Road-Testing Cars of the Future

Re: Build it and they will come

1) The US is the largest supplier of the oil we use, the two top foriegn suppliers are Canada and Mexico

2) You can't use Solar PV to charge your Volt overnight, so no matter how you slice it, a Volt will be primarily a COAL powered vehicle.

3) Someone who only drives 5,000 miles per year will never come close to saving enough in gas, even at $4/gal to pay the $8,000 premium over a Prius ($15,500 premium without Tax Rebate)

Someone who drives 80 miles per day, would put nearly 30,000 miles per year on the car. Even so after 5 years and 150,000 miles, they would still be ahead by over $5,000 by driving a 45mpg Prius at $3/gal.

While people might buy the Volt to make a statement such as: "I prefer a Coal Powered Car" or "Not Zero Emissions, Emissions Somewhere Else", the economics suggest that the Volt needs to come down by about $15,000 to be able to compete with existing Hybrids.

The fact that almost all our Lithium comes from two South American countries pretty much precludes that from happening.

It may not be OPEC in our future, but if we build our tranport future around Lithium Batteries, it will be OLEC.

Arthur Doucette of TN @ Aug 15, 2009 09:01:09 AM

Build it and they will come

I suspect if Chevy does end up selling the 2010 Volt as planned it will get a VERY warm welcome in the states for three reasons:

1) Americans hate OPEC (possibly even more than Al Queda) and buyers can attach 'up yours OPEC' bumper stickers on their car and feel really good that they are helping curb America's reliance on foreign oil.

2) Buyers will get a one-time $7500 tax credit. And SMART buyers can then sink that $7500 rebate into solar products for their home with enough power generation capacity to easily charge their Chevy Volt every night--thereby making their Chevy Volt a 100% 'green mobile' because they then won't be drawing electricity from a coal fired grid and thus no CO2 will be produced in driving 40 miles a day (just as with hydrogen fuel cells). And when they purchase the solar roof panels they get ANOTHER big tax rebate which they can use to buy more electrical solar generation for their home or another Chevy Volt! That's a total win-win solution to both the OPEC AND the CO2 problem. If every American did this--sinking their $7500 rebate into solar panels for their home to charge their Volt--and Chevy could make enough Volts--imagine how this would impact OPEC! (and reduce CO2 generation).

3) Most drivers commute less than 20 miles one way to work or drive less than 40 miles a day. For example, typical retirees drive less than 5000 miles a year and rarely drive more than 10 miles a day. So for these buyers they will never use ANY gasoline at all and this really put the whammy on OPEC in addition to preserving the environment even if they don't buy solar panels to charge the Volt. And if a buyer has to go twice the number of miles as the electrical range (40 miles) and drives 40 miles to work each way, then assuming the Chevy gets 40 mpg on gasoline in gasoline only mode then they are actually averaging 80 mpg which is far and above the Toyota Prius or any vehicle currently in production.

Americans should be more energy aware and realize that the entire energy cycle of extracting coal, to burning it for electricity, and charging batteries for auto propulsion is more efficient than that of extracting oil from deep sea wells (where most of ours comes from now) to refining the oil into gasoline, to transporting the gasoline (by 5 mpg trucks) and finally burning the gasoline in very inefficient automobiles.

The long term future probably lies in hydrogen fuel cells but the technology and capability of converting to a hydrogen economy is decades away--it's simply too expensive at this time for the infrastructure changes. And state IV nuclear plants are still decades away and fusion power 50 to 100 years away to effectively produce enough hydrogen gas cheaply.

So until that day arrives a Chevy Volt makes a hell of a lot of sense. I will certainly buy one and attach one of those 'Up your OPEC' stickers on mine!

wowlfie of CO @ May 04, 2009 09:59:28 AM

Something for Everyone

There was a time when my wife and I drove thousands of miles seeing a large portion of this nation. I was recently surprised to learn that the average annual miles on my car equaled only 3000. Most of those miles were to the Doctor or to the Grocery. We are retired, old, infirm and no longer interested in travel.

I suspect that many are in the same boat. We won't live to pay for Obama's New World Order.

Since our trips are short, a glorified Golf Cart would suffice. There are, of course, problems. Legality and traffic are only two.

Frank of CA @ Mar 23, 2009 14:40:42 PM