What is Digg?Sponsored by Travelzoo
Take Advantage of Ridiculously Low Holiday Airfares view!
travelzoo.com - Flights $52 and up for Thanksgiving, Christmas & New Year. But move on it now.
236 Comments
- chickenloco, on 06/24/2009, -3/+40GM has done alot of stupid things in the past few years, but I've driven a few of their newest offerings, and they really seem to be stepping up their game. I hope they don't screw up the volt.
- MCA2142, on 06/24/2009, -12/+41Is this from the same company that pissed on their own EV1?
- teamquentin, on 06/24/2009, -3/+26Great! Soon GM can start paying back the bailout!
- busybrain, on 06/24/2009, -2/+20Let the lithium harvest begin!
- rlh1, on 06/24/2009, -5/+22A decade ago oil was $10 a barrel.
Your grasp of economics cause and effect is poor. - fasda, on 06/24/2009, -1/+17holy ***** optimism on Digg what a rare sight.
- cambob76, on 06/24/2009, -10/+25"The next era of personal transportation has begun." - The Volt isn't out yet. Tesla was before Volt. Sorry.
- gpapin, on 06/24/2009, -11/+22I am ready. Hope it stays on schedule.
gp - LoudMusic, on 06/24/2009, -5/+15"The next era of personal transportation has begun."
I thought that was the Segway?
Besides which, in the description you point out these are "preproduction", which means they are not the same as the production model. - rheaume, on 06/24/2009, -2/+12Not nearly the same as your car does but keep going, keep asking questions you know the answer to, its fun.
- graminal, on 06/24/2009, -4/+14Peak Lithium
- goobly, on 06/24/2009, -7/+17"The next era of personal transportation has begun."
lol. yeah right. - palmer, on 06/24/2009, -0/+10Another strawman argument. If you electrify most of the personal vehicles, then a change in power-generation technology immediately cleans up the entire vehicle fleet also. For example, if most people's cars are electric and you replace coal plants with nuclear ones, everyone's driving instantly becomes less polluting.
Compare that to having to change the technology in every single car on the road one by one, whenever new power sources become available.
Hope that's clear. - parafish13, on 06/24/2009, -0/+9Good news from Michigan? AWESOME! I grew up in Warren and live one city over now.
- RogerStrong, on 06/24/2009, -1/+10None at all, where I am. It's all hydro-electric.
- jcounterman, on 06/24/2009, -0/+9that's 40 miles on electric, after which it turns into a gas or hybrid powered vehicle. That's the beauty of this concept; it runs 100% on electric for 80-90% of the miles Americans drive in a day, but it still has the flexibility to go longer if you need it to.
- askantik, on 06/24/2009, -8/+17You bet!
To anyone who doesn't know about that: http://www.whokilledtheelectriccar.com - rlh1, on 06/24/2009, -4/+13And not only that,,,,,, the EV1 codt $80,000 in 1996 dollars, would you buy it?
And GM sells cars, not oil.
They are not in bed with the oil companies, or the oil companies wouldn't have let oil raise to $150 which sank GM depending on SUV's for profit....some relationship - MoneyShot, on 06/24/2009, -0/+8The first genuine ones? *****!!!! I should have looked closer before I bought my "Chevie Voltage" from that nice Korean woman at the flea market last month.
- brb1031, on 06/24/2009, -1/+9The fact that a gasoline car wastes the extra electricity generated by the alternator is not a point _against_ electric cars....
You still have to buy +burn the gasoline that is used to generate wasted power. - LordByr0n, on 06/24/2009, -2/+10At least one person has dugg you down. Why they would not want GM to start paying back the bailout is beyond me.
- CaptObvious, on 06/24/2009, -0/+7He didn't submit the article.
- kingfoot, on 06/24/2009, -2/+9had the same chevy truck since 1989, still drive it daily. almost 1K if not more miles a week gets put on it. its because people dont give a ***** about the things they buy. actually taking care of something takes more than a $7 drive through washing.
- SpeedSteamBoat, on 06/24/2009, -2/+8I don't get it. What's your point?
This is a completely different show. General Motors never even sold a single EV1. They were a part of a special leasing program. That's obviously not the case here, so what the hell are we talking about.
This is like bringing up the Pinto every time Ford brings out a new subcompact. It's just not relevant. - waaaahhh, on 06/24/2009, -3/+9how do you think they "make" the hydrogen for those cars, genius?
- Raptor007, on 06/24/2009, -1/+7Lol, oh man, I remember the hype before the Segway (codename "IT") was released. "Cities will be redesigned!" And then people actually saw the product, and its price tag. Huge letdown.
- waaaahhh, on 06/24/2009, -2/+8they want GM/america to fail, that's why
- rheaume, on 06/24/2009, -0/+6Yes, kick ass
- jcounterman, on 06/24/2009, -1/+6You do realize that hydrogen fuel cell vehicles also displace the pollution, right? Hydrogen doesn't appear from thin air (well, it does, but not without help). creating pure hydrogen involves vast amounts of electricity to part it from the oxygen atoms in the air and water. That electricity is produced from, get ready for this, the very same coal gen plants!!!
Why not skip the middleman (hydrogen "production") and go straght to electrically run vehicles? Although I don't claim to know the power consumption of hydrogen distillation vs. the operations of an electric car... - palmer, on 06/24/2009, -3/+8You can say the Tesla is "out", but it's essentially vaporware at its paltry production and ridiculous price.
The Tesla's a red herring and nothing more. Move on. - waaaahhh, on 06/24/2009, -2/+7once gas hits $4 a gallon, let me know how your math adds up
- DarkShroud, on 06/24/2009, -4/+9The EV1 was DOA. Yes this was GM's own fault but you have to look at all angles. GM either had to get fully behind it or kill it because of the production process. All the parts on the EV1 were only used on the EV1 and the things were hand assembled. The Volt does so much more right, shared frames, gas engine, etc.
- DarkShroud, on 06/24/2009, -1/+6Those coal plants are more efficient than gasoline car engines. And which party has been blocking us from moving to Nuclear energy again? Which President just closed Yuka mountain for no sane reason?
- alep85, on 06/24/2009, -0/+5I already posted this in another comment, but I feel like it needs to be heard again: I don't understand when Americans became so resentful of their own brands and heritage. Take Japan, for instance. They support their country's offerings no matter what, because they see the value in supporting a product that supports their overall economic and social well-being. To them, Toyota is a symbol of their country's manufacturing prowess. They got that concept from US after WWII, so I don't see where the United States that fostered that idea went.
- UnFriendlyFire, on 06/24/2009, -0/+5The article was subbed by, ljdmd.
- alep85, on 06/24/2009, -0/+4You're not very bright, are you? Even coal plants pollute less per 1,000,000 users than 1,000,000 vehicles on the road, on average.
- WELLDOITLIVE, on 06/24/2009, -0/+4Looks like it's your first day too. Learn how to use the reply button.
- rheaume, on 06/24/2009, -0/+4Battery recycling? Yes what about it?
Ok youre right lets keep fighting wars to keep burning oil, muuuuuch better lol - stew6789, on 06/24/2009, -0/+4Electric motors are much more efficient then internal combustion engines. Even when using electricity from a dirty coal factory CO2 emissions will be 40% of a regular internal combustion engine.
And then of course there is wind and sun. - zacharytelschow, on 06/24/2009, -0/+4Assumptions:
20,000 miles/year
Maintenance costs similar
Insurance costs similar
Gas at $6/gallon
2008 Ford Focus:
Purchase price: $12,300
30 combined mpg
$4k annual fuel costs
201* Chevy Volt:
Purchase price: $40,000 after tax credit
Uses NO GAS (assuming all trips inside of 40 miles)
$0 annual fuel costs
Break even point to close $27,700 difference assuming $0 return on almost $30,000/no difference in financing costs:
138,500 miles
6.925 years
Even with gas at $6 my math adds up, and I was very generous in assuming no gas use in the Volt, not including electricity costs for charging the Volt, that insuring a more expensive vehicle wasn't any more expensive, and rounding down my Focus combined mpg to 30 (I'm experiencing better). Perhaps you should do the math before you question mine.
And even if the vehicles made sense to purchase at an individual level, subsidizing both their purchase and production does not. - DarkShroud, on 06/24/2009, -1/+5Not sure, are fossil fuels burned to put solar panels on a roof?
- Warren803, on 06/24/2009, -2/+6Yes, because hydrogen fuel is produced magically without any pollution!
- dagamer34, on 06/24/2009, -0/+4It doesn't become revolutionary until it becomes scalable. There are plenty of technologies that exist in the real world, but if you have to pay more than a reasonable person can afford for them, then the "revolution" is gonna take a while to come to fruition.
- waydee, on 06/24/2009, -0/+4Doesn't need to be damaging - poor design causes that.
- kevinmoore, on 06/24/2009, -1/+5They never repossessed the EV1s because they owned them all along. Repossession happens when someone stops paying for a car they still own money on. The EV1s were all leased, and when the leases were up people turned them back in to GM.
- jcounterman, on 06/24/2009, -0/+4On the surface, the idea of using coal instead of gasoline might sound rediculous, but there is an inherent efficiency gain in producing electricity from coal in a centralized powerplant vs. each car producing power from gas.
I don't know what the difference is, but I'd be interested to know what the cost and environmental impact is for one unit of energy produced from a coal plant vs. a car's engine. Then you'd know if you are moving backwards or forwards. - chevyorange, on 06/24/2009, -0/+3Sounds like Microsoft.
- bryon, on 06/25/2009, -0/+3Compressing air is a very inefficient way to store energy.
- inactive, on 06/24/2009, -1/+4Maybe because it is imaginary....
- fury420, on 06/24/2009, -0/+31/10th the equivalent of the amount of fossil fuel needed to travel a set distance in your average consumer automobile, or what works out to cents per mile.
-
Show 51 - 100 of 242 discussions
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is