Q. Until then, I will stick to my skateboard and hang out with my buds at the mall. I hate gasoline. My mom told me all about this and we agree that electric cars that don't cost a lot is the way to go. Just around our neighborhood, it would be pefect. Gold carts are too slow but they will make something better. Not that crazy expensive electric batmobile by GM, the "volt." dumb idea, a $100,000 bummer. I don't want air conditioner or anything but basic transportation - cheap and no damn gas or corn alcohol. many stupid ideas for alternatives. electric makes sense. but affordable. bet lots of rental places will offer little electrics in all cities soon.
Dave M: A government employee of some kind? A spy? Not a surprise, just like during Joe S's days, huh?
Answer
Don't count on electric cars becoming widespread soon. Environmentalists do not like the fact that in total, electric cars produce more CO2 and pollutants. That electricity is not free, it is generated locally by power stations, most often from coal-fired ones. And don't count on them being cheap either, manufacturers are going to want to recoup any money invested in the development of these cars. Differences in design will require differences in maintenance, and likely custom proprietary parts, which certainly won't be cheaper.
I'd bet pretty heavily too that they won't make bare bones models, being something technologically new, they'll probably deck them out with the latest in features to encourage buyers to purchase one, similar to how they did with hybrids.
why is it taking us automakers so very long to roll out affordable electric cars?
NYC Sewers
you could not give me a big suv crappola car like gm makes. all that with the caddies and buicks is over, dude. they should not be allowed to finance their cars, either. think about it. it has become their primary profit centers. that is a bad for setting the right goals.
general motors' solution is the absurd "volt," with all the style and bells and whistles. a dang pricey batmobile. it will never sell. that is not what people want. testler and some others understand, gm doesn't get it and neither do you.
Answer
First, you have to think of the practicality. Right now there are hardly no refueling stations to quickly charge up an electric car. The range of an all electric car would be very short. Probably only around 100 miles total. And if we went to all electric cars the batteries would weigh a ton, making the fuel efficiency of the car bad. Also, the batteries would only last about 150,000 miles before they had to be replaced and you'd have to pay about $10,000 to have them replaced. Who wants to pay ten grand to fix a car with 150,000 miles? Especially why would they want to when it can only go about 100 miles on a charge? Then since there are few companies that can produce those electric components and batteries you are talking about a humongous price hike for those cars and the car would likely cost about the same as those super expensive luxury SUVs. Finally, you have to think about the environmental factors too. Where do all of those electric parts go and all of those batteries go once they are done? They will probably go to some landfill or some third world country for recycling. And then of course just like ethanol was blamed for rising food prices, electric cars will get blamed for rising electric bills and power outtages, etc. Food prices will go up, because electricity is used to keep food cold, etc.
Electric cars have many negatives and that's why not only the US car manufacturers but also foreign car manufacturers abandoned the idea. It doesn't make sense.
Then company that you bashed however is the first company to come up with a viable solution and take action on that solution. General Motors committed themselves to making the Chevy Volt. The Chevy Volt will run on an electric motor. A full electric charge will power the car to drive at least 40 miles on only electricity. Once the charge runs down after 40 miles, the gas motor kicks in and generates power to recharge the car. The car will be much more fuel efficient than regular cars. Most Americans (about 90% or more) have a commute to and from work that is less than 40 miles round trip. This would allow most Americans to do drive their entire work commute on electricity. Since the car also can use gas to generate more power, the car isn't dead once it runs out of battery juice and the car can keep going for over 300 miles like most gas cars can do, making the car also good for vacation trips.
Since the battery would only need to power it for 40 miles, a much smaller, lighter battery would be needed. So the weight wouldn't nearly be as much of an issue and neither would replacing the batteries due to cost as a full electric vehicle. And for charging the car can be put on charge to a regular electric plug at home.
GM put forward an aggressive goal of 2010 for producing the car. It used to take car companies 5-10 years to develop a new car. Now they are doing it in 2-3 years or sometimes in under 12 months. And because GM invested more heavily in the electric car than the other car companies did, they have the technology to develop the batteries to make it work quicker than the other car companies do.
One problem that will hold them back though is the price of electric components due to the small number of companies that have the ability to make those parts, thereby driving the price up. The car will cost about $40,000 to make, but with government assistance consumers are only supposed to be charged about $30,000 for the car.
A fully electric car would cost even more then $40,000 to make.
One thing to keep in mind though is that as the car gets purchased more and more electric parts are bought the car parts get cheaper and it gets cheaper to produce the car, similar as it did for Toyota's hybrid Prius car.
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