In 2005 Dieter Zetsche got his way over the objections of all his VP’s and they started selling the diesel Jeep Liberty they sell to the rest of the world (under the name Cherokee CRD).

The VP’s only agreed to selll 5,000 per year in the US. In the first 2 months, they sold 11,000 of them and had requests for another 50,000.

They could not meet the demand for the additional 50,000 units as VM Motori (diesel engine maker owned by Detroit Diesel / DaimlerChrysler) was not tooled for that many engines.

Now that GM owns the share formerly owned by DaimlerChrysler, maybe they can get a small 50 state diesel from them for the Volt.

Yeah right. Besides the fact that this is not true, you could not pay me to ride in one of these go-carts on an interstate highway. Not worth it for 33 city/40 hgwy. I was shocked when I saw how low the MPG was on these things. Why buy it?

GM continues to lie about the batteries. Jon Lauckner, for example, claims that the VOLT pack is a third of the EV1 pack by weight. But he’s a liar, because the EV1 lead-acid pack had more than twice the energy that the VOLT will deliver (18 kWh vs. 8 kWh).

Moreover, the 1000-lb. NiMH battery pack in the 1999 version of the EV1 (now almost all crushed) delivered 26 kWh, while the same weight in the Toyota RAV4-EV of the PEVE EV-95 batteries deliver up to 30 kWh.

So ceteris parabus, 400 lbs. of lead-acid would deliver 6 kWh, almost as much at the $20,000 VOLT battery! And Lead-Acid only costs $1,600. So if you only need 40 miles range, why not use the cheapest battery?

But if you want long range, don’t “research lithium”! The NiMH battery is here, now, and 400 lbs. of EV-95 NiMH would deliver 12 kWh, enough to take the VOLT 60 miles in all-electric range.

I know GM suck-ups don’t want to hear these facts; they’d rather believe Lauckner’s lies and distortions.

The fact is, Lithium has not been proven in any EV, except for the $100,000 T-Zero, the $109,000 Tesla, and the $75,000 eBox. And none of those has gone more than 50,000 miles without significant battery degradation.

The big point is AVAILABILITY. NiMH and lead-acid is WELL-PROVEN, is here, now, and is cheaper than Lithium and lasts longer than Lithium. It’s non-toxic, has a scrap value, and won’t explode or catch fire.

If GM were seriouis about the VOLT, it would make it with real batteries, instead of hedging its availablity because Lithium research didn’t pan out yet.

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