An excellent article can be found here, in the Wall Street Journal about how gas pricing can affect the Volt. We know of course that low prices cannot possibly last as demand is likely at a tipping point for outstripping production.
Archive for January, 2007
There is information on the web indicating that the battery for the Volt doesnt actually exist? Is the car hollow? We can see video of the car travelling on YouTube, is this a mock-up?
Questions which need answering.
Another quote from Bob Lutz is that the car will be ready for production hopelly by 2010; thats 3 years for those who are counting!
OK Heres the rundown.
Total US CO2 annual emissions: 6 billion metric tons
Electric Generation: 2 billion tons
Commercial Transport: 1.7 billion tons
Reidential Use: 1 billion tons
Commercial Use: 1 billion tons
Residental Autos: 0 .3 billion tons
These data raise two problems:
1. If everyone in U.S. changed to drive a Volt, the 0.3 billion tons might just be shifted into the electricity generation category and result in no net drop in CO2 output.
2. Even if the Volt did cut net CO2 emissions, it would have no overall effect on total U.S. CO2 output, becasue of the small contributin of residential auto use.
This means we must convince GM and the other automakers to use this tehcnology in commercial vehicles, and we must switch to alternative energy generation sources. I like wind-powered electrolysis to generate hydrogen best.
on GM’s blog we hear Bob Lutz make the following statement:
“I really believe that, once lithium ion batteries become truly viable, vehicles like Volt with our E-Flex technology will be the future.”
Key word here is “viable“. Does he mean technically or financially, we seem to believe its the latter.
I found a nice post about the Dept of Energies concerns and beliefs about the ability of the grid to handle electric cars.
Check it out here:
One hypothesis is that widespread use and adoption of this vehicle will lead to a decrease in CO2 emission and help the global warming problem. This could occur from a decrease in the use of gasoline assuming the assumption that most drives are less than 40 miles.
The next step in this theory is to determine how much greenhouse gas would be released by power plants that are supplying to the grid the electricity that are charging the Volt’s batteries. This factor will depend on how the power plant generates its energy. Most in the U.S. use natural gas, and coal, less common are nuclear and hydroelectric. I will try to calculate the net effect on CO2 emissions, if say 25% of the population uses this car (or similar). Any ideas on values for this calculation are appreciated.
