A reVOLTing Development

[Toolman]

Chevy Volt: The Car From Atlas Shrugged Motors
Patrick Michaels, 03.16.11, 06:00 PM EDT

Who is going to buy all these cars?

The Chevrolet Volt is beginning to look like it was manufactured by Atlas Shrugged Motors, where the government mandates everything politically correct, rewards its cronies and produces junk steel.
This is the car that subsidies built. General Motors lobbied for a $7,500 tax refund for all buyers, under the shaky (if not false) promise that it was producing the first all-electric mass-production vehicle.

At least that's what we were once told. Sitting in a Volt that would not start at the 2010 Detroit Auto Show, a GM engineer swore to me that the internal combustion engine in the machine only served as a generator, kicking in when the overnight-charged lithium-ion batteries began to run down. GM has continually revised downward its estimates of how far the machine would go before the gas engine fired, and now says 25 to 50 miles.

It turns out that the premium-fuel fired engine does drive the wheels--when the battery is very low or when the vehicle is at most freeway speeds. So the Volt really isn't a pure electric car after all. I'm sure that the people who designed the car knew how it ran, and so did their managers.
Why then the need to keep this so quiet? It's doubtful that GM would have gotten such a subsidy if it had been revealed that the car would do much of its freeway cruising with a gas engine powering the wheels. While the Volt is more complicated than the Prius, and has a longer battery-only range, a hybrid is a hybrid, and the Prius no longer qualifies for a tax credit.

n other words, GM was desperate for customers for what they perceived would be an unpopular vehicle before one even hit the road. It had hoped to lure more if buyers subtracted the $7,500 from the $41,000 sticker price. Instead, as Consumer Reports found out, the car was very pricey. The version they tested cost $43,700 plus a $5,000 dealer markup ("Don't worry," I can hear the salesperson saying, "you'll get more than that back in your tax credit!"), or a whopping $48,700 minus the credit.

This is one reason that Volt sales are anemic: 326 in December, 321 in January, and 281 in February. GM announced a production run of 100,000 in the first two years. Who is going to buy all these cars?
Another reason they aren't exactly flying off the lots is because, well, they have some problems. In a telling attempt to preserve battery power, the heater is exceedingly weak. Consumer Reports averaged a paltry 25 miles of electric-only running, in part because it was testing in cold Connecticut. (My engineer at the Auto Show said cold weather would have little effect.)

It will be interesting to see what the range is on a hot, traffic-jammed summer day, when the air conditioner will really tax the batteries. When the gas engine came on, Consumer Reports got about 30 miles to the gallon of premium fuel; which, in terms of additional cost of high-test gas, drives the effective mileage closer to 27 mpg. A conventional Honda ( HMC - news - people ) Accord, which seats 5 (instead of the Volt's 4), gets 34 mpg on the highway, and costs less than half of what CR paid, even with the tax break.
Recently, President Obama selected General Electric ( GE - news - people ) CEO Jeffrey Immelt to chair his Economic Advisory Board. GE is awash in windmills waiting to be subsidized so they can provide unreliable, expensive power.

Consequently, and soon after his appointment, Immelt announced that GE will buy 50,000 Volts in the next two years, or half the total produced. Assuming the corporation qualifies for the same tax credit, we (you and me) just shelled out $375,000,000 to a company to buy cars that no one else wants so that GM will not tank and produce even more cars that no one wants. And this guy is the chair of Obama's Economic Advisory Board?

It really is enough to get you to say Atlas Shrugged. For those who do not know, or who are only vaguely familiar with, the Ayn Rand classic, it is a story of a society in decay, where politically favored technologies and jobs are foisted on the nation, where innovations that might threaten existing corporatist cartels are financially or physically sabotaged as unemployment mounts and the nation spirals into a malaise that makes the Carter years look like Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood.
Atlas Shrugged is about to come out as a surprisingly good and entertaining movie (which will be destroyed by Hollywood and New York Critics) on--you guessed it--April 15. Maybe the government could put in an ad before the show with Immelt exhorting Americans to care about "the environment and green jobs." All must buy Volts.

Patrick Michaels is senior fellow in environmental studies at the Cato Institute and author of Climate Coup: Global Warming's Invasion of our Government and our Lives, which comes out April 22.


http://www.forbes.com/2011/03/16/che...ichaels_2.html

[DEAR_JOHN]

Electric cars, you pay the 'devil' either way. People bitch about gas prices and they also bitch about electric prices.

Me, I drive a gas guzzler that gets about 15 miles per gallon in the city. My money, my choice. It is fun to take it to the track and kick the crap out of most of the cars I've raced. When I wanted to improve gas mileage, I just put on a set of headers and a full exhaust. Saved about 2 miles per gallon.

I'll let others worry about the ozone layer.

[Capt. Lincoln F. Stern]

most all the hybrids I have seen only give you 50 miles on the batteries and you best not go over 45 mph. hybrids are great for inter city and neighborhood driving but if the freeway is part of your commute, get a good all fuel vehicle.....I have my eye on the Ford Flex all wheel drive

[boardman]

If you plug in a car at night where does the electricity comes from?
Answer: a coal, gas or nuclear fired electric plant.
What do coal or gas fired plants emit as waste or by product? What about the "dangers" of nuclear power?
So aren't electric vehicles really still either nuclear powered or producing hydrocarbons.
It's a wheel within a wheel.
I'm glad cats aren't allowed to drive. The only thing I introduce to the environment is a little methane after a particularly good night of dumpster diving.

[throaway]

The electric car will remain a pipe dream until they can make better batteries - that's no mystery.
The current battery tech is too heavy, slow charging, and expensive - all that has to change before we can see some real traction

[gnadfly]

I work for big oil. One co-worker spent $20K for the hybrid version of his Lexus. He knows he'll never recoup the investment in either gas savings or resale. He bought it just to soothe his conscious and satisfy his understanding of hybrid technology. He voted for Obama and regrets doing so.

Another co-worker doesn't understand the marketplace. He wanted GM go under because they sold SUVs which displeases his liberal sensibilities. He literally thinks they went under because they couldn't make a small car and totally ignores their issues with employee medical benefits and other long term liabilities. He voted for Obama and still loves the guy.

The Leaf was always known to have a gas powered engine.

For the most part "Green Technology" is just snake oil. Since the 60s when I was a little kid reading "Popular Science" I've been waiting for the day when I could buy a cheap 1Kw solar matrix to put on my house. It will never come in my lifetime. My company has put billions of dollars into alternative energy sources and has had very sharp guys working on it. We basically sold off all those organizations. Nothing beats punching a hole in the ground and getting trillions of newtons of easily transportable and convertible energy.

BTW, IMO batteries have made the most progress in the last 50 years of any of the alternative energy subsystems. Well, if you discount the whole CPU, telcom, internet thing.

[DEAR_JOHN]

I remember when our local nuclear plant South Texas Project was in it's planning stages. One thing advertised was that the electricity produced there would be 'too cheap to meter'. Yea...............right.

[sharkie]

We have our green president and his rookie lightweights to blame for nonsense like this. Their brains don't get enough oxygen. The day that clown took office I knew we were in for rough ride. We bailed out GM and the unions, now the lightweight wants to bail out weak Mexico by allowing them to export their misery and poverty to the U.S.

[gnadfly]

Originally Posted by DEAR_JOHN

I remember when our local nuclear plant South Texas Project was in it's planning stages. One thing advertised was that the electricity produced there would be 'too cheap to meter'. Yea...............right.

Ha! Thanks for that memory. My college room-mate worked at STP both in college and after graduation and said that all the time.

[live4fun]

nuke power has always advertised that...
as for the volt... it has always been said the engine is used while the car is running, for acceleration, battery charing.
personally I am waiting for a nuke power car I saw in popular mechanics.

[sofiaofhouston]

Solar Power cars

[Squirrel88]

I am thinking a nuclear powered car would be cool.

[Meoauniaea]

Electric cars? Meh. Limited range and long full recharge cycles. Give me 450 miles and a full recharge in 10 minutes. No one wants to stop 1/3 of the way to Dallas and have to stay overnight to recharge. Hydrogen? Nope, too explosive and hard to contain in the complexities of a vehicle. Nuclear? No thanks. How would you handle and cool the fuel rods? Unless it's a Mr. Fusion model, it won't happen. Ethanol/E85? It's not as efficient as regular fuel, leading to lower miles per gallon. Don't even get me started on the joke that is a hybrid.

Unless there is an astronomical leap in human technology, oil is here to stay for a long time. As for battery improvements, not happening. We've reached the end of the line in battery technology. Yes there are tiny upgrades like lithium-polymer over lithium-ion, but beyond that there is nothing.

There are no more elements on Earth that can boost a heavily optimized 6 hour battery to 15 hours. Again, it's going to require an amazing technological leap to improve battery technology.

Yes there are companies that play with new technologies for batteries or improvements in recharge times, but none have come to fruition in masses affordably.

[O'Mike]

If you are serious about an electric car, then check out Tesla Motors.

This is a no nonsense electric sports car. Over 11 million miles logged with them.

288 hp, Top Speed 125 mph, 0-60 <4 seconds, 245 mile range on a charge, Battery Life 7 years or 100,000 miles.

http://www.teslamotors.com/

Downside, you will have to pay a lot of green to be green.

[Toolman]

Originally Posted by O'Mike

If you are serious about an electric car, then check out Tesla Motors.

This is a no nonsense electric sports car. Over 11 million miles logged with them.

288 hp, Top Speed 125 mph, 0-60 <4 seconds, 245 mile range on a charge, Battery Life 7 years or 100,000 miles.

http://www.teslamotors.com/

Downside, you will have to pay a lot of green to be green.

I'd never heard of this car until earlier this week, when one of them streaked past me outbound on Memorial Drive, between Westcott and the Loop. It was a very fine looking ride. I had no idea it was an electric. It looked very expensive.

http://green.autoblog.com/2011/03/08...ll-cost-77000/