[Sir Napsalot]

Watch Obama's SOTU tonight (but I will not be one of them), he's not going to own up the mistake. He's going to pour money down the green / electric car / battery tech.

Since he can print the money, he's not going to stop and nobody's making him stop.

[cruise_missile]

Should be called the coal car.

[rellimpank]

-—the laws of physics prevail again—

[Oberon]

Oh, the Tesla works fine. You can have hundreds of miles of range... all you have to do is get a gas or diesel generator on a utility trailer to pull behind it. Run the generator while you're rolling down the road, and voila.

[Chad N. Freud]

Electric car boondoggle vs. the New York Times — with WaPo as referee?

Popcorn, please.

[imardmd1]

It never got to Newark, DE if you want to know, nor New Castle, either. The fact is, it never really got beyond the gate of the factory in Newport, where the workewrs’ parking lot is always empty. I’ve driven by it six or eight times weekly for years.

[Lmo56]

The MPGe ratings that the EPA puts out for electric vehicles never take into account real world conditions - such as playing the radio, headlights, wipers, heat/AC, etc.

These, when in use, significantly reduce the operating range of eletric vehicles.

[Rebel_Ace]

Electric cars have superior attributes except for two principle drawbacks: Energy storage and Cost.

Electric cars are an order of magnitude simpler mechanically, convert energy to mechanical motion with 90 plus percent efficiency, etc, etc.

The bugaboo of energy storage (battery, fuel cell, what have you) at a reasonable cost is the final problem to solve. I don’t mind private industry researching this. As it relates to National Defense I don’t mind the Feds doing this. I do mind subsidizing some well off aging greenie buying such cars.

[Moltke]

Who wants a $101,000 car that might die just because you feel like taking “a long detour”?

Non sequitur. Normal cars can run out of gas on "a long detour," you know. And no, I'm not a fan of electric cars. I'm just calling the WaPo writer a fool (but aren't they all). (Side note: I'm guessing the car didn't actually 'die' but just ran out of energy - so much for journalistic acumen.)

[Political Junkie Too]

Were his tires properly inflated?

-PJ

[Sir Napsalot]

The article is not a debate of electric car per se. As many of you pointed out, there are pros and cons for it (also the >2800 and counting discussion threads on its webpage).

This article is about Obama&Co's insistence that we should still pour the enormous amount of fed money (quote ‘Obama investment’) as one of the top priorities to solve our economic woes.

The author pointed out the shortcomings of ‘real world’ electric cars, and the unlikelihood of instant breakthroughs.

If Obama&Co don't own up their mistake, how does he steer the ship of state out of our present predicament?

[Zeppo]

The Times is standing by its story.

Expecting the New York Times to own up to reporting errors, lies, or omissions is as futile as expecting Obama to do the same.

Like any other member of the criminal class, "That's my story and I'm stickin' to it"...