I accept what everyone says about 2 doors but it didnt stop the mini becoming a cult.

As I mentioned in another thread, I love my current Volvo (an 8 year old S70 T5 5-speed), but the problem I may have with the C30 is that it’s only a 2-door, and the backseats may not have enough leg and/or head room.

Regarding hub motors, as has been said, because there are 4 of them, each one can be significantly smaller. Apparently hub motors on an EV are nothing new… according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hub_motor Ferdinand Porsche developed them in 1902… on a vehicle that later became an RxEv

Note also that ZAP also has in the works an EV with hub motors.

Multi-motor EV configurations are more complicated in regulating power to different motors. I think I read that one of the 1990’s EV’s built to meet CA’s ZEV mandate had planned to use two motors but switched to just one because of that problem.

Yeah, $3 trillion. Between that and global warming, we are starting down the barrel of a very large cannon.

Unfortunately, I think wheel motors would probably be more prone to damage from rocks, potholes, and collisions.

I am not totally against wheel motors, because they provide great traction and independent control. But I would not buy a car with wheel motors because of the extra expense and vulnerability (maybe Volvo buyers would not care as much about the extra expense as I do).

As the Volt gets closer to reality, and the buzz grows, how many other companies will bring their own versions out? This technology is not so complex really, it’s just a matter of having batteries light enough an that do the job cheaper over a car’s life cycle of ownership than than gas and maintainence. Lots of good battery companies out there that didn’t make the final GM cut – including the big American provider JCI-Saft, small American start-ups like Altair and Ener1, and huge Chinese companies. VW had an electric Li-ion concept car demo’ed in 2001 – the Bora (Jetta based) it wouldn’t be hard to dust it off, cut down the battery capacity some and add in a range extender, Mitsubishi could probably make their car practical if they tried, DaimlerChrysler is planning on releasing an electric Smart car in 2010 and has other concepts ready to bring on out, Renault is building an EV facility in Israel, and so on.

The Volt is already serving its function as a game changer! Tesla moved the mind-set from golf-cart to sexy without even yet delivering a car. GM has moved the mindset to EV for the masses without yet delivering a car. Toyota has gotten complacent and will likely miss the boat the first go round but the race is afoot. GM has an early lead but these products will come out quickly once they prove the market accepts it.

“Wheel motors are expensive. I would expect 4 wheel motors to be at least 2-3 times more expensive than one motor like the Volt has.”

Yes, wheel motors are more expensive. But, that cost would be partially be offset in an AWD with smaller wheel motors and through elimination of the transaxle. The cost of wheel motors would hopefully come down with mass production.

I’ll continue to hope for a AWD.

I don’t know if Toyota really had an “it will blow up in GM’s face attitude”, but based on these revelations it seems the probability is high.

GM better not screw this one up for the entire market like they tried to do with hybrids.