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- Junkey, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13Finnaly a step in the right direction.
- spootwo, on 10/12/2007, -4/+11Brought to you by the company that buried their last electric car. I'm sceptically. They don't deserve a pat on the back until they release an actual electric to market.
- IHatePants, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Here's the biggest problem with electric cars: They never sell them in markets where they are needed. As with all products, they are sold in test markets.
I live in a moderately large town, approx 150k people. They could easily sell 100 cars in our market, since most people live within "spitting distance" of town. Sure, we're not a major market for cars, but they could sell a handful here. Multiply that by all of the other decent sized towns in the USA. Just like Apple is content to have small market share and make profit off of it, these folks could market an electric car nationwide, and make a profit off those they sell it to.
The people looking to buy electric cars won't mind waiting a week or two for their car to show up. Now, for wide adoptance you will need showroom models for people to drive, but that doesn't have to come right away.
Get your foot in the door, then build on that. Don't just throw it all away because the first model didn't sell like hotcakes. GM et al have far more than sufficient reserves to put out a model as bait. - sockpuppets, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5IMHO GM needs to bet the farm on electrics and hybrids, making sure they don't have any of the stylists left over from the Pontiac Aztek division when they do it.
- catbeller, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Killinger: nonsense. the car was never for sale. it was for lease only, and they had a massive backlog of people who wanted it. the cars were confiscated and destroyed.
i didn't get this from the movie: i lived it. i watched the development of the car from the beginning, watched the deployment, watched the car companies lobby to defang the zeroemmissions law, watched them snatch and destroy every single model, day by day. that car, if you dumped the ac delco batteries and put in some good panasonics, could get 200 miles on a charge. it rarely broke down, as it had none of the crap that IC cars require to even turn over.
they lied to us. they had a car people wanted, and they didn't want to sell it. theycrushed them. then they lied about it again. good news, however: they went bankrupt after pumping out hummers. - mrn111, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Wow, GM is really desperate. A strange coincidence, I just happen to be watching Who Killed the Electric Car. After the EV1, which was all electric, zero emission, no maintenance (except for the AC), 75-150 mi range, 0-60 in 3 secs, and god ugly, why now? I guess its hard to give up our Oil Overlords.
- diggless, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I drove an EV1 and can tell you it did not go 0-60 in 3 seconds. It was very very fast but not 3 seconds to 60 fast. It drove well and was very quiet. The interior was interesting, and i didn't like it. The car was awesome.
Hopefully its not desperation and it is an awakening. If they keep stalling Toyota is going to roll over them like yesterdays garbage. They are already entering the Big 3s profit center.... the full size truck segment. If they dont reclaim some of the passenger car market its probably going to be a steady decline for all of the big 3. - FuriousGopher, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Amen. This concept might actually be a GM saver; I mean, it looks good, apparently works like a charm, and you gotta love that mileage! I would definitely take it over a Prius or any other hybrid
- diggik, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3True Resurrection or does it lose a level?
- woodenspoon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/07/gms-plug-in-hybrid-concept-the-chevy-volt/
Here's a picture... - sockpuppets, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5killinger777 watch "Who killed the electric car." That's simply not true.
- pkulak, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2They've said that this is a concept and won't be on sale until at least 2010 because the "technology needs to improve". Well, ***** GM. The technology is there already. This is just a PR stunt. If they really gave a *****, I could go to a dealership and buy one right now, or at least within the next year.
- McShaken, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2If it breaks down all the time, what's the use? They need to focus on improving long term reliability on all their vehicles... GM's long-term reliability is in the crapper... This will be a step in the right direction for GM, but ONLY if they get their quality up (and I'm not talking initial quality).....
- venicerocco, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I mean here: http://littleradioev.com/
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3With the effects of global warming now surfacing undeniably many car makers are starting to produce real alternatives.
Honda is due to start limited production of their spectacular FCX Fuel Cell car in 2008 and BMW just announced that they will launch a small series production 7series this spring. (They also started a green awareness site called http://www.clubofpioneers.com. )
I think this is going to be an exciting year for zero emission cars! - Rikkochet, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1That's a great idea, sockpuppets.
With the declining state of US automotive, their best bet on regaining ground in the 21st century would be to kick some ass in the electric arena and bring some cars to market years ahead of the Europeans and Asians... But will they? - venicerocco, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Maybe this is spam, but here's a plug for my neighbor's enterprise. The cars look lame right now, but the prototypes for 08 / 09 are awesome!
- CanceledCzech, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1By the by, itsalright2 is not talking about GM, his link is one of those ***** 9/11 things.
- maiku00, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2GM did all that they could to prevent people from wanting and owning one. They only made the car because of the CA law that was later repealed. Hell, they would not even SELL the car, only lease it. Doesnt that tell you something? Or did someone kill your brain?
GM is only amending its ways because they are going the way of dinosaur for being shady as ***** and ruining what they should have continued in the 90s. I could care less if the company goes bankrupt, because they would only be getting whats comming to them. Karma is bitch - PaulLev, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1It's a big step in the right direction, yeah - but I wouldn't take it over my Prius. Electrical driven cars have much less total road history than gasoline engines, and, as much as I love my Prius and the miles and quiet I can get without the gas guzzling, I'm glad I have a combustible engine onboard as back-up on long lonesome highways in the middle of the night.
- jtibble, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2GM second best, second to bat.
http://www.teslamotors.com - paker, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0This is from www.commutercars.com, the maker of the Tango electric car.
"In California where electricity rates are nearly $.15 per kWh, the total cost per mile for the Tango becomes roughly equal to that of the Insight. Electricity cost per mile runs from 0.9 cents to 2.6 cents as cost per kWh goes from 5 cents to 15 cents." - BurgerDST, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I'd buy this car right now. I'm waiting....
- killinger777, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2Umm, ya. That's why i posted the link...
"GM spent more than $1 billion developing the EV1 including significant sums on marketing and incentives to develop a mass market for it.
Only 800 vehicles were leased during a four-year period.
No other major automotive manufacturer is producing a pure electric vehicle for use on public roads and highways.
A waiting list of 5,000 only generated 50 people willing to follow through to a lease.
Because of low demand for the EV1, parts suppliers quit making replacement parts making future repair and safety of the vehicles difficult to nearly impossible."
1. Spend 1 Billion in research.
2. Lease 800 cars.
3. ???
4. Profit? Ehh, No. - eng69, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0They will bring it back, and then not even the hippies will buy it. It will then be big oils fault. And another ten years down the road someone will come out with a film about how big oil killed the electric car part 2.
I am curious to see the cost to operate per mile on this compared to gas. If gas suddenly spikes to $6-7 per gallon, this car would sell. - killinger777, on 10/12/2007, -7/+4They didn't bury it. No one bought it.
http://www.gm.com/company/onlygm/fastlane_Blog.html#EV1
"Even with extensive publicity, award-winning advertising and customer incentives the Electric Vehicle program was not a commercially viable business."
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