t act like they’re some world saving company doing this for the good of mankind. They’re a company trying to make a profit, plain and simple. Battery technology will continue to rapidly evolve with our without Tesla in the market. In fact, all Tesla is really doing is taking existing li-ion battery technology that is being driven by the cell phone and laptop industry and using it.
The car companies who are really doing something to help our future are the GM’s with their Volts and the Hondas with their FCXs. Those vehicles are actually breaking new ground, creating new technology and stand a chance of replacing the traditional family sedan.
You’re right, it’s not spaced out evenly, which is why you have a 10x range over that 33 miles.
For roadtrips, I don’t see it being possible. If you reall wanted to, you could bring along a spare battery, or make extended stops. I would think that most people wouldn’t do that though. I wouldn’t, that’s for sure. Most families also have more than 1 car though.
:gtfo:
Without going OT much, you do understand I bought a broken Jetta correct? And to boot, the Spyder was probably the most reliable car I’ve owned minus me snapping the handle off.
Either way, that post was sacastic Mr. Jay, I expected better of you =p
On topic though, if this car hits the market well, you may see a drop in price but at the same time it’s not the technology that’s expensive, it’s the batteries. That’s the limiting factor to this whole “hybrid” motion. We have the technology to go gas-free already yet we dump a TON of money into this kind of crap.
Do you think the oil industry MIGHT have a say in that?
If these things hold their value well I would totally pick one up for commuting. Buy used, drive to and from work for next to free for a few years, sell with less depreciation than I woulda spent on gas.
A lot of people here seem to confuse “having the technology” and “having the infrastructure”. The latter is the one that no matter how much money you throw at it is going to take a long time to build out. Hybrids are the best answer until that gas free infrastructure is built.
yeah, infrastructure is a huge problem
Honda has that FCX Clarity pilot going on in So Cal right now, with a bunch of hyrogen fill stations installed locally. Sucks that those owners (leasers) can’t fill up anywhere else though.
By the way, don’t forget that this isn’t an all or nothing fight like some of you are making it out to be. Just because GM is push the Volt doesn’t mean they’re not working on oil free vehicles as well.
http://www.gm.com/experience/technology/fuel_cells/
Unlike Tesla they’re just being realists and accepting the fact that the technology to market a mainstream electric only car isn’t ready yet, nor is the infrastructure there to support a hydrogen powered car.
Seems like it woulda been an ideal project for stimulus money had we been a few years further ahead in developing the hydrogen technology…grants to small gas station owners to retrofit hydrogen.
One tiny little problem… we still don’t have an efficient means of generating massive amounts of hydrogen. If we switched cars to hydrogen today we’d just be shifting our fossil fuel use from cars to hydrogen generating plants.
A nuclear power revolution will likely have to go hand in hand with our hydrogen future.
Yep, that was part of what i meant with ‘developing the hydrogen technology.’ Efficient means to obtain it and mastering development of consumer hydrogen engines.
And praxair will be the next Exxon.
This is what I work on everyday. I’ve driven many miles in the GM Fuel Cell Equinox and as it stands now, could absolutely be a real world option IF the hydrogen infrastructure was in place. We have a few stations (both Shell and private), but that limits the driving radius in many cases to about 100 reliable miles depending on station supply pressure (how much H2 you can pump into the tank).
The Volt is a intermediate step should H2 be the fuel of the future.
As for saying you can bring a “spare” battery for your Tesla on long road trips. Any idea how big and heavy those are? Do you have the means to replace a high voltage system like that on the side of the road or even in your garage? All electric cars, for the near term, would be local commuters only. Which is why more companies aren’t pushing that design just yet.
^ You mean I can’t just toss an extra of the Tesla’s 450kg (992 lb) battery in my trunk and swap it when the man battery runs down like boardjnky4 is suggesting? /sarcasm
That looks like it would be simply to swap to me. :lol: (that black thing in the picture is the Tesla roadster battery).