Who does not want EV’s in our driveways:

-Big Automakers, because they, and their dealer networks do not earn significant revenue by selling cars. A look at how large their service departments are (and our out-of-wallet experience with them) shows what’s at stake revenue-wise because EV’s never need service beyond tire changes. EV’s don’t even need brake jobs due to electronic regenerative braking that does most of the work. Their ordinary friction brake pads and rotors thus last the life of the car (as shown on the Toyota electric Rav4).
The large established car companies depend on their service department, like printer companies depend on sales of ink cartridges. So why did Toyota sell the Rav4 instead of leasing and crushing as GM did with the EV1? It’s a mystery, but I came across a blog that mentioned that a Toyota exec at a public speech mistakenly said that the cars would be sold, and so to save face, Toyota reluctantly sold the Rav4. Buyers, however, now post on blogs that they actually had difficulty in getting the Toyota dealer to sell them an electric Rav4 and that they were highly pressured to instead buy a Gas Toyota or a Prius.

-Large oil companies, for obvious reasons. Note they are also major stockholders in auto companies and thus probably have influence over their board of directors.

Business firms exist to make profits, but profits are going to be reduced if EV’s replace the ICE car. Much of our economy is based on the automobile, and its upkeep. Almost every business is related in some way to the car. What will happen to employment if the need to service a car is reduced?

What happens to Midas, Pepboys, Kragen’s, smog check, AMCO, gas stations, Jiffylube, general service repair centers, the manufacturing plants that fabricate repair parts, the UPS people that deliver the parts, the corner deli or Taco Bells frequented by those firm’s workers at lunchtime? What about government agencies that depend on collecting all manner of tax revenue from the above interlinked economy?

If people understand this scenario, then they will understand why they can’t yet buy an EV from the legacy business infrastructure. Only recently can one sniff the scent of a potential EV from upstart EV start-up manufacturers like Tesla (too costly for mass production partly because they hand-solder a battery pack of 6000 Lithium AA sized cells together in series-parallel groups), Aptera, and even the tiny BugE, etc., because a startup company does not need to address the risk that a service-free vehicle will parasitically affect revenue from other parts of its company.

Curiously, Nissan’s CEO has advocated a pure EV but I have a hard time believing he really will build one and that the announcement is mostly PR in nature. After all, Nissan has service centers, too.

The Tie gives me confidence. Mr. Lutz is clearly a man with the fashion sense of an engineer. And that’s a good thing.

I was referring to big corporations. Not small businesses such as yours. I would really be surprised if you are paying yourself millions of dollars a year. I’m not picking on the little guys, it’s the giants that I am referring to. Being in IT, I have done my share of 70 hour weeks.
My longest day was 36 hours. The only thing any of us got was a standard paycheck, nothing more. Hard working, dedicated employees should be rewarded. Even if it is simply a day off with pay and a thank you.
While huge companies such as Ford, GM, GE, IBM, ExxonMobile, etc
pay their CEOs big big money, what are they doing to the worker bees?

Next: I stand by what I said months ago and have been saying all along. I won’t pay over $30K for the Volt, even though I can.
I didn’t put GM in this predicament. They did it to themselves while paying millions of dollars a year to whatever useless CEO they had at the helm.

I currently work for a great company. They pay all of our benefits.
Lunch is subsidized. We have use of a free gym in the building.
They pay well. Unlimited sick time (which I take about 0-2 days a year). But they are stingy (like most American employers) when it comes to vacations. I can’t expect to have it all, and I don’t. I consider myself lucky.

Lastly, I want to congratulate you on your bold move of taking a chance and starting your own company. I have nothing but praise for people like you who have the gumption to that. My hat is off to you, Jim I. I honestly and truly wish you well and wish you success.

More VOLT news & a Lutz Tie offer!

GO GM GO VOLT for 2010!