FTA:
Obama, who supports the $7,500 tax credit for the Volt, is not fazed by its 40-mile electric limit — he only drove the car 10 feet.
What an (can’t say it out loud). Puhleeze let’s settle on a candidate and get that JA out of the WH.
In all fairness, the Roberts wasn’t crippled by a government committee overruling anyone with any actual hands-on experience.
Could someone design an electric car with a ten mile range and a 40 kw turbodiesel genset already? It should get an honest 100 mpg, be fairly snappy to drive and bring the cost down to a reasonable level.
The electric car did lose in the market place then and the Volt will lose today as well. The 40 miles per charge of the original would be half that distance if the car had the weight of a real car body, safety and comfort features that are required today. Remember that the energy used to charge the batteries has to be produced somehow and at a cost. Factored in, this cost and the emissions of the power plant as well, are we making progress or losing ground?
Any engineer that takes a quick look at electric vehicles quickly zero in on battery performance. To have a successful electric power car, we need better batteries - period. The problem is particularly acute in areas that have sub zero temperatures for an extended period of time. Get the engineers working on batteries.