Posted on 03/02/2011 3:45:10 PM PST by bruinbirdman
Ford's chief financial officer has warned predictions of a surge in electric car sales are "very ambitious", as next generation vehicles dominate the Geneva Motor Show.
Lewis Booth, a Briton, raised concerns about their viability without state subsidies. Most leading car makers have unveiled new electric or hybrid models in Geneva, while BMW and Peugeot have confirmed a 100m (£85m) joint venture to develop electric technologies.
However, Mr Booth said: "Electric vehicles at the moment are still very expensive and have limitations. There is a question mark about how long governments can subsidise vehicles when they are under so much pressure from other funding issues.
"Some of the sales projections... for electric vehicles are very ambitious because I am not sure how customers are going to be able to afford to pay.
"Our philosophy is that we have a suite of technologies, from continuing to improve conventional vehicles, right through to plug-ins, hybrids and electric vehicles. The customer is going to decide and we want to satisfy all customers, not just rich customers."
Philippe Varin, chief executive of Peugeot, warned Europe is in danger of being left behind by Asia and America if it does not improve investment in infrastructure for low-carbon vehicles. "We have to standardise infrastructure. We are late compared to Asia," he said.
"When you look at the amount of money supporting car manufacturing in
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Sometimes as I read FR, I wrap myself in an electric blanket just to read posts. Spring is not that far away and (knock on wood) we haven't had any serious colds or respiratory problems at all this winter!
When we sold the diesel, it had a LOT of miles on it (can't recall how many offhand) but we got top dollar for it. Back in those days there were regular gasoline Nissans and Toyota station wagons that got exemplary mileage as well. Those days are long gone and government has dictated substantially lower mileage via pollution mandates.
Good for you...space heaters are pretty efficient, Fred Meyer has them for $28.00 and they’re very good.
Here’s a pic of one at Amazon, not in stock:
http://www.amazon.com/Sunbeam-SFH8111-Oscillating-Heater-Control/dp/B002QUZGVK/ref=cm_cr_pr_pb_i
Abstract this a bit, but just a bit -
TRANSPORTATION, and the freedom to travel,
will be restricted only to the rich and the government.
If you look at it ( and I have had this debate with my "auto gnomes" ) The weight of the Hybrid System is a big drag. Yet the cost and or the repair infrastructure is not their yet for an all aluminum or aluminum intensive vehicle. An all aluminum Chevy Cruze might kick the snaught out of the Volt in terms of dollar / performance / fuel economy, but can't compete against it's all steel brother.
The question is what will Ford do to shed the 500 or 700 lbs in the article if my memory is correct, and Will we eventually have a mano-e-mano comparison of a "Superlite" vs. a Hybrid, especially on the car sales room floor.
Look at the "Edison 2" project.
They won the 5 million and did it via low weight and very low aerodynamic drag, they couldn't make an engineering case for carrying around X00 lbs of electrical drive train that didn't help them up a hill.
What does that tell you....
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