Comments on: GM VP Jon Lauckner Blasts Carnegie-Mellon PHEV Study and Says Volt Cells Several Hundreds Less Than $1000 per kWh

By: CS Guy

CS Guy — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 22:53:05 +0000

Ron #186: right on!

The best way to tell a good idea is when the billionaires and the other entrenched interests are so dead set against it.

Electric cars are the only solution to the problems of foreign oil dependence and the environment. EREV cars like the Volt are the only way to get there.

I don’t care if gas eventually gets so cheap that an electric car would cost me double to drive, I’m getting off foreign oil and the internal combustion engine as soon as I can. Luckily, it is far cheaper to drive on electrons AND you aren’t funding terrorists or destroying the environment.

By: Ron LaBonte

Ron LaBonte — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 19:01:56 +0000

How much taxpayer’s money was wasted on this study by Carnegie-Mellon who obviously has no idea what they’re talking about. Just what we need – negativism towards one of the most important projects under development to impact the American economy.

By: jwcrim

jwcrim — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 20:04:41 +0000

173 Reality Check
1. Of course I didn’t claim that Prius sales had any link to gas prices. Present Prius sales are to a much different market today than the market that needs to be penetrated if plug-ins are going to be a meaningful part of the automobile market. If everything goes right Prius sales will be 100,000 units in 2009. Nobody currently buys a Prius because they need to, they buy them because they want to see themselves (or have others see them) in a certain way. That sector is not going to be the major market when (and if) a major market materializes.
2. Because there are no plug-in Prius’s yet, current Prius sales cannot reflect the existence or absence of demand for auxiliary (gasoline-independent) transportation.
3. Other advantages of hybrids (given the acknowledged trade-offs) are on the balance pretty minor as market drivers.

179 Don
1. The comment that gasoline unavailability may not be imminent is probably right. A roaring world-wide economy could change that but I wouldn’t hold my breath.
2. As you say, (barring war) crude oil sellers probably won’t stop selling but given the world-wide economy, today’s sparse, decaying, under-financed refining facilities will probably begin to choke before they are expanded to what they will need to be. As you say, gasoline unavailability is probably unlikely in the short>medium term but the seventies taught us never to say never.

All that said and being a fairly typical clod, were a good plug-in to be offered and were it a good value, I would not buy it for its minor performance advantages, for its slightly better economics or for making some statement or other. I would buy it if I thought I might need it someday to run to school, for food or to the hospital when my only unfailingly accessible gas pump is my wall outlet. I may never need that capability but then how many of us really need our 4WDs and our 10KW auxiliary generators?
Nobody buys fire insurance because they like it or because they are sure they are going to need it.

By: Nixon

Nixon — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 08:26:23 +0000

horay! I’m post one-eighty-fourth!

By: Clara

Clara — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 17:43:30 +0000

Dave-109, Markin-121

Thanks for the support.

Typo-I drive a 1997 KIA, not a 1977

I concede the VOLT is a series hybrid. I understand the difference between series and parallel from school.

I still want it.

Dave, I live in a mid-Atlantic state about 200 miles from the coast in the Piedmont area.

I refuse to buy a car with a loan, and over the 10 years or so repayment, pay closer to double the price of the item. This has seen me through the last 30 years nicely, although sometimes I’ve had to depend on the VA and oatmeal 3 times a day to get through.

I seem to be the only woman on this blog which is technical but interesting. Thanks Guys!

Clara