Here is a video from Rocketboom, including Bob Boniface, E-Flex design director and Frank Weber, E-Flex vehicle line executive, coming out of Boston:
The last interviewer will be taking over this blog beginning tomorrow.
[flash http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiKIG0HphIs]
Thanks to Lucas for the tip.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 17th, 2007 at 6:44 pm and is filed under Video. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Oct 17th, 2007 (7:04 pm)What was she on!?
Oct 17th, 2007 (7:14 pm)Who the hell was that crazy woman? Why did you let her rant on like that?
Oct 17th, 2007 (7:49 pm)Not only was that woman crazy, she sounded like her tongue was missing.
Nice video on the whole though. Social media, except face to face.
Oct 17th, 2007 (7:49 pm)They did answer all of her questions, and answered them well; these folks clearly know how to deal with the public. If only our politicians would do the same — and, as an added bonus, also learn how to behave in public…
Oct 17th, 2007 (8:19 pm)Wow… an EV heckler. Next time I’d suggest BigOil hire a trained performer instead of a homeless person.
Oct 17th, 2007 (8:41 pm)If anyone who also speaks “Northern drawl” can help translate what that woman was on about, feel free, but here’s what I could make out of her points:
1) “It’s gownna cost mo’”.
-So do leather seats, 24 inch rims, starbucks coffee, and premium gasoline. But that doesn’t stop people from squandering their money on them.
2) “So da cowst of gasoline is going to go down?!…who’s he foolin’!”
With competition from gasoline, eventually, it might. In which case plug-ins will be even cheaper to run in combustion mode. Win-win situation.
3) “Electricity cowsts a lotta money!”
There’s bargeloads of sources for it just on earth alone (tidal, hydroelectric, biomass, etc), which equals more competition between power companies, and lower prices for the consumer. Not to mention the huge amounts of energy that the sun vomits onto earth everyday. Where do you think all the energy in gasoline, uranium, and plant matter came from originally?
Oct 17th, 2007 (8:50 pm)So that woman is taking over this blog tomorrow? This blog’s gonna’ cost more money…..
Oct 17th, 2007 (9:20 pm)Typo: meant to say “with competition from electricity”, which means competition from many different companies and energy sources.
Oct 17th, 2007 (9:22 pm)Good to see that GM is not wasting shareholder money providing unnecessary security details for their line executives.
The crazy woman’s questions were surprisingly relevant, btw.
Oct 17th, 2007 (9:24 pm)And to think, people like this are driving on the same roads as you…
I can only hope the Volt will be equipped with 10 airbags.
Oct 17th, 2007 (9:35 pm)“The crazy woman’s questions were surprisingly relevant, btw.”
Relevant, but very easily answered.
In a way it’s really good they let her go on, because it allowed them to publicly dispel a lot of popular misconceptions.
Oct 17th, 2007 (11:31 pm)Sounded more like to me that she was a German citizen, and spoke halfway decent English!
She kinda rushed that camera when she saw it… but did ask relevant questions. I think GM will have to make some kind of commercials like that to answer some basic questions… maybe a spot for each major question so they can define E-Flex to the consuming public.
We already know they’re going to sell a ton to the niche market like us, but for it to be very successful overall, it has to be accepted by the masses!
Oct 17th, 2007 (11:33 pm)Oops… didn’t get to the last few moments before the hag said her name… yep, sounds like some dumb northeastern person.
Oct 17th, 2007 (11:42 pm)What a waste of an interview! Should have given that lady some spare change and maybe she would have left.
Oct 17th, 2007 (11:53 pm)#12 (Matt)… you are obviously being sarcastic trying to call Northeasterners “dumb”… I’m a Northeasterner myself, and it’s no surprise that the best schools are in the Northeast… even George W. Bush was educated up here (ok, bad example
Personally I think the crazy woman was a shill, but she could easily just be a tourist from anywhere as they said they were in Faniel Hall, a big tourist site on the Freedom Trail.
You also gotta love the spin the GM guy gave saying the reason we haven’t seen a series hybrid EV before now was that batteries weren’t up to the task… that as we know is bull, they were ready in the 1990′s with advanced NiMH used in the EV1 and Rav4-EV (the technology GM sold to Chevron which of course they sat on refusing to license it as it competed against oil). Remember that EV’s existed before the ICE, and early EV’s from 100 years ago could go 40 miles on a charge.
In any case, by gones are by gones, GM and others have seen the light (peak oil and ever rising demand for oil sending prices skyward) and know that to be able to sell vehicles in the future, the consumer is going to have to be able to afford the fuel source.
Oct 18th, 2007 (12:20 am)Wow, that woman must have been drunk.
Oct 18th, 2007 (12:25 am)[quote comment="11275"]they were ready in the 1990′s with advanced NiMH used in the EV1 and Rav4-EV[/quote]
Even if that were right, that means that the batteries are twice as good now.
Oct 18th, 2007 (8:30 am)I can’t see the video. What program do I need.
Oct 18th, 2007 (8:36 am)From her speech patterns, manerisms and reactions (almost identical to a neighbor of mine), I’m guessing that the woman may have a genetic disorder.
Oct 18th, 2007 (9:10 am)Separate interview areas are setup at events so obnoxious drunks, and special interest zealots cannot interfere. Although it is painful to watch, we can learn something from the fools as they ask questions that the sound of mind would not.
I’m trying to look at the bright side…
Oct 18th, 2007 (9:39 am)The woman just proves that the human race is doomed!!! I am ashamed to be the same species as here. Amazing how stupid people can be. She votes you know and her vote counts just as much as yours. Scary… I know.
Why did they put that online???
I think they handled it pretty well except for pointing out directly to the woman that electricity is much much cheaper than gasoline.
But I hate it when they say “battery technology wasn’t ready years ago.” Think about it. This car will be a heavy car. When it runs on gasoline generated electricity it will get about 50 mpg.
So Let me get this straight. If I buy this car and NEVER EVER charge the battery, I will get 50 miles per gallon. So basically I am using a serial hybrid without the benefit of ANY batteries since they will never be charged enough for me to use and I get 50 miles per gallon. hmmm.. do away with most of the heavy battery and I would get even MORE miles per gallon. hmmmmm… I think we had the technology to do this 30 years ago or more.
Let see put in ONE twelve volt battery and get the first 1 foot on all electric then switch over to the ICE generator and get over 50 miles to the gallon. The one foot range can be extended as battery technology improves.
Don’t misunderstand. I am not saying remove the battery. Just the volt could have been made without a big battery years ago and even though it wouldn’t be as good as the Volt will be with the li battery it would still have gotten 50+ miles to the gallon. 50 mpg is pretty good.
Oct 18th, 2007 (9:41 am)Need edit feature!
correction: here should have been her and I wish they had done a BETTER job of pointing out that electricity is cheaper than gasoline.
Oct 18th, 2007 (9:46 am)The crazy lady was so staged.
Oct 18th, 2007 (10:30 am)#21 (omegaman)… you’d still get some use of the battery even if you never plug it in…
* the Volt will bring the generator online when the battery is down to less than 30% capacity and will stay on until the battery is 90% (I’m not sure of this number) charged as even while driving most of the time the generator will produce more than you are using. Ie. it’s a load balancer of sorts.
* regenerative braking (using the drive motor as a generator instead of friction brakes) will also use the battery to recoup some of the energy.
Oct 18th, 2007 (10:32 am)I think the interviewer handled her fairly well.
Her outburst does however point out some facts that many people are still ignorant on. Perhaps more education is needed on general facts such as how much energy is used versus wasted in a gas powered car, a hybrid, and a pure electric car is needed. Also, (and this is SOOOO badly needed) more education on how electricity can be generated from renewable (free) sources whereas gas and oil cannot (unless you want to wait around a few million years).
One a side note… the VOLT is in South Florida this weekend and I will see it Sat. the 20th. If you hear any news that the prototype somehow vanished then it just may be in my garage.
Oct 18th, 2007 (10:42 am)by the way, regarding the “sun roof” on the concept Volt… as already indicated elsehwere on this site, that most likely won’t be in the production real world version…
… it’s very energy inefficient as it will over tax the air conditioner (sun roof obviously lets the sun in which heats) and hence require more power from the batteries to cool, and hence decrease the range.
Oct 18th, 2007 (12:26 pm)re:the glass roof, I think a very good way of regulating heat and being energy efficient would be to use low-cost, thin-film solar panels based on CIGS ink.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copper_indium_gallium_selenide
Even if the ink-based solar panels don’t produce enough energy to actually move the car, their very dark color would absorb a lot of sunlight that could then be used to actively cool (or heat) the car, thus cutting down on battery-powered climate control.
Oct 18th, 2007 (12:58 pm)Just to add to the videos on E-Flex starring F. Weber, I nerver saw that one :
http://ma-tvideo.france2.fr/video/iLyROoaft0zc.html
Thanks Lyle for all your work.
Oct 18th, 2007 (1:11 pm)By the way I found the other 3 (this is a series of 4) on this site :
http://ma-tvideo.france2.fr/search/?q=user:gmroadahead
Oct 18th, 2007 (1:14 pm)Jean just bet me to it… but here’s another link to the entire series on an English language website:
http://www.carspace.com/videos/search!s=Opel%2520EFlex
I really wish in the US market we were offered the diesel version of the generator!
Oct 18th, 2007 (1:15 pm)Opps, looks like this site doesn’t like the “!” style query string in the URL… use this instead:
http://www.carspace.com/videos/search?s=Opel%2520EFlex
Oct 18th, 2007 (2:42 pm)Thanks Jeff. My Opel Corsa runs on the same Diesel engine (1.3 CDTI) as the one GM says it will use on the Opel Flextreme. It’s a good engine. When I drive alone in cities I use 4.8 liters of diesel for 100 kms, that is 49 miles per gallon and I’m not necessarly cool with my right foot.
Oct 18th, 2007 (2:57 pm)Dear Jeff,
In comment 15, you made remember us of old electric cars. My grandmother said to me she saw Camille Jenatzy on its “Jamais contente” near the house where I was born and kept to say before her death that electric cars like the “Jamais Contente” where what cars should be. For those who do not know Camille Jenatzy his wikipedia article is useful :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camille_Jenatzy
Oct 18th, 2007 (3:09 pm)Hey, I love her. She is so intelligent, pretty, great personality. I think I will divorce my wife and marry her.
Seriously, I have no idea if she was a plant or not, but she did ask fairly good questions and the gentleman really handled her questions well. BTW, I live in the North East and she does not have a North East accent. Boston, Upper New England, Lower New England, or otherwise.
But I thought she added some comic relief to the film.
Oct 18th, 2007 (3:21 pm)True that. To be honest, though unpleasant, I think that she was useful. I think that the GM guys, when showing off the Volt, should have a pricing schedule showing the operating costs in an apples to apples way. I mean show in detail the operating cost reduction of owning the Volt, and pick a vehicle on the market today with similar performance, style, and capacity numbers. If you’ve read my posts before, you know that I’m a big advocate of V2G technology, and in Boston, as I understand it, grid management is a very big issue. Establishment of V2G technology as a normal business standard for the utilites drastically changes the economics of vehicle ownership. If there is a program planned in a particular market that they are showing off the Volt in, I think it would be a good move to bring that up. The woman, though kind of creepy, did have some good points. Consumer education is essential if the Volt is to live up to it heralded role of Prius-slayer!
Oct 18th, 2007 (3:22 pm)Oh, and is it just me or do you think if SNL were to do a parody of that video that she would have to definitely be played by Amy Poehler?!?
Oct 18th, 2007 (3:41 pm)#35 (Steven)… I also feel V2G has a future, especailly as Solar and Wind power becomes more a bigger slice of pie.
However I don’t think the batteries going into the current generation EV’s like the Volt are ready for that… those extra cycles are going to age the battery quicker.
What would be nice though is to be able to use the Volt as a power backup for my home on the (hopefully) rate times I lose power (this past winter my power was out for 3 days due to an ice storm).
Oct 20th, 2007 (12:13 am)So, they showed the car in Boston. Does anyone know of a schedule of where and when they’re taking the Volt around? (Apologies if it’s on this site somewhere).
Oct 20th, 2007 (8:40 am)They’re is south florida now.
Next up will be LA then SF, will get specifics when they come out.
Oct 24th, 2007 (10:10 pm)To omegaman66 who asks, “Why not a 50mpg Volt using smaller batteries?”
Dude, you don’t have to wait. It’s called a Prius!
Mar 30th, 2008 (10:40 am)AWSOME CAR! STUPED WOMAN!
Jul 28th, 2009 (9:39 pm)Да… Хорошую информацию трудно добыть. (А сделать с ней что-нибудь – ещё труднее)