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Chevy Volt ad, see it while u can

There are lots of problems with the Volt. First, if there was only a $7500 tax rebate, it wouldn't be so bad. The truth is our tax dollars subsidize each Volt to the tune of $200,000. That is how GM managed to even get it into production. Without billions from you and me, it would have never seen the light of day.

The second problem is the current power grid is not designed to support these cars. According to a Georgia Power executive friend, the power transformers you see on the power poles cannot support more than 2 of those cars. For the technology to go into widespread use, hundreds of billions of dollars would have be spent to upgrade the power grid.

Nothing is free. It's not even cheap.
 
The whole "volt is subsidized $200,000 each" rhetoric is 100% false. Total made up BS. Like you can fairly just look at ONE year of sales and divide that into the amount of government subsidies?? We wouldn't have most of the great things we have today without such subsidies.... Roads, cars, phones, Internet, trains, electricity, etc are all examples of such subsidies.

Yes, we will have to get off the coal.... Using new nuclear, wind, solar, etc.

Yes, they will need a different tax structure to collect money to pave and maintain roads...... Unless you think they'll magically pave themselves.......lol

And no, the guy in the ad is in no way 'stealing' from anyone. There are various tax credits many of us get that others don't.

I commend those that have taken the leap to embrace these new technologies.
 
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Just being a smart butt here...

Buy a Spyder and save the planet!

Besides... Ever notice no one says what the cost electrical charging cost is to recharge the Volt? I am researching this off and on because I want an efficient form of transportation to the office... But the $41,000 price is not what I see here.. More like $48-52,000... Kind of kills all the gains in fuel mileage...
 
Electric vehicles won't work over here except in the Metropolitan markets where trips are much shorter. Current battery capacity seems to yield a range of about 100 miles. That would barely get the Missus and I out to the closest mall for a day of people-watching. Any detours along the way and we'd be riding the "Thumb Express" home :gaah: Yet they'll put even more strain on a powergrid that has trouble keeping up during peak usage periods right now.
 
Bob Denman said:
Electric vehicles won't work over here except in the Metropolitan markets where trips are much shorter. Current battery capacity seems to yield a range of about 100 miles. That would barely get the Missus and I out to the closest mall for a day of people-watching. Any detours along the way and we'd be riding the "Thumb Express" home :gaah: Yet they'll put even more strain on a powergrid that has trouble keeping up during peak usage periods right now.
Click to expand...

Be careful not to over generalize. Over 1 million Prius have been sold in the US, and another million in Japan. Some form of electric powered vehicles are making large inroads into pure gas driven cars. And getting electricity off the grid is likely far more efficient than firing up a 4, 6 or 8 cylinder car, even if the electricity is from a coal fired plant.
 
I know there's a lot of potential for stepping in it with this topic... :opps:
I don't think that the Prius requires plugging in?? :dontknow: But it seems as if the Volt will.
Because of our location I have pretty much stayed away from the while issue of battery-pwered modes of transportation; limited range makes them useless to me. :gaah:
 
Fully electric will never happen.
Fully electric cars will kill the manufacturer's of, Muffles, tail pipes, gas tanks, spark plugs, wires, etc,etc, And just about every thing else that go into gas driven cars,
Most dealers and independent repair shops will go out, That's the real reason why GM killed the electric car in the 70's.
So if you happen to be working in one of those industries you'll be out of work and won't have the money to buy an electric car.
 
Bob Denman said:
I know there's a lot of potential for stepping in it with this topic... :opps:
I don't think that the Prius requires plugging in?? :dontknow: But it seems as if the Volt will.
Because of our location I have pretty much stayed away from the while issue of battery-pwered modes of transportation; limited range makes them useless to me. :gaah:
Click to expand...

The volt plugs in and has a range around 40 miles by battery, then a gas powered generator kicks in to continue powering the electric motor.
 
boborgera said:
Fully electric will never happen.
Fully electric cars will kill the manufacturer's of, Muffles, tail pipes, gas tanks, spark plugs, wires, etc,etc, And just about every thing else that go into gas driven cars,
Most dealers and independent repair shops will go out, That's the real reason why GM killed the electric car in the 70's.
So if you happen to be working in one of those industries you'll be out of work and won't have the money to buy an electric car.
Click to expand...

I agree here, the devistation on the economy from going to fully electric would be shamazing to behold.

The other key comment here, the phasing out of gas stations, that is an industry that is all kinds of crazy. Loss of Taxes at the pump will result in sky rocketing electrical fines / bills / taxes at your house and at your employer, and then electrical meters would spring up everywhere to charge you at the parking lot to park and charge, and it would be loaded with bills / fines / taxes as well.

Then you lose all the jobs that are the Emmissions people with the DOTs in each state, the check fees, the licensing fee, rechecks, etc.

The overall BIG PICTURE effect would be brutality on an economy. Not to mention, when it happens, watch for some mandate from the government to draw gas stations down to a minimum but hold them there for people that have antiques, and what gas will cost THEN. Remember what it was like when we didnt have cell phones, we could use a payphone anywhere, banks of them in malls and airports and all over.

What happens with gas stations go the route of pay phones. Just ask The USPS about what they think of email, and hallmark what it thinks of ecards.

Everything has a price, and losing the supporting structure around internal combustion engines would be nothing short of catastrophic on an economy that I do not think could take a blow of that size at this time due to the slow steady recovery rate currently.
 
boborgera said:
Fully electric will never happen.
Fully electric cars will kill the manufacturer's of, Muffles, tail pipes, gas tanks, spark plugs, wires, etc,etc, And just about every thing else that go into gas driven cars,
Most dealers and independent repair shops will go out, That's the real reason why GM killed the electric car in the 70's.
So if you happen to be working in one of those industries you'll be out of work and won't have the money to buy an electric car.
Click to expand...

I bet people said the exact same kinds of things when cars started replacing the horse and buggy......:roflblack: oh nooooo--- it's gonna put blacksmiths out of business, hay suppliers, etc...... but tons of new jobs were created as those went by the wayside.

It won't happen overnight... it will be a gradual change.... and with that change will be a change in the jobs that support newer vehicle types. They will still require maintenance and support.

We have a new battery plant right in my town that employs around 100 people. New technology creates jobs.

Gas stations will start offering 'charging stations' or maybe a quick 'battery swap' option. :thumbup:

GM didn't kill the electric car -- and it wasn't in the 70's, it was in the 90's with their EV1 vehicle. Many factors contributed to the failure. Big oil companies actually purchased charging stations in California..... and closed them.... which didn't help things.

We'll see battery technology advance in the next decade to where you'll get a few hundred miles off a charge.... but hydrogen fuel cells will be the real future..... and they will generate the electricity to power all electric vehicles.

Right now, most charging is done during the low-use hours at night, so the impact on the grid won't be that great... and the grid will have to grow as more electric cars get on the road.

I find it kinda funny that people who have spent $20,000 to $35,000 on our 'toys' out here are complaining about the price of the Volt($33,000+- after tax credits).
 
Hey my Toy is my main mode of transportation at this time! And it was only 14k, can I get a tax credit on that action? I have never in my life paid more than 20k for a car, so I am just cheap when it comes to transportation.

My main gripe is that if it is the wave of the future, and it is where the country needs to go to remedy obvious issues, why are there not more efforts to make it publicly available.

My whining and moaning on the subject is not even really for me, its for the masses. Most people cant afford an electic car at 41k, nor can they even afford gas for their crappy $1500 cars. I have been there, I worked hard to be where I can get a spyder and play now, but I still remember what that is like. And if this ends up like Europe at 8 bucks a gallon. Places where I live will hurt because its rural and removed and it will not be cost effective to work a minimum wage job, and that hurts everyone all the way around. From me to people below me to people above me economically speaking.

I just am always confused by how these "pushes" come from the left and right for better this or that, and they funnel money to businesses, but yet the people can only get a rebate, or a tax credit. Just flat out make it affordable. The government is gonna pay it one way or the other, paying it RIGHT THEN when you are buying woulc make it more governmentally backed in my opinion. Giving you an option for a tax credit that you might or might not get based on a plethora of situations is just sketchy.
 
I, for one, am into the technology of this vehicle, but agree that there are some practical considerations that pose major drawbacks for this design. First, you have got to get the power from somewhere, interested to know how much a person's electric bill goes up when you charge this thing every night. Second, how long will the battery last, and what are the implications of 10s or thousands of junked batteries in junk yards? I own a Tahoe hybrid, and get s--t from my friends all the time for being an idiot for paying more for the hybrid. I have 57,000 trouble free miles and based on my calculations when compared to a similarly powered Tahoe, I have about a 25% improvement in fuel efficiency, that has made up the price difference, but certainly isn't any huge benefit. I would prefer a hybrid to the all electrics myself, the volt is somewhere in between with a small gas powered engine that can generate electricity. If I were in the market right now for that sized vehicle, I would go with a Prius, or a diesel.
 
packbuckbrew said:
I, for one, am into the technology of this vehicle, but agree that there are some practical considerations that pose major drawbacks for this design. First, you have got to get the power from somewhere, interested to know how much a person's electric bill goes up when you charge this thing every night. Second, how long will the battery last, and what are the implications of 10s or thousands of junked batteries in junk yards? I own a Tahoe hybrid, and get s--t from my friends all the time for being an idiot for paying more for the hybrid. I have 57,000 trouble free miles and based on my calculations when compared to a similarly powered Tahoe, I have about a 25% improvement in fuel efficiency, that has made up the price difference, but certainly isn't any huge benefit. I would prefer a hybrid to the all electrics myself, the volt is somewhere in between with a small gas powered engine that can generate electricity. If I were in the market right now for that sized vehicle, I would go with a Prius, or a diesel.
Click to expand...

A full charge of the Volt costs anywhere from .75 to 1.75 from what I've read... with most saying they pay far less than $1.00 a day to top it off. I'm sure they have a recycling program for the batteries. One of the new hybrids has a 10 year guarantee on the batteries... they'll replace them as many times as you need them to should they degrade.

Will be really interesting to see how the hybrid Spyder stacks up.....
 
Another problem is the Volt would not be suitable for someone as an only vehicle. This means they would have to purchase another vehicle which they could use to go, say more than about 30 miles. Could buy a lot of gasoline for that second vehicle for the price of a Volt.
 
MarkLawson said:
Another problem is the Volt would not be suitable for someone as an only vehicle. This means they would have to purchase another vehicle which they could use to go, say more than about 30 miles. Could buy a lot of gasoline for that second vehicle for the price of a Volt.
Click to expand...


HUH??

The Volt will go as far as any other car on the road. First 40 miles are off electric..... then the gas generator turns on and you can drive however long you want. There is no limit.
 
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