The green quandary over electric cars

Across the Back Fence ^ | 10/02/2010 | Todd Fitchette

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

A Boondoggle designed to obtain taxpayer funds for the favored few.

[righttackle44]

I have no problem with electric cars. They're ugly. They may leave you stranded 20 miles from home. You may not be able to find a place to re-charge them.

I won't buy them.

No problem.

[MediaMole]

Yet another post ignoring the fact that the Volt is a hybrid with a gas engine. It can go 40 miles without using the gas engine, but it has the same ability as any car to refuel at a gas station and drive hundreds of miles on a tank of gas.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

It's a good thing that electricity isn't produced by coal, natural gas or atomic energy, otherwise battery-powered cars wouldn't be very politically correct.

[purplelobster]

What’s the environmental impact of massive garbage dumps of leaky old batteries? What happens if you get in an accident with a Chevy Volt and it leaks battery acid over the passengers? Where does the energy come from to power the car battery? Squirrels on stationary bikes? So many unanswered questions Barry didn’t ask before rushing to funnel countless billions of dollars into GM.

[SJSAMPLE]

And even worse for any supplier dumb enough to get stuck in the chain.

My company was asked by GM to bid on the project, because of our technology and decades (century, actually) of experience.

Our CEO turned them down, because the payback schedule proposed by GM was a complete joke.

[righttackle44]

Squirrels on stationary bikes?

This may be an idea. It's certainly a better idea than an electric car.

[Paladin2]

I’ve been think about building an electric Suburban to drive my dogs 1.5 mi to the park and back daily. I figure it’ll take most of the rear to hold all the lead-acid batteries.

[SECURE AMERICA]

The Government can take the electric cars and shove them where the sun don’t shine....

[Paladin2]

Heck, you could hire my dogs to chase the squirrels to get war-emergency-power output!

[Free_SJersey]

One thing that keeps being glossed over about the Chevy Volt is its price. Without subsidies and write offs, the open market price of this waste would be closer to $80K.

[Othniel]

The ONLY way electric cars will ever be workable (short of a small reactor of some kind) involves some kind of outside source generating the power. Think of trolley buses, or the whole 3rd rail thing. Or think of microwaves beamed from space to the cars, and the cars converting them to electricity. As it stands now, with the low range, the dependency on plugs and big extension cords, and the myriad of dangerous metals and chemicals in the batteries, electric cars are a waste of money.

Just my 42.315 cents.

[Paladin2]

Microwave beams from Space should work.

[I am Richard Brandon]

The Chevy Volt. Another triumph from Government Motors. The perfect green auto - zero polution because noone wants it and noone will drive it.

[Nuc 1.1]

Exactly. But you know what is really sad? The Volt concept car was really sexy. I know the areo wasn't good but so what. How fast are you going to drive the thing anyway. Now it looks just like every other pregnant jelly bean Chevy. So sad!

[ANGGAPO]

I have a feeling that Chevrolet is going to take a bath because of the Volt. The only electric powered car that is going to take the market has to be 100% comparable to a gasoline or diesel powered car.

[The Great RJ]

The only people who will likely buy a Chevy Volt are Hollywood lefties who will add the Volt to their fleet of SUVs and limos to feel good, tree huggers who will drive them and look smug and other attention whores. The Volt is impractical for just about anyone who has a serious need for transportation.

[ZOOKER]

Let's not forget GM's majority owner, the US government.

Uncle Sam will make sure somebody buys them, whether it's Federal fleets, mandates to local authorities for their fleets, or subsidies/tax credits to private buyers.

You'll buy them one way or another.

[Senator John Blutarski]

I totally support (a) California banning all internal combustion powered autos and making electric transportation appliances compulsory on all public thoroughfares , and (b) banning the use of any electricity not generated by 100 pct green power suppliers.

I will smile with satisfaction and glee as all the pc’s and ac’s in California flicker off, the state economy collapses to semi-third world status, and the population sweltering as they ponder the blessings delivered upon them by the sophomoric, arrogant, irrational left-wing ideologues whom they insist upon returning to office year after year.