Science Friday on Volt and other green cars

I couldn't believe Ira let her spew on for so long! She didn't say much. I liked the two that followed, though the Road and Track editor was full of himself (see thread on car magazine editors). The woman from PHEV pointed out that the Volt can go 28 miles, not 40, before the fuel engine turns on. If GM actually produces the Volt, I applaud them. Though it will still have GM's quality.

 

I heard just a smidgen of the segment, while driving. The prototype Tesla can go 250 miles entirely plug-in. The tzero drove from L.A. to Las Vegas (over the mountains!) on a single charge. A decade ago the EV-1 went 100 miles on a charge, and that was before lithium batteries. And I forget how far Darell goes on a charge in his RAV4EV. The Xebra goes 40 miles on a charge just with lead-acid gel batteries. And Ira allows GM to claim that adequate batteries for the Volt don't exist yet???!!! This is par for the course for TOTN, one of the most mediocre programs on NPR. (Though Science Friday is usually not as bad as the weekday version.)

 

I know im going to get flamed like crazy for this one.. but:

by "depending on battery technology" could they possibly mean that they are waiting for the PRICE to come down, not the RANGE to go up?

How much did an EV1 cost to make? How much would that Tesla prototype cost? I know that the EV1 and Tesla lack the economy of scale that the Volt would hopefully enjoy, but nonethless, I feel as though GM is worried about a price point, not a distance.

Of course I could be wrong, does anyone know how much a battery pack for the volt would cost today? Are there any advancments in materials/manufacturing about to come up that lower costs?