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68 Comments
- DrCrankenstein, on 06/30/2008, -3/+37VW has the best recipe yet: Diesel + Hybrid + Plug-In = Putting it all together.
- sustainablogger, on 06/30/2008, -3/+30Is it just me, or is the race on? 2010 is also the year GM's promising the Volt...
- rsHoratio, on 06/30/2008, -2/+18Great! only 2 more years and then I can drive around again! yay!
- videoclipsmiami, on 06/30/2008, -4/+19It's about time!
- JasonCox, on 06/30/2008, -5/+17So let me get this straight, it takes GM 10 years to develop the technology and no everyone else is going to do it in 2?
- ColonelTribune, on 06/30/2008, -1/+11Oh, it's on.
- r00fus, on 06/30/2008, -2/+10Charge on off-peak hours.
Soon those will become not-so-off-peak, and rates will rise.
But it'll sure as hell beat $6/gallon gas. - inactive, on 06/30/2008, -2/+10If this becomes the main method of car usage, how are our electricity grids going to handle all this??
- Fratz, on 06/30/2008, -0/+8Pretty much everyone is threatening to come out with an all-electric or plugin hybrid car by 2010. My guess is that after the first big announcement, everyone else decided they had to have something similar by the same year or lose major sales.
- Fratz, on 06/30/2008, -1/+9Gas prices already made SUVs lose equity in the form of decreased purchasing demand, which caused prices on new and traded-in SUVs to drop. I don't see that equity coming back anytime soon.
- umdigger, on 06/30/2008, -3/+11EV1 was made over a decade ago. It is a good example of corporate murder.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_EV1 - krnldmp, on 06/30/2008, -2/+9Distributed supply. Cover your roof in photovoltaic panels.
- ATLien74, on 06/30/2008, -0/+7I agree. That little diesel engine is rock solid and very efficient. Make a hybrid plug in with that and now your talking!
- digid, on 06/30/2008, -1/+8So what's your solution? You can leave your cynicism all over this board but in the end your contribution is worth nothing.
- inactive, on 06/30/2008, -2/+92010 does seem to be the year everyone has picked. It simply cannot get here fast enough.
- fahrvergnuugen, on 07/01/2008, -1/+7VW has been toying with electric cars for nearly 20 years (starting with the MK2 Golf).
Here's a better article with a little history:
http://www.vwvortex.com/artman/publish/article_234 ... - pbone, on 06/30/2008, -3/+9awesome. i love VW. proud owner of a gti.
- opnickc, on 07/01/2008, -0/+5Currently, more energy is used by the grid during the day than at night. It's safe to assume that most people will charge their cars at night, when the grid is under less load anyway. Therefore, the grid should be able to handle at least some of the new load without issue.
- HairyGrapeNuts, on 06/30/2008, -3/+8VEEEEE DUUUBBBB
- oveedrx, on 06/30/2008, -1/+5People will notice their electricity bill is going up and stop using anything else but the plugin.
/sarcasm
good point, hopefully power company's will see the switch to electricity and prepare for extra output - SpoonDigg, on 06/30/2008, -0/+4*****-a, bro.. so am i.. got a 08 gti it's fast and has good miliage...
- Twee, on 07/01/2008, -0/+4Well, it only gets 31 miles off of the battery. Also, notice how the headline says TEST FLEET. It doesn't mean its going to be something for the masses to actually purchase. I hate this ***** with the auto companies making electric cars that you can only least but never purchase. They aren't that ***** expensive to produce, the technology has been around for at least 15-20 years. Using lithium-ion batteries alone and mass producing the vehicles would make the price much more reasonable than the $100,000 for the tesla roadster -- I'm guessing around maybe $50,000 at most.
- ngmcs8203, on 06/30/2008, -0/+4By the time it does we'll all be too poor to afford the cars. At $6/gallon we'll be paying roughly $80-$160 per tank. I don't know if the economy can handle 2years of that.
- ColonelTribune, on 06/30/2008, -3/+6Everyone's going to the plug-in stuff now.
- kalvinb, on 06/30/2008, -0/+3All companies are in a race for the first plug in all electic car.
The economics of trading in your typically upside down car loan for a car that gets 24mpg isn't really worth it just to get closer to 40mpg.
However, if it suddenly cost all of $5 to "fill your tank" it'd be worth it in some cases to suck up the few thousand you're upside down just to save money on gas. If I could save $400 on gas a month going all electic then I wouldn't care if I was $4000 - $5000 upside down on my current loan. It'd pay for itself in a year and the gas savings over the life of the new loan would pay for most of the car.
There will probably be other factors like companies trying to lease batteries or the cost of replacing the batteries, etc. But, on the surface it looks like 2010 is going to bring a huge shift in what people drive. - FTWmovin2canada, on 06/30/2008, -1/+4It's been picking up speed in the last 6 months, looks like 2010 - 2012 will see a lot of new production car options.
- rocketman42, on 07/01/2008, -1/+4Maybe you should try, I don't know, reading it?
"Volkwagen says it will have a test-fleet of twenty Twin-Drive Golf’s on the road in 2010, but there is still no news on plans to ramp-up commercial production."
So everyone here thinking they'll buy this in 2010 can stop dreaming. - JohnStack, on 07/01/2008, -0/+3What they really need to do is bring back the Westphalia and make it a hybrid!!!
- granolajoe, on 06/30/2008, -1/+4Didn't Toyota also project that same date for electric vehicles of their own?
- rocketman42, on 07/01/2008, -0/+3Yes, everyone here can't read. Surprised? As for the cost, I've been somewhat following the Volt, and Lutz recently said it will initially cost GM about 40k to build one. That is projected to get 40 miles off the batteries. If you want a full EV (no hybrid), I'm guessing another 10k might get you to about 100 miles off the batteries. At least for a four-seater like the Volt. A smaller two seater should be less.
- jd72277, on 06/30/2008, -0/+3"suicidal" might be a stretch. In reality you would just have a car that doesn't always work.
- mscalisi, on 06/30/2008, -1/+4What? Are you serious?
Firstly, no matter how economically you drive, the same driving will yield DRAMATICALLY higher milage with a hybrid. The information is out there. In the real world, nothing even comes close to touching a Prius without being tiny and or diesel.
Second of all, the Prius isn't a race car. Any car will get poor gas milage when pushed to the limits. The test you cite is really pointless unless you plan on racing in a Prius AND need to get the best milage possible at the same time....which pretty much applies to NO ONE. - yensed, on 06/30/2008, -0/+3And a law requiring all guns to shoot Daisies and Potpourri as ammo.
- dafunkmonster, on 06/30/2008, -0/+2Your existence scares the ***** out of me...for the sake of the human race.
- ngmcs8203, on 06/30/2008, -1/+3I don't know about you, but when I married my wife, I also married the headache that is a early 2000 series Jetta. And I can tell you this, we were most proud when we convinced someone to buy that junker off of us.
- inactive, on 07/01/2008, -1/+3who killed the electric car anyway?
- haikuFU, on 06/30/2008, -1/+3I want my Mr. Fusion. Or at least a Mr. Fission. With the research that's being done with pebble bed reactors, it should be possible to make a relatively (no pun intended) safe one at least for home use. It's probably a bad idea to have them speeding down the highway crashing into things though.
- gafm, on 07/01/2008, -0/+2LOL! I also want a $300 million pebble bed fusion car! 1.2 GigaWatts!
On a side note, you could park your car at home and lit your whole city. - jonborthwick, on 07/01/2008, -0/+2dugg for the vortex!
- Brian48216, on 06/30/2008, -0/+2Does anyone know if they will be out in the 2010 model year meaning they'll be out late 2009? Or will they be out in 2010 as the 2011 model year?
- krnldmp, on 06/30/2008, -2/+4Now solar electric production has to match the demand to maintain the latchup condition that will force fossil fuels into ever decreasing profit. If it can not achieve this the fossil fuel industry will drop the bottom out of alternative power by dropping prices just at the right time like it has in the past. The money they are making now is going to be used in order to pull it off without putting any pain on themselves.
- jchrome, on 07/01/2008, -0/+2My 2003 GLI has been flawless... *knocks on wood* Then again, it's the manual v6, so may not be indicative of others experience (clearly). There's quite a few different models with different configurations/engines.
- inactive, on 07/01/2008, -0/+2These car companies that are planning these drawn out transitions to hybrids will find themselves behind the times then, too. Unless they're going to be hybrid with non-petroleum based fuel.
- GuJu, on 06/30/2008, -2/+4I love VW
i just got my first car and 2002 VW Passat last Monday.
good car. - inactive, on 07/01/2008, -1/+2Nice, VW is one of my favorite car companies, they should make a good hybrid
- sodade, on 07/01/2008, -0/+1God help you friend. Maintenance on my 2003 Passat is the most silly spendy car to maintain that I have owned.
- stonewall123, on 07/01/2008, -1/+2Not sure where you get your idea that they get 'terrible highway mileage' but I do alot of highway driving and at the posted speed limit my Prius routinely gets 52-55 mpg from Baltimore to New York. Your statement s just plain false.
- stonewall123, on 07/01/2008, -0/+1My VW also had fuse box problems. Seems to be a frequent complaint.
- redfred18t, on 07/01/2008, -0/+1I love volkswagens but they are notorious for electrical issues. Luckily the extent of my 01's electrical issues is just a finnicky window switch but still, I've heard and seen some horror stories.
Hopefully this is reliable. -
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