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Ground-breaking electric Chevrolet Volt runs out of juice
Associated Press ^ | February 22, 2019 | Tom Krisher

Posted on 02/22/2019 8:10:01 PM PST by Olog-hai

As their company was swirling around the financial drain in the early 2000s, General Motors executives came up with an idea to counter its gas-guzzling image and point the way to transportation of the future: an electric car with a gas-engine backup that could travel anywhere. […]

… On Tuesday, the last (Chevrolet) Volt was built with little ceremony at a Detroit factory that’s now slated to close. Sales averaged less than 20,000 per year, not enough to sustain the costly undertaking.

The Volt wasn’t the first electric car, but it was the first to conquer anxiety over range at a reasonable cost. GM’s limited-range EV1 came out in the 1990s, and Tesla put out its 200-plus-mile Roadster in 2008 for more than $100,000.

The Volt was among the first plug-in hybrids, many of which can go only 20 or so miles on electricity and haven’t gained much popularity among consumers. …

(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Travel
KEYWORDS: chevrolet; chevroletvolt; chevyvolt; electriccars; elonmusk; falcon9; falconheavy; governmentmotors; hyundai; hyundaikona; kona; obamalegacy; pluginhybrid; spacex; tesla; volt
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To: Olog-hai

I saw one in a parking lot with dealers plates on it. Asked the driver if it was one of them new coal powered cars. Guy said ,”no, it’s electric”. I then asked him where the electricity came from. He got mad and walked away.

CC


41 posted on 02/22/2019 11:26:34 PM PST by Celtic Conservative (My cats are more amusing than 200 channels worth of TV.)
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To: Henchster

He promised to buy one. Never did


42 posted on 02/22/2019 11:31:49 PM PST by newzjunkey (WALL or NOTHING)
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To: willk

“An electric 4WD pickup is coming out next year with a 400 mile range and O-60 in 3.5 seconds. Embrace the technology.”

If you want to duplicate the EV experience for a lot less: carry an additional 1000 pounds of weight on the floor of the car (to simulate the battery weight), and reduce the gas tank to 6 gallons.


43 posted on 02/23/2019 12:33:56 AM PST by Reverend Wright (TAX the WOKE !)
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To: Olog-hai

I want steampunk cars and trucks!
Got lots of trees, pallets,and burnable garbage that i can mulch into presto type of lohgs or pellets.

Or best yet.....

Build my own nuclear fusion heat source, in time everyone will have a Mr.Fusion.


44 posted on 02/23/2019 12:49:02 AM PST by Daniel Ramsey (Thank YOU President Trump, finally we can do what America does best, to be the best)
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To: willk

How much are the taxpayers subsidizing each electric car sold?


45 posted on 02/23/2019 12:51:24 AM PST by outofsalt (If history teaches us anything, it's that history rarely teaches us anything.)
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To: rawcatslyentist

Don’t forget our coal power plants that produce power from steam!


46 posted on 02/23/2019 1:47:52 AM PST by vpintheak (Stop making stupid people famous!)
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To: spokeshave

Dad’s Army did something similar with the butcher’s truck?


47 posted on 02/23/2019 3:38:07 AM PST by wally_bert (You're bringing The Monk down, man!)
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To: willk
Embrace the technology

A power plant must be on-board or find a new way to get electricity from generation to user.

48 posted on 02/23/2019 5:14:43 AM PST by NativeSon ( Grease the floor with Crisco when I dance the Disco)
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To: rawcatslyentist
Steam power.

A lot of folks don't consider that fact. We could create "Star Trek" tech like a warp core and we'd use it to turn an armature.

49 posted on 02/23/2019 5:20:12 AM PST by NativeSon ( Grease the floor with Crisco when I dance the Disco)
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To: Olog-hai
Volt Dolt
50 posted on 02/23/2019 5:31:20 AM PST by Texas Fossil ((Texas is not where you were born, but a Free State of Heart, Mind & Attitude!))
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To: Olog-hai; ClearCase_guy
Just about all steam-powered cars were gasoline-fired

Substitute kerosene for gasoline, and you'd be a bit closer. Some used gasoline to warm up the engine before the kerosene kicked in.

51 posted on 02/23/2019 5:34:16 AM PST by PAR35
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To: Olog-hai

Actually steam power is a lot more practical than electric powered cars. But, I would not want to be in a collision in one. Steam is very dangerous in a wreck.

And remember, electric cars have very heavy batteries and they are full of acid. Another hazard.


52 posted on 02/23/2019 5:34:47 AM PST by Texas Fossil ((Texas is not where you were born, but a Free State of Heart, Mind & Attitude!))
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To: outofsalt; willk

That is my issue.

I think electric cars are great, I think they are indeed the future. They are simpler in many ways, but until they can do the following, I would not buy one except as a novelty:

1.) Be manufactured and sold at competitive prices without a taxpayer subsidy of any kind.

2.) Have performance that is on par with vehicles in a similar class of internal combustion engine cars and still meet the following requirements.

3.) Have a range on a charge that is on par with typical internal combustion engines.

4.) Achieve that same range with a heater or air conditioner running the entire time.

5.) Achieve a battery life on par with the current average lifetime of a car before it is junked (not sold)

6.) Achieve a fast charge capability of a half hour or less, or alternatively, implement a system of fast swap of uniformly designed depleted battery packs with charged packs using a system so reliable and easy even a young child or old person could do it.

If these are met, I will buy one.

I will buy it because it makes personal and economic sense to me. If it cannot meet these standards, I am not buying it to fulfill the wishes of some Leftist jackhammer because they want to save Gaia, and I am most certainly not buying it to put money in the pocket of someone who took my money that I paid in taxes to the government in the first place.


53 posted on 02/23/2019 6:00:59 AM PST by rlmorel (Leftists: They believe in the "Invisible Hand" only when it is guided by government.)
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To: ClearCase_guy

“Coal powered cars? I don’t want one.”

Check out Ustus on Mountian Men. He has a Wood powered 1-1/2 ton Truck running on burning wood chips.


54 posted on 02/23/2019 6:02:23 AM PST by carmen2017
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To: Seaplaner

Yeah, the volt did as it was intended, it got Obama’s EPA and Treasury Department to back-off when they were facing bankruptcy and a new round of average fleet mileage limits.


55 posted on 02/23/2019 6:54:13 AM PST by Tallguy (To go to)
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To: Texas Fossil

Steam cars that used flash boilers were far less dangerous. No high volume of water to heat up, so no big pressure vessel to haul around.


56 posted on 02/23/2019 6:57:04 AM PST by Olog-hai ("No Republican, no matter how liberal, is going to woo a Democratic vote." -- Ronald Reagan, 1960)
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To: Olog-hai

They keep calling it an electric car when it is a poorly designed and implemented hybrid.


57 posted on 02/23/2019 8:33:03 AM PST by Darksheare (Those who support liberal "Republicans" summarily support every action by same.)
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To: Darksheare

Meanwhile, the plug-in Prius came out right afterwards (probably researched for far longer) and most likely easily trounced the Volt, never mind being more “groundbreaking” than these propagandists are trying to make the Volt sound.


58 posted on 02/23/2019 8:38:17 AM PST by Olog-hai ("No Republican, no matter how liberal, is going to woo a Democratic vote." -- Ronald Reagan, 1960)
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To: rlmorel
With all due respect, I weary of that “electric cars are the future” slogan. Especially when a certain segment of society believed that they were when Edison came out with his DC battery system.


59 posted on 02/23/2019 8:44:38 AM PST by Olog-hai ("No Republican, no matter how liberal, is going to woo a Democratic vote." -- Ronald Reagan, 1960)
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To: Olog-hai

The volt was always a propaganda design, the Prius (owned most often by smug pious types) was actually engineered with a thought towards the tech.
Still wouldn’t own either because I deal with snow and traffic here that makes it moot.


60 posted on 02/23/2019 9:10:59 AM PST by Darksheare (Those who support liberal "Republicans" summarily support every action by same.)
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