Why bother?

Ditto on GM and killing the electric car...my god people, watch the movie, go to ev1.org and wake up!! GM could care less about Americans...watch the movie, it's all there. Just dollars...short term...I'm as angry now as ever after watching Who killed the Electric car.

 

I'm an equal opportunity hater. I have yet to find a car company I DO like. Even Toyota. What the heck is with the new Tundra? It's a beheamoth! Built in Indiana and Texas though (as if that'll help turn good ole boys in the rural US into Toyota customers)! With the money they spent developing, marketing and selling this thing, they could have a modest hybrid minivan that would sell like hotcakes at a burning man festival.

Whoever can get me an electric car first wins (not a golf cart). If it's the Volt, Great! I'll be a GM fan. If it's Toyota, then I'll have 2 Toyotas.
Someone PLEASE produce, market, and sell a friggen electric car already! A 50 mile range compact car, can't be that expensive! I don't need to take the family to Wally World in it, I just want to drive 5 miles to work and back including some highway without gas.

I do blame GM for selling the rights to the EV1 NiMH battery to CHEVRON! That was a terrible mistake, that we will finally be over when the patent runs out in 2009. I don't think Toyota would have done anything near this stupid.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Darwood @ Apr 25 2007, 07:03 AM) [snapback]429692[/snapback]</div>

Same here. But rather than just wait, I'll be driving my Xebra (once it arrives) until then. But for me, it's got to be 100-miles EV, or a PHEV that goes 60 miles at freeway speed before the engine starts. The Volt doesn't sound like that, though of course it's meaningless to talk about what a fantasy "really" is since the Volt is pure make-believe anyway.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Darwood @ Apr 25 2007, 07:03 AM) [snapback]429692[/snapback]</div>

Not stupid. GM wanted to keep EVs off the roads. They sold the patent where it would be certain not to be used in a car. Very clever. Evil, but clever.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Darwood @ Apr 25 2007, 07:03 AM) [snapback]429692[/snapback]</div>

Although I think there'd be some demand for a hybrid minivan, for whatever reason, minivans are a declining market (http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070103/FREE/70102005/1024/LATESTNEWS and many others mention it). For some reason, there's a large segment of people who think that driving minivans are "uncool" and must have an SUV instead. So, people are migrating to SUVs and the new hotness, crossovers.

If I had a family, I too would consider a hybrid minivan. Monstrosity (5000+ lb.) SUVs are NOT cool in my book.

 

GM has stopped bothering. They've axed them now until the next gen two-mode system is available.

http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dll/arti...E/70426004/1024

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(cwerdna @ May 1 2007, 03:30 AM) [snapback]433104[/snapback]</div>

It just shows that the Detroit 3 are never going to change. They won't come out with a vehicle that competes directly with the Prius. They insist on cranking out one "hybrid" version after another of their cash cow gas guzzlers that get one or two miles per gallon better than the gas only version. It's just spin and publicity so that they can claim to be with the hybrid revolution when it's a hollow contribution. They just don't get what it takes to conserve and they just don't get why the Prius continues to sell well. 'Wow, that Prius is still selling, let's come out with our own. A pickup truck.'

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(MarkMN @ Apr 17 2007, 02:24 PM) [snapback]424931[/snapback]</div>

Someone obviously cut deeply into your education... Not even an American company is stupid enough to cut their income by 90% so that they can cut their costs by 70%... That's a sure path to losing money!

I am just kidding - I am sure it was a typo on your behalf and meant it the other way around.... but got a laugh out of reading it....

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daniel @ Apr 17 2007, 03:11 PM) [snapback]424924[/snapback]</div>

Why didn't you hold out for the ZAP - X?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(IsrAmeriPrius @ May 5 2007, 11:51 AM) [snapback]436093[/snapback]</div>

Because I ddn't feel like waiting 25 years. Seriously, the ZAP X doesn't look like it's going to be a reality any time soon.

I wanted to drive an electric car NOW and the Xebra is basically all there is, other than a 25-mph NEV, or paying $60,000 for a used Rav4EV. Even the $70,000 eBox is only available in CA. But I'll dump the Xebra as soon as a real electric car comes along, and I'll very likely buy the first one that becomes available. The Xebra is not a great car to drive. It's klunky and rickety and only goes about 35 mph on flat ground and a lot slower up hills, and the modification that I'm getting is supposed to go 40 miles if I drive it gently, and that's with more than double the OEM battery capacity. But it's electric! No gas at all. I'm sick of gasoline. This is beyond environmental: it's personal. And since we get our electricity from hydro, my Xebra will be water powered! Ten months of the year, I'll probably have to drive the Prius 3 times a month, and in summer I'll drive the Prius to my hiking trips. But the rest of the time the oil companies can go soak their heads in a bucket of toxic slops.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daniel @ May 5 2007, 03:22 PM) [snapback]436179[/snapback]</div>

I don't want to burst your bubble, but all of the hydroelectric power in your neighborhood is already used up - there is no surplus to power your little electric car. It will be most likely powered by a the new coal or natural gas fired power plant that they are building right down the street from your house. So, you better come up with a PLAN B....

By the way, I am sure you are make a living doing something... Please let us know what it is, so we can avoid its greedy, money making services (that I am sure are Scr--ing somebody out of something).

 

Why doesn't Detroit in general and GM in particular get serious about the people that don't drive trucks and SUVs? GM has not only put out a great variety of trucks/SUVs - they spend most of their advertising on them, appealing to the baser instincts. Meanwhile, the public is still waiting for the numerious fuel efficient concept cars GM has teased us with.

If GM wants to recover good will, put the Chevy Volt in the showroom reasonably close to what it was touted to be last March. Put the two-mode hybrid in sedans as a serious alternative to the Prius and Civic hybrids. Stop stonewalling fuel economy standards at every turn.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(John in LB @ May 7 2007, 02:50 AM) [snapback]436719[/snapback]</div>

Well, I'll have to research the electricity generation in my area. Thanks for the tip.

As for what I do: I'm retired. So I'm not sure what you need to boycott in your inexplicable vendetta against me. My income comes from an investment portfolio so diversified (mutual funds of a variety of descriptions) that I think you'd have to stop buying anything at all. Good luck with that. It would certainly reduce your environmental footprint to an admirable level.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Delta Flyer @ May 7 2007, 06:49 AM) [snapback]436780[/snapback]</div>

GM is very serious indeed about people who don't drive trucks or SUVs: It is doing everything it possibly can to convince us all to make the switch by buying its trucks and SUVs.

There are two ways to make a living in a free-market exonomy: You can sell something that people want, or you can convince people to buy something they never knew they needed. (Both goods and services, including your own labor, can fall into either category.) Honda and Toyota lean toward the first model. The American car makers are firmly ensconced in the second model.