Q: Are you on schedule with the mules?
A: “Yes we’re on schedule.”…”The definition of what kind of mule is ready when I’m not going to define.”..(SF) “We will definitely let you know when its ready.”
Q: Are you planning to lease the battery? Is it still on the table?
A: (TP) “No decisions have been made one way or the other. Remember we have leased vehicles before, such as Project Driveway..There are all kinds of ways to make sure the technology works.”..”We are exploring a lot of different ideas and alternatives. That’s where we’re at in the program right now” ..”Were intrigued with the ideas of replaces a petroleum or gasoline bill with a different energy bill”..”How to transact that, it could get a little dicey or complicated.”..”Uncertainty around the battery itself, how much does it cost, how much is it worth, is there a secondary market around it”..”These are things enough people are interested in because of the interest in probing the different areas, were collecting a lot of data.”..”There has been no decision made, were investigating the alternatives. It is frankly fraught with a lot of tricky stuff.”..”Some seeds have been planted about the idea we are taking to some people we are not privy to discus at this time.”
TP: “Imagine this…Let’s say you’re driving the Volt and a message comes on saying you have to check out the battery. You have not noticed any driving or performance issues. But you bring it in to the dealer. One of the quandaries were in is this. Do we let the well-trained technician open the battery up, you sit there and wait, does he have the right tools and diagnostic equipment OR does he pop the battery out give you another that’s there and sends yours back the central expert center to Denise’s engineers who looks at them and works with the supplier, appropriately reconditions it and the batteries ready again. Or do you really always have to have that same battery always with you, like an engine is to a car now? This is an example of the type of things we’re studying.”
Q: Will you make the batteries swappable so that if a better technology comes along or if a Project Better Place-like program arrives the car could participate?
A:(DG) “Your battery will always be serviceable. Always. You just slide it out and put another back in.”
Q: Your going to design it that way?
A: (DG) “I have to. Easy to slide out and in by a trained technician. And we’ve learned a lot about how to service batteries.”
Q: Are you training first responders to car accidents on dealing with the batteries?
A: (DG) “Yes.Yes.Yes. In fact I have an engineer whose only job is vehicle safety for first responders. He spoke to federal agencies (recently) about safety in high voltage vehicles, and did a wonderful job.”
Q: Where are the charging ports going to be, and will there be one or two?
A: (TP) “We are thinking about it, and are very close to finalizing our decision on that matter.”..”It will be one or two, not three or four (laughter)”
Q: What are the barriers to sub-7 second 0 to 60 time, and why are you picking 8.5 seconds?
A: (TP) “We are still in the general 8.5 vicinity, what we ultimately settle on may vary slightly from that.”…”A really really important point to note is 0 to 60 has become a sort of de facto standard although very few people really do 0 to 60″..”One of the things, Lyle, you can help us with, and we’re going to help develop the metric, is with us, it’s really your initial acceleration because of the instantaneous torque you get from the electric system, now whether its a 0 to 30 time or a seconds to 0.2 G’s. We think thats a much more practical everyday, real world measurement.”..”We want your readers and your community to understand that one of the advantages of an electric vehicle are in the launch feel, launch performance”..”8.5 seconds is a nice car”..”We’ll have instantaneous torque”..”Our vehicle will be low (to the ground) and very very aerodynamic from the perspective of aerodynamic benchmarks.”..”Now, could we make it faster? Perhaps for future versions.”..”Remember the first objective we have is the 40 miles EV range”..”thats the primary objective, we can’t lose site of that”..”We have to do the first car right..it has a mission and a purpose..If we can achieve that mission, were very confident that other spinoff opportunities and choices will become available. It’s nothing prohibitive”
