LexFather

I agree, this is a great vehicle and gives people another option. A lot of people don't have large commutes to work.

We should applaud ANY EFFORT to make alternative energy vehicles.

spwolf

ehm, thats just silly...

How can it be more revoultionary than car that will be produced in 500,000 examples per year in 2010? While Volt will have production of 30,000?

If GM was serious, they would make an family car that uses the same technology and sell it in millions, with price in mid*20's.... wait, thats what Toyota is doing

:-)

Difference between Volt and LF-A is that GM has been advertising Volt on TV for at least 3 years before it will be introduced. Most of their PR's are about an car, that will be 0.3% of their global vehicle output.

Compare that to Toyota which will produce 11.7% hybrids out of their global lineup, by 2010.

0.35% vs 11.8%

carguy101

It's a commute-to-work car. One person drives to work. Back seat is not much of a concern when there is one person in the car. Simple enough?

To me, a car that can get someone back and forth from work with zero dependence on oil (Volt) is more revolutionary than a high mpg vehicle (Prius). If your definition of "revolutionary" is based on number of units produced per year, then that's your problem.

carguy101

GM could bring out a car that gets 300 mpg. It'll still get picked on by the Toyo zealots because it doesn't have, God forbid, as much knee room as the Prius.

Allen K

iTrader: (4)

Didn't the EV1 get something like 120 miles/charge?

SLegacy99

I personally hold a grudge against them for things like: buying the trolley companies in the 50s and then closing them so that they could sell more cars. Or selling the advanced battery patent to Chevron. They manipulate the market for their own gain. It's not right.

To top it off the last two GM cars we had in my family have been crappy. Our Century lasted 2000 miles and our Aurora 70000 miles. Pretty weak.

I'm even more mistified why its taking so long for the Volt to get here when they had the EV1 in '98.


I'd rather have a Prius that has proven itself worthy.

Overclocker

Apples to oranges. Nobody, other than GM, currently has plans to mass produce an electric car with a gas engine as the backup/secondary power supply. Heck, GM is embracing lithium ion batteries in their first gen even before Toyota will with their third gen Prius. A move that I hope won't bite them in the butt like overheating laptop batteries have in the past for most of the big laptop makers.

As noted by other mods, lets try and keep this thread from going down hill. I'm not directing this at you spwolf, your posts are constructive criticism. I just happened to use this post to mention it for everybody.

5gears-IS

iTrader: (5)

"It's a basic commuter vehicle that should be very cheap to operate".

Dont go so fast! You have to plug this thing to charge it before it can go 40 miles.....and again after another 40 miles.......that energy is not free!
God knows how much your electric bill will spike plugging this thing.............which by the way defeats the purpose of not using gas.....you know where electric comes from right?

Best deal will be solar power which is free, but then again you need to use energy to build the solar panels.......oh man....this is a no win situation!

I do love the looks of the Volt and GM's efforts!

SLegacy99

Electricity is cheaper than gasoline, by 10 cents per miles according to GM calculations.

I suppose this would be the ideal vehicle for my parents as they live a few miles from a Nuclear power plant producing clean energy (minus the toxic waste) and its dirt cheap.

leedogg

for once I agree with you.

nn432100

Apparently according to congress the haterade is warranted cause they dont want to give the 25 billion dollar loan to the big three.

I personally think that the big three wont be around in 10-20 years. who knows maybe tesla becomes a huge dominate player in a few years.

SLegacy99

So what happens in 20 years when the oil companies are hurting. Do they get bailed out by the government so that they could invest in alternatives even though they are incredibly profitable right now?

The big 3 should have known that the glory and profits of selling big, fuel inefficient vehicles wouldn't last as evident by the oil crisis of the 70s.

spwolf

well I am commenting how it is revolutionary - not really.
They are making low production vehicle basically for PR.

They should have made it an family car, because thats what revolution means. Car for the masses. Thats not GS450h, or LS600h. It is prius like car.

This will be car for selected few who will end up paying 20k premium for Yaris sized vehicle and think of them selves as enviromentalists because they are burning coal instead of oil.

I am all for it though - because it brings out competition. I just hope it wont give negative branding to electric vehicles and hybrids because people will discover that it has many negative sides in practical use. How many times will it be repeated that paying 20k extra makes no sense because you will never ever be able to save the cost? How many people will be dissapointed to find out that 40mpg is apsolute maximum and that during hot/cold days and rush hour traffic your car will get half of that?

Hybrids got positive branding from Prius which is not only economical, but also very reliable vehicle that can be used as an family car.

I am just hoping that Volt does not ruin that positive image, and that it will bring out competition that will lower the cost.

Again, problem is that this is very low production vehicle. At 30,000 per year in 2011, it really wont change anything.

What will change things is Honda's new hybrid with 200,000 cars per year, and Toyota's 1,000,000 million hybrids (that means batteries) per year in 2010.

toy4two

where will the VOLT be manufacturered? I am guessing Mexico?

carguy101

Give the Volt some time.

Toyota launched the Prius in 1997 in Japan. It took 6 years and a complete redesign for the Prius line to gain general acceptance and some serious sales.

The Prius sold only 15,000 units in its first full year in the US (2001).