Chevy Volt: 1 Year Later?

[Newport Red]

GM temporarily halts production.

http://thehill.com/blogs/transportat...-of-chevy-volt

[texasdave]

General Motors has temporarily suspended production of its Volt electric car, the company announced Friday.GM, which is based in Detroit, announced to employees at one of its facilities that it was halting production of the beleaguered electric car for five weeks and temporarily laying off 1,300 employees. The laid-off employees will be rehired April 23rd, when GM resumes production of the Volt.

[RBA]

Buoyed by record monthly sales of its Chevy Volt hybrid electric plug-in car in March, General Motors will resume production of the Volt at the Detroit Hamtramck plant one week early, the United Auto Workers told TPM on Tuesday night.

“They’re adding a week of production back in,” said Don LaForest, the chairman of the UAW’s bargaining committee at the Detroit Hamtramck plant, where the Volt is manufactured, in a phone interview.

http://idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com...ref=fpnewsfeed

[jojo]

A symbol of conservative hate?

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...prmid=obinsite

This is the car that all right-thinking right-wingers demand we hate. In their political prism, the Volt has everything going against it: It's beloved by environmentalists for getting 61 miles to the gallon. It's assembled by unionized workers at General Motors' Detroit-Hamtramck plant. It enjoys government subsidies intended to encourage the production of fuel-efficient cars (started actually by H.W.'s oldest son, former President George W. Bush).

[Yachtzee]

Originally Posted by jojo

A symbol of conservative hate?

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...prmid=obinsite

I don't get why conservatives should hate the Volt because it gets good gas mileage or is made at a US facility. Most conservatives I know, not TV gasbags but actual people who hold conservative values based on personal conviction rather than following what someone on TV or the radio says, prefer to buy American and like the idea of good gas mileage because they live frugally. I'd say the conservative argument against the Volt would be that it is too expensive to buy and maintain to justify the fuel savings from a cost-benefit perspective.

[improbus]

Originally Posted by dougdirt

There are several other issues keeping us from getting only electric cars anytime soon:

People like me who travel long distances, but don't fly. Electric cars aren't going to be making 10+ hour drives anytime soon.

Sports cars. The technology simply isn't there to make it feasible to match the power of a gas powered car for anything close to an acceptable price.

Part of the point of electric cars is to preserve gasoline so that we can enjoy our sports cars running on gas for years to come.

I think the fundamental issue is that we are trying to shoehorn electric cars into our preconceived notion of a what a car currently is. We need to think of electric cars differently. They are going to be commute machines, nothing more, nothing less. They are the laptops/tablet pcs of cars. Now, that doesn't mean that we need to ditch our desktop computers (gasoline cars), but each car will have it's specific use. Gas won't be going away anytime soon, it is too useful and to entrenched in our daily society, but that doesn't mean that electric cars don't have a role to play.

Also, Everything I've heard actually point to Hydrogen fuel cells being a more workable alternative.

[Slyder]

Originally Posted by Yachtzee

I don't get why conservatives should hate the Volt because it gets good gas mileage or is made at a US facility.

Me personally is that it just not efficient/effective enough for the average consumer to take advantage of and until there is something that is that market will not grow. The hybrid/electric car has a small niche right now and we chasing that niche with a ton of $ and we're broke.

Originally Posted by Yachtzee

Most conservatives I know, not TV gasbags but actual people who hold conservative values based on personal conviction rather than following what someone on TV or the radio says, prefer to buy American and like the idea of good gas mileage because they live frugally.

I don't have the link but someone posted that for an electric car to make the money back (in price) took something like 7 years or 180,000 miles. Someone feel free to post if they see it or something that goes against it because its been like a year since I've seen it.

That doesn't even include if something breaks on it. If something electrical breaks with the electric engine you are going to have to pay an arm and a leg to get it fixed because the only one's with the capability to fix it are the dealerships and they know it.

Originally Posted by Yachtzee

I'd say the conservative argument against the Volt would be that it is too expensive to buy and maintain to justify the fuel savings from a cost-benefit perspective.

See above

[jojo]

Originally Posted by Slyder

Me personally is that it just not efficient/effective enough for the average consumer to take advantage of and until there is something that is that market will not grow. The hybrid/electric car has a small niche right now and we chasing that niche with a ton of $ and we're broke.



I don't have the link but someone posted that for an electric car to make the money back (in price) took something like 7 years or 180,000 miles. Someone feel free to post if they see it or something that goes against it because its been like a year since I've seen it.

That doesn't even include if something breaks on it. If something electrical breaks with the electric engine you are going to have to pay an arm and a leg to get it fixed because the only one's with the capability to fix it are the dealerships and they know it.



See above

Does the calculus change with $4+ gallon gas?

[Slyder]

Originally Posted by jojo

Does the calculus change with $4+ gallon gas?

Thats why I said its been a while since I've seen the numbers. But you're looking at anywhere from $10-25k difference in automobiles for similar size and features between gas cars and the hybrid/electric cars.

[JaxRed]

Since someone bumped the thread.... 4800 totally gasoline free miles so far.....

[oneupper]

Originally Posted by JaxRed

Since someone bumped the thread.... 4800 totally gasoline free miles so far.....

What does your power bill look like?

[Spazzrico]

Originally Posted by JaxRed

Since someone bumped the thread.... 4800 totally gasoline free miles so far.....

It makes me salivate.

[durl]

Originally Posted by oneupper

What does your power bill look like?

I would also like to know the answer to this question. It still costs money to make the car go.

[RedsManRick]

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q...6x8zIjNPT5JiQQ

[durl]

Originally Posted by RedsManRick

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q...6x8zIjNPT5JiQQ

How would the rising cost of electricity affect this graph? If fossil-fuel plants continue to disappear (as planned) and more power is supplied by renewable plants, the costs are going to inevitably rise quite steeply.