I used to be dead set against fuel cells as well. It inherently keeps us dependent on a fuel infrastructure that will inevitably be controlled by multi-billion-dollar corporations.

Consider, however, the option of using solar panels or solar concentrator mounted on your garage roof to make your own hydrogen. Over the course of a week you could store hydrogen to fill up your tank on Sunday night with enough to run for the (average) week. The hydrogen infrastructure out there becomes your backup plan, not your addiction; there just in case you run short before the end of the week (or whatever time it takes to make enough for your use).

A hydrogen economy will be useful to couple h2 pipelines with electric utility lines (electricity would be distributed via superconducting wires kept cool basically for free by the h2 flowing through the well-insulated pipelines). This would reduce the electricity currently being lost due to our current electric transmission lines. This change alone would “give back” 7% of our nations power generation capacity. That is 7 times more than solar currently provides us.

And don’t forget that you want vehicles used by public services like police, ambulance and fire to have no limits to their range and the only way to do this is either to use Ethanol ICE for those vehicles or fuel cells and an H2 infrastructure. Ethanol in the short term, yes, but H2 has to be part of the long term answer.

2) My most wanted feature for the the Volt Rev 2 – LOWER PRICE!

3) My second most wanted feature – a small station wagon, like the Subaru Outback only not so ugly.

4) I’ll never buy a car with fuel cells. I’ll also never buy a pure EV. The ICE based EREV hits the nail on the head.

You get forward motion with an ICE based car, because the engine is idling at 800 – 1000 RPM. So you actually have to hold the car back with the brakes, or keep the clutch pedal down to stop the transmission from turning the drive axle.

On an electric car, there will be no power to the motor when the car is stopped, so yes I would assume there will be some learning curve in driving the car from a dead stop.

But that should hardly be a deal breaker!!!!

Now, $48K is a deal breaker………………

But where would you hang all the other controls? Wipers, light dimmer, radio and speed controls. Joy sticks sound good, but I want to stick to a steering wheel. I guess I am a little old fashion about some things.

#4: I would like more efficient backup generation.

#5: I would like a modular performance design that allows easy upgrade of generators, electric motors, and other parts. In the end I would like to be able to tune the electric car to meet my idea of how it should perform.

#6: I would like to see options for more advanced electronics / computer functions in the cabin… it should be something that is modular, upgradeable, and something that people can leave out if they want something as simple as possible while others can add-on capabilities.

GM, my foremost, no. 1 wish is more all-electric range, hands down. I’ll take whatever you can safely achieve whether it be 5 miles more of additional all-electric range, or hundreds of miles more. As mentioned on this site before, that nano-wire research currently being done, or even the EEstor capacitors, (if they are indeed real), are things I hope you are seriously looking into for future advancement. Any increase in all-electric range is a plus IMO, and would be greatly appreciated.

Secondly, I would like to see the E-Flex platforms expand into other vehicles such as other cars of all sizes, SUV’s, small pick-ups, and Crossovers. Prepare a proliferation of the E-Flex architecture vehicles across your line-up. I understand that for your large pick-ups and SUV’s, perhaps clean diesels and/or your 2-Mode Hybrid are better fits for those applications, but by and large, the E-Flex could appropriately serve just about all of the rest.

Last, not knowing how the first version of the Volt interface will be, I would just like to suggest that you keep everything as simple and user-friendly as possible. There is a beauty in simplicity. A few years ago BMW offered this extremely complex electronic interface in their 7 series called i-drive (I believe that was the name). Many were turned off to the vehicle due to this overly complex system that was thought to be a wonderful, high tech feature by BMW. Just cautioning, there’s a thin line between being useful and unique vs. complex and bizarre. Resist the temptation to go complex.

As always, Thanks for hearing our thoughts and requests, and keep up the good work!