Recent Comments:
GM dropping Volt's range from 600 to 360 miles {Engadget}
Jul 9th 2008 12:46PM THis article would have been news 4 months ago, when the decision was made to only use one of the two small 6 gallon gas tanks. The reason was obvious to those who understand the Volt, not to those around here, apparently. Sour gasoline. It's quite probable that many Volt drivers will NEVER use 12 gallons of gasoline before it goes sour (I estimate it would require 18 months for me to use 12 gallons driving a Volt). The
new tank system holds wnough for 360 miles of gas powered driving after the 40 miles of battery powered juice runs out.
General Motors (GM): Electro-Shock Therapy {BloggingStocks}
Jul 2nd 2008 5:34PM The Chevy Volt is defined by GM as an electric car with a range extender, in this case a small gas or ethanol powered engine. The claim that it's being rushed to market without the normal evaluation is totally absurd. Evaluation is a function of the amount of testing performed, not simply calendar time, which has no significance, per se. In the case of the Volt, there are far more engineers testing this vehicle than any that GM has ever built. Rainey has penned some articles that make me doubt his competence to have an opinion about this technology. Calling this a moon shot is rather
silly - the only unknown here was the behavior and lifespan of the battery pack and we now know that BOTH of the candidate battery packs have passed all tests with flying colors. It obviously coming down mostly to a matter of costs as to which company wins the contract. As for Chapter 11, I feel that this is long overdue for the automakers. It's become abundently clear that the unions have destroyed the market share over the past 40 years and , despite accounting for only a small portion of the work these days, are still fixing labor rates and are as non-competitive as ever.
GM needs to go bankrupot and shed the union albatross on their shoulders. Of course, the unionized media won't report it that way.
Tesla's Elon Musk promises sub-$30k all-electric car in less than four years {Engadget}
Jul 1st 2008 10:54AM If Musk makes any more wild assed promises, someone please put a bullet in his thick skull. Talk about an unreliable, incompetent company. What happened to the first sedan they promised? Then they promised a copy of the Chevy Volt serial hybrid. Then they sued Fisker, claiming that Tesla was, more or less, totally incompetent at even hiring auto
designer. Now they are being sued by Fisker , they are years behind in their delivery of a pretty simple sports car, yet are now announcing another example of what only the most gullible would claim not to be pure vaporware. Why doesn't this company simply fold up ther tents and admit that they are nothing more than amateur automakers who have to hire outside to do EVERYTHING, from designing their cars to telling them how to meet Federal regulations?
A $30K Tesla is the utmost in utter nonsense. I notice he said
4 years, which is long after most estimates of when Tesla will have to declare Chapter 11.
The battery pack for their existing vehicle weighs almost that much, it used commercially mass produced cells (8671 of them!!!) which are actually rising in price, not dropping, and they have no connection with any third geenration li ion technology, being stuck with 1st generation crap, yet are claiming a car whose total cost is less than the cost of its battery pack. Tesla is getting to be a humorous subject for the electric propulsion crowd these days. It's run exactly the way you would expect a car company would be, if the execs came from disciplines far removed from automaking. It seems to be operated with a gullible Hollywood public in mind, who have more money than brains, or talent.
Subaru features STELLA electric car at G8 Hokkaido Toyako Summit {Engadget}
Jun 29th 2008 11:09AM A 50 mile driving range equals a driving radius of less than 25 miles. Is this car some sort of joke that Suburu is playing? Do these people
realize the utter stupidity of a car that can only get to destinations within a 25 mile radius? My golf cart can go further than this car.
Dyson looking to motor into the electric car arena? {Engadget}
Jun 25th 2008 10:48AM When someone claims they can improve an electric car andoesn't sayy anything about better batteries, they are one of two things; a total fraud, or a total idiot. I wonder which one Dyson is?
Would you give up your electric car's radio for longer range? {Green Daily}
Jun 13th 2008 5:03PM Do you realize just how little electricity a stereo consumes? A heat pump running to cool or heat the car will use electricity that can be measured - a radio cannot. I guess the first thing this younger generation will have to learn is exactly what electricity is.
Argonne Lab tests EnerDel-equipped plug-in Prius {Autoblog Green}
Apr 26th 2008 11:27AM When will those fools quit using a city loop test to estimate the mileage gains from a plug-in? They are absurdly invalid and irrelevant. Tell us the electric driving range off a single charge and the MPG of the car when the grid electricity is gone. That fully and accurately characterizes the mileage of a PHEV. Nothing else does.
Spy Shots: Chevy Volt caught testing for the first time {Autoblog}
Apr 17th 2008 10:17AM The two suppliers competing for the contract are not A123 Systems and Continental AG - they form one of the two teams. Continental AG, as we all know, does not build batteries. The other is LG Chem. Apparently autoblog is not keeping up with the Volt development, so any comments by them about vaporware are, well, vaporous. Go elsewhere is you want to actually know what's going on, like the website www.gm-volt.com, run a by a New Jersey neurologist.
That Malibu didn't start testing the systems as of yesterday ,as claimed. It has been testing for SIX MONTHS, something else that autoblog obviously is ignorant about.
I would warn anyone taking anything written on this auto blog about the Volt - don't take it seriously - it's highly likely to be incorrect.
Charge! GM gives update on Volt development, describes interior {Autoblog}
Apr 7th 2008 10:52AM The Volt during commuting can easily be shown to produce an average of 284 MPG across all drivers (and that's without any workplace recharging!) Any estimate of 150 MPG is absurdly low. And since GM is reporting 44 miels of range,that would provide 350 MPG during commuting.
The only obstacle to the Volt at this point is the EEStor
supercapacitor. If that works, as everyone by now thinks it will, the Volt will transform into an all electric - no range extender needed.
If you want news on the Volt, only www.gm-volt.com (run by a New Jersey neurologist) is the place to go.
CARB backs off a bit on ZEV Mandate, orders 66k PHEVs sold by 2014 {Autoblog}
Mar 31st 2008 2:09PM It's funny watching Californians and their CARB pretend like they can actually alter the behavior of their citizens by making some pointless and uninforceable rules. California can't even manage to throw multiple murderers like OJ into the clink, but imagine that they can force their people to buy a particular kind of product. Regardless,
even it they did have the power they pretend to have (anyone can challenge California's attempt to regulate interstate commerce, which are expressly forbidden by
the Constitution - California would have no case - last week appeals courts throw out a state's self imposed requirement for a product in a hearbeat). california continues to play these little political drams, pretendeding tht they are helping the atmosphere, when, in fact the
only effect they've ever had was disastrous - they stopped nuclear plant construction years ago and now
pollute to the tune of 650 pounds of carbon (and a lot of other, worse pollutants) per megawatthour when they generate electricity, while nuclear rich Vermont produces practically nothing - 5 pounds per megawatthour, or 70 times less pollutants. California continues to live in their dream world and are right at home with Hollywood fantasies. Californians should secede from the union, and take their foul smelling air with them.
