It was elucidating to watch Bob Lutz show off the historic GM cars, though. Actually, I think they were hardest on him, not from a corporate performance standpoint but for a car guy like Lutz, they made him talk about some cars GM would rather have forgotten about. The look on his face was priceless when they asked him about what he thought of the looks of the Aztek! Maximum Bob actually held his tongue but kind of hovered there looking like a deer in the road. You could just imagine what he was thinking but the interviewer threw him a lifeline and said something like “could you use any other word but ugly?” and Bob just quietly agreed. (I’m sure he COULD have used some other words that would probably have gotten him into some trouble somewhere)

But those segments with Lutz were what I got the most information out of. Not like tech details, but you can watch Lutz’s expressions which give a good indication of his emotions. He’s either a fantastic actor or should never play poker. I suspect the latter. He really did light up driving the Volt mule. Although he admitted he was pretty excited that it just worked.

Ya think?

Maybe there’s an implied message in there somewhere. Or not.

I am not buying any car for 45k.

That’s ayears salary for some folks.

My favourite part was where they played the series of historic clips of GM execs saying things like, “Yes, our cars were horrible, but these new ones are fixed and as good as anything on the road.” and then Lutz says pretty much the same thing about the present. Just think, if GM is still around a few years from now we may see the exact same sequence but with Lutz added to the “historic” quotes.

My second favourite part was the GM worker openly admitting that they would ship out stuff they knew was wrong. Could there be a clearer example of the distinction between Toyota and GM?

Now if GM Really wants to sell them, work out a way that either GM gets the $7K or the customer has the ability to assign the credit to either the dealer or to GM. That way it would actually cost $33 out the door instead of having to take it off your taxes. Make it an instant rebate! this isn’t as far out as it may sound. Back in the 70’s when the government got behind solar, many companies leased solar water heaters to their customers because the company could get the tax credit. the system worked very well until Regan dropped all solar credits. Imagine where we would be if the solar industry had been going full steam ahead all these years.

That is just “coming soon” vaporware. Check out:
http://www.evtamerica.com Z-20, R-30, Z-30
http://www.x-tremescooters.com look for XM-3500Li electric scooter
http://www.zapworld.com/electric-vehicles/electric-scooters/zapino-electric-scooter
http://www.electricmotorsport.com various and custom
http://www.vectrix.com the vectrix
all have bikes available now

A note on battery costs and Volt prices. The EVTAmerica Z and R machines run on 5 U1 size sealed lead acid batteriesl. If handled gently and properly these batteries might last for as much as 10,000 miles. If you shop carefully, you can get them for about $100 apiece. So $500 every 10,000 miles. This adds up to $7,500 dollars over 150,000 miles. This is for a two wheel scooter that weighs about 330 lbs. and no heater or A/C. The cost per mile for electricity is .7 cents. About 5 cents for battery replacement. Total under 6 cents per mile. In the same range of the gas cost for a larger scooter or smaller motorcycle. The Volt will be 2 cents per mile for electricity and around 7-10 cents per mile for the battery. A bit less than twice the cost for an electric scooter. For this you get two extra wheels, a roof, a steering wheel, a spare tire, glass all around, heat, air conditioning, decent suspension, air bags, seat belts, side intrusion protection, a trunk, room for 3 other people/dogs, and bumpers. I speak from experience.

The battery at almost any price is the cheapest part of the Volt because it is what allows you to save a much larger fortune on gas bills. But for now you can go pure electric and petroleum free but you will have to brush up on you balance, learn what countersteering is and practice it, and deal with the weather in an up close and personal manner.

http://www.zeromotorcycles.com/zero-s.php