Posted on 07/31/2010 2:29:28 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
GENERAL MOTORS introduced America to the Chevrolet Volt at the 2007 Detroit Auto Show as a low-slung concept car that would someday be the future of motorized transportation. It would go 40 miles on battery power alone, promised G.M., after which it would create its own electricity with a gas engine. Three and a half years and one government-assisted bankruptcy later G.M. is bringing a Volt to market that makes good on those two promises. The problem is, well, everything else.
For starters, G.M.s vision turned into a car that costs $41,000 before relevant tax breaks ... but after billions of dollars of government loans and grants for the Volts development and production. And instead of the sleek coupe of 2007, it looks suspiciously similar to a Toyota Prius. It also requires premium gasoline, seats only four people (the battery runs down the center of the car, preventing a rear bench) and has less head and leg room than the $17,000 Chevrolet Cruze, which is more or less the non-electric version of the Volt.
In short, the Volt appears to be exactly the kind of green-at-all-costs car that some opponents of the bailout feared the government might order G.M. to build. Unfortunately for this theory, G.M. was already committed to the Volt when it entered bankruptcy. And though President Obamas task force reported in 2009 that the Volt will likely be too expensive to be commercially successful in the short term, it didnt cancel the project.
Nor did the government or G.M. decide to sell the Volt at a loss, which, paradoxically, might have been the best hope for making it profitable. Consider the Prius. Back in 1997, Toyota began selling the high-tech, first-of-its-kind car in Japan for about $17,000, even though each model cost $32,000 to build.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I just really like the idea of denying the government tax money by using an alternative source of electricity.
I hope you have at LEAST an 8 hour job and a 220v outlet handy...
Motorized Rollerblades are becoming increasingly popular across the globe. They started out entirely for sport, but with the alternative-energy movement, many people are using them to make their daily commutes.
Typical powered inline skates can move up to 20 mph and have a range of 15 to 20 miles. If you run out of power, you still have a usable pair of skates.
Commercial motorized Rollerblades cost hundreds of dollars, but with some basic equipment and a few hours to spare, you can make your own lightweight version. For simplicity's sake, only one wheel on the skates will be battery powered.
what makes you think an employeer will allow them to recharge?
what makes you think any city will not impose a plug inspection tax on all outlets?
How about converters that take two 110 and make them a 220?
Stealing electricity is going to be an interesting crime to punish.
I saw one version where the user had a gasoline motor back pack with a flex cable to one boot.
I have no use for gadgets that make my feet go faster than the rest of my body. My elbows and hips hurt just looking at the picture!
The vega was brand new. It was the first model year.
True enough, that.
Perhaps I could make one of these...
OUCH!
I have an 8 hour job, however, the building that where I work at has a parking garage and I doubt the building management is going to allow car charging outlets for free...
This is the car that gave Communism a bad name. Powered by a two-stroke pollution generator that maxed out at an ear-splitting 18 hp, the Trabant was a hollow lie of a car constructed of recycled worthlessness (actually, the body was made of a fiberglass-like Duroplast, reinforced with recycled fibers like cotton and wood). A virtual antique when it was designed in the 1950s, the Trabant was East Germany's answer to the VW Beetle a "people's car," as if the people didn't have enough to worry about. Trabants smoked like an Iraqi oil fire, when they ran at all, and often lacked even the most basic of amenities, like brake lights or turn signals. But history has been kind to the Trabi. Thousands of East Germans drove their Trabants over the border when the Wall fell, which made it a kind of automotive liberator. Once across the border, the none-too-sentimental Ostdeutschlanders immediately abandoned their cars. Ich bin Junk! .......................... FRegards
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.