The VOLT is about as brilliant of engineering as I have ever seen. It is on the same concept as the Diesel Engine train with the electric traction motors. With a constant speed of the internal combustion engine driving the electrict (Traction) motors, the combustion engine should just about last for a long, long time. Not to mention the quitness of the vehicle providing the body is designed right.

Now don’t get crazy with the body design. No chopping and channeling like the new ugly Chyrsler product. Don’t need the Sherman Tank look. No gigantic big wheels. Be conservative and just make a nice and pretty vehicle that is functional.

I am in line for one providing, not a whole lot has changed as I have read about the Volt. Don’t let them young design engineers go crazy and make things complex. We don’t want outragous dealership maintenance cost as we have right now. A $150 to just pull the vehicle in the shop and believe me, it don’t take much to have to spend a thousand dollars.

Data on this site suggests that the current battery pack gives a 40 mile range, costs around $8000, and weighs 400 pounds. Given all the misplaced criticism for the 40 mile range already (e.g., Letterman), I think it is safe to say that very few people would buy a car with only 40 miles total range. This means that GM would need to replace the range extender ICE with enough additional batteries to give much more AER (at least 120 miles, in my opinion). And that would drive a huge increase in cost and weight over the EREV design.

It’s obvious to me that GM has thought this through very well and arrived at the best possible solution given the current state of technology, infrastructure, and economics.

It costs the same to deliver to your home or office personally as it does to a dealer a few miles away, but then you don’t have crooks rooking you for delaying your delivery. If you prefer to pay more and get your new vehicle later than you would otherwise, by all means have your car dropped off at a dealer first.

For all those that think dealers are a must have for a vehicle:

That must be why Chrysler got rid of 800 dealers and GM got rid of 1,100 dealers in the same day. Wake up and smell the coffee. It’s not like you don’t know what a vehicle is or how it basically works. If this was 100 years ago, I’d see more need for a physical presence to show that self propelled vehicles weren’t really black magic or a scam. In the meantime, the oversupply on dealers lots is hurting prices and seller bargaining position.

DanPetit:

“What are the exact specific costs that you mention are inexpensive for your lithium battery electric vehicle? It was somewhat difficult to try to gather what you paid to have the vehicle built, how long you’ve had it, who made it for you, how many miles you’ve driven it, what State you registered it (I don’t think security is a problem with just asking what State), who are the talented engineers who made it or converted an ex-ICE for you.”

Some folks on this site need to do a LOT more research on what’s out there now for mainstraim production vehicles and what’s coming out of the pipeline.

Ask CaptainJackSparrow.

I have an electric motorcycle. It cost $7,450 retail. I ordered it in November 2007 so this is my second year owning it. It’s a commercial product made by Zero Motorcycles, who are based in Scotts Valley, CA. It’s absolutely not a conversion, nor a DIY kit, nor a garage job, nor a one-off. It’s a mainstream, mass manufactured product (though different performance versions and two different models (off road and street) are available. It’s got over 8,000 miles on it, mostly paved and some hard core off road riding and racing with $0 in maintenance and repairs. Since I have off road enduro tires on it, I might get those replaced next decade, at a whole $45 each, but they still have plenty of tread and are doing great, so maybe not. It’s exceeded all of my expectations and the range from the power pack (rated at 40 miles, two hours of commuting and riding around town at real world suburban speeds) is still going very strong (their street model has a 60 mile range). I live in a red, fly- over state.

I bought a near equivalent gasser at the same time for the same up front price and just following its owner manual mandatory maintenance, it cost over $1,500 in maintenance the first year (pretty typicle for a motorcycle, which requires more tuning and cleaning than a car), racking up the same number of miles, so so far I’m $1,500 ahead of the game using the electric. That savings will go to the electric vehicle manufacturer towards another model, where the gassser manufacturer didn’t see a dime of that $1,500.

Very many people where I work use motorcycles as their daily commuting vehicle, for the convenience and fun, so I’m hardly ahead of the curve or a stand out. My city just got their police force two new motorcycles and got rid of two of their older clunker cars.

What I use for my transportation is way less important than whether it works well for me as transportationm in the real world. It does. Deal with it.

An employee at our company went to Atlanta’s car show and came back with a bunch of pictures and brochures. I expect that even if these shows were doubled and less centralized, they would be cheaper than maintaining dealerships. The advantage for consumers is being able to walk down an exhibition hall and sit in or size up nearly every model they may be interested in.

The test drive may have a similar post-dealership solution:

1) Radio advertisement (most people who still listen to radio do it while driving): “Model ‘x’ will be available for test drives in your area, July ‘y’ to August ‘z.’ Register online at http://www.modelx.com”

2) Appointments are made, people show up, drive the cars.

Some dealer-only types of service might be met in urban centers by large mobile trucks that come to you, again, on an online-made-appointment basis.

The idea that the dealer is convenient economically for the manufacturer (willing to take part of the economic risk for holding an inventory) changes once the manufacturing paradigm (and technology) changes to a more flexible model which doesn’t assemble a vehicle until it is ordered.

I have a feeling that the hard, dedicated line’s days may be numbered (it would be a high number, at this point), as the capability of autonomous manufacturing technology gets more advanced and less expensive.

Thanks for the cheering up, you guys. I went to my 5 year old grandson’s T-ball practice last night. That cheered me up some. It is something else to see those 5 year olds on the field. They had competition time and my grandson, Robert, won the most accurate throw. He came in 3rd in the longest throw, about 5th or 6th in speed running around the bases and 3rd in the longest hit. He was pumped and it help to pump me up some too.

Yes. Thank you for that link. I remember they were having a problem converting it to useful electricity.

People do that at $30,000. So, the belief that so much more will be easy to justify is absurd.

Heck, that’s why Lutz exclaimed Volt will be priced “nicely under $30,000“. Of course, he stepped down and sold all his stock.

Reality is, Volt as you once knew will die in 2 weeks. The new configuration which emerges afterward will appeal to a much wider consumer base. The purist won’t be happy, but it will become a product with mainstream potential… something actually capable of competing in high volume.

And yes, it feels good to finally have the old GM fade away. After so many years of fighting the ridiculous (think Hummer), being on the verge of major restructuring is great.