-
Website
http://venturebeat.com/ -
Original page
http://green.venturebeat.com/2009/10/13/chevy-volt-poised-to-resuscitate-dying-automotive-town-flint-mich/ -
Subscribe
All Comments -
Community
-
-
Top Commenters
-
Popular Threads
Is there a market?
10,000 cars by GM alone.
The cars can be running ecologically, but producing electricity is not in many cases and disposing the batteries afterward is not ecological.
One battery change $21,000 Total $74,000 + interest = 75 cents per mile.
Same size car with gas engine: good preformance. Range 400 mi.Cost $23,000 30 MPG 100,000mi Fuel cost $10,000
Total: $33,000 + interest = 34 cents per mile.
Now I ask you, Who would be willing to pay 40 cents per mile more even if the range and preformance were equal?
How about using Volt only for 20-40 miles commute 5 days a week to the office? In this case you won't spend on gas at all, just 2c per mile for the battery charge.
$21K for the battery change? How about an option to lease the battery for, say, $100 per month?
And what mostly is pissing me off after I spent $1.5K to replace a broken transmission on my Mercedes - there is no stupid transmission in Volt! Either quarterly oil/fluid/gasket/whatever changes.
It's going to be simple like a bike - the battery (becoming cheaper with the technologies improvement), the electrical engine (which is as simple as one in your vacuum cleaner), the computer (when last time did your laptop brake?), and 1 liter generator that will run occasionally when you drive out of the city on the week-end.