Quote:
Originally Posted by dcb
Specifically there is an energy cost there. And using dollars to compare electricity at the wall to liquid fuel is not a good basis for comparison. You
*could* say it is, but then why shell out $40k for a car if money is a concern. Tracking fuel and KWH together but separately is only fair.
How much less would it cost if they left out the fart box that so many consumers don't want? (and which makes the "Volt" title even more suspect).
How much sooner could it have been to market without the ICE and all the EPA regs and etc? Isn't the appeal of an EV it's simplicity? What consumer wouldn't want to have options? GM wasn't listening.
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The fart box as you put it
was the easy part, it was off the shelf. I would have liked a pure BEV but at current battery tech levels it wouldn't have met my needs. I know I couldn't do my commute in a Leaf. I don't know what the deal is with the EPA. I find they contradict themselves so much I try and ignore most of what they say. The car itself gives you a readout of kw's used and you can check the mileage on the trip odometer so you can figure out your miles/kw if you want. I still don't understand the mumbo jumbo they have concocted with the MPGe. It seems to me to be a dumbed down number with too many variables built into it to make it of any real use when trying to describe the Volt. I think GM learned the limitations of a pure BEV with the EV1 and they wanted to address the range issues in the most cost effective way they could and the result was the Volt. They do say they are going to be releasing a BEV version of the Sonic called the Spark in 2013. It will be much less expensive. Maybe that is more up your ally?
And I do think there is a cost issue there in that the car is still very economical, it's just that your paying up front. I'd much rather give my $40000 up front to a company that is investing in EV technology and building plants in North America than buying a smaller less expensive ICE car, paying out more and more over the next five years in little bites to OPEC producers who don't reinvest in our economies. I say five years because that is the break even point they say that the Volt's savings will have paid for the added expense of the car. Also to me it is just as much about where my money is going as to how much of it I'm spending. I'd rather have it stay in the North American economy than to go overseas to gold plate some princes Porsche in the desert!
