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Yes, we all need to ask more questions like this Posted by Saabpilot [Email]  (#134) [Profile/Gallery]
(more from Saabpilot) on Wed, 10 Nov 2010 18:54:24
In Reply to: Volt/plug ins, No Snaab, Wed, 10 Nov 2010 07:23:25 Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup |
You hit the nail (actually several of them) on the head. Electric cars are not the panacea that some would like to paint them to be. There are alot of issues that so far, have not been addressed by our society.
First, with the exception of a few places such as the area with lots of hydro power that someone else referenced, most of the electricity to power these cars is going to come from evil, fossil fuel burning power plants. We can't build more nuke plants because the environmentalist lobby won't let us. These are the same evil, fossil fuel burning power plants the environmentalists want to close. Yet they're pushing electric cars. See something wrong with juxtaposing those two arguments side by side? I do.
Second, the infrastructure for charging these cars doesn't exist. It will cost untold millions or billions to populate the USA with charging stations. I see TV commercials lately showing cool, hip young people pulling up to GE charging stations all over the place as they drive around during what presumably is a typical week in their lives. Seriously? That's like building a new power grid completely from scratch. Think that's cheap, or that GE or any other company is going to do that for free? Or perhaps we'll have a new "electric car infrastructure tax" levied on us to pay for this?
Third, do you think if you want to use this for commuting to work and need to charge it there that your employer will let you charge it for free? Speaking as the VP of a small company I can give you my viewpoint. ALL expenses are always under the microscope including energy usage in our buildings. If I have an employee or employees who want to plug in their electric car all day long while they are in the office, that ain't gonna' be for free, I can assure you. Gas and electric are our highest costs in our buildings. Some companies might want to appear politically correct and say they'll let you do it for free but sooner or later you have to be responsible to the bottom line...unless you're independently wealthy as a business owner and can spend without limit, or unless you're already living off the public tax system at your company / organization and don't have to worry about making a profit. Then, if that's the case you're already taking MY money to run your organization which may be fine by and of itself, but now you want to charge your car there at my expense (to which I will object).
Fourth, as a recent article (I think it was Motorweek but I'm not positive) described, in a long review of the Volt that it has taken GM an unbelievable amount of money to develop this car. The actual cost to manufacture will far outweigh the selling price for a long time. The payback for the development dollars may never happen. So how can they do this? Subsidies? Stupid sales and marketing ideas taking over? (Yes, no matter how politically correct you can say you want to be as a corporation, if you're losing money no matter how "green" you want to appear, you are doing the wrong things - a corporation's single mission is to make money for it's shareholders, nothing more, nothing less). As a consumer, would you seriously buy this car if it cost twice what the same type of car would cost with a traditional engine? If you're answer is yes, I applaud you and think you must have a ton of disposable income.
I'm sure I will anger alot of people with this post, but personally I feel that electric cars being marketed as the solution to the world's problems is simplistic if not ridiculous and that we need to consider all of the issues and ramifications, not just what feels good in an emotional instant on the 6 O'clock news, so to speak. Does this make me cynical? I would call it realistic.
NOTE: hybrids are a different animal. We're talking pure electrics here, that need to be plugged in to recharge (realizing of course the Volt has a small gasoline engine to assist in certain types of driving, but for argumentation and comparison sake it is an all-electric car).
My two cents worth...probably more like 90 cents now that I've typed so much....
Oh, most importantly I won't buy one of these just BECAUSE it comes from GM (that same company that saved Saab then killed it).
, Sat, 13 Nov 2010 09:06:26, Thu, 11 Nov 2010 03:22:17, Wed, 10 Nov 2010 18:54:24 <-- Viewing This Message
, Fri, 12 Nov 2010 19:42:18
, Wed, 10 Nov 2010 20:19:46, Tue, 16 Nov 2010 17:49:33
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