Posted on 02/08/2015 1:46:55 PM PST by LogicDesigner
Conventional Chevy Silverados being transformed into plug-in hybrid trucks at VIA Motors’ high volume assembly plant.
Think of it as a Volt with a flat bed.
Via Motors’ “electrified” 4WD Chevy Silverado entered commercial production last month. That’s a first for the company — founded in 2010 — that retrofits GM pickups and vans and turns them into $85,000-plus plug-in hybrids that can also function as roving generators. (More on pricing below.)
It’s no coincidence that the concept is similar to the Volt. The chairman of Via Motors is Bob Lutz, father of the Chevy plug-in hybrid. It’s also no coincidence that Alan Perriton, who is a longtime colleague and friend of Lutz’s from GM, is president of Via Motors. Perriton spent 34 years at GM.
Perriton’s background includes “pulling together” the GM-Toyota NUMMI plant in Fremont, Calif. (which was later taken over by Tesla) and a stint as vice president of the GM Saturn project in Tennessee. He has also held executive positions for GM in Asia.
How did Perriton and Via Motors get Lutz on board? “We took a pickup to Bob’s place in Ann Arbor,” Perriton said in a phone interview. “And that was enough” to convince him. (Lutz was appointed chairman in February 2014.)
Perriton echoes Lutz’s belief that the light-duty vehicle market has been in dire need of a fuel-efficient vehicle.
“[The pickup] is the workhorse of America, this is where the most gasoline gets consumed in the vehicle sector…[Via] takes a vehicle from 12 – 15 mpg and moves it up to the range 80 – 100 mpg [in some use cases],” Perriton said, echoing Lutz’s sentiment.
Via trucks can also be ‘mobile generators.’
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
So then you should be willing to make the oil companies hire their own private navy to police the Persian Gulf shipping lanes instead of making the taxpayer pay for it? Or at least add a gas tax that covers the tens of billions a year it costs our military to do it for them (not to mention the occasional Gulf War).
Like it or not, our military is subsidizing the oil industry. We can't have a double standard. One of the biggest electric car fans that I know is a Gulf War vet with an NRA bumpersticker on the back of his Volt. He will tell you of watching dozens of his fellow soldiers die and coming back vowing to change his oil consumption.
Furthermore, the EV tax credits will phase out in a few years, unlike the shipping-lane-police oil subsidy which will last forever if we don't transition to electric vehicles (or plug-in hybrids like the Volt that can cover 90% of your miles with electricity).
“Why are we giving someone who is buying a $100,000 PLUS Automobile a $7,500 Tax Credit? Even a $40,000 Volt Driver?”
I actually would not mind it if the tax credit was limited to cars that cost less that $50,000. I don't think anyone paying $70,000+ for a Tesla is going to be swayed one way or another by $7,500. The Volt starts at $35,000 and with the $7,500 federal tax credit and between $1,000 and $6,000 in state tax credits, many people can get a new one for around $25,000.
What do you want it to be?
Why don’t you just get to your point?
What is with this chat like pestering, buy the thing if you want to.
I’m not interested in spending a $100,000.00 on a car, and if was going to, it sure would not be an electric one, I do travel, I do love challenging and dangerous weather events and climates and mountains, and I don’t need a generator built in to my automobile as a deal clincher.
Well with the $7500 federal and (?) state tax subsidy, the economics can work. Without these and the various state mandates, I don't think we'd see much in the way of sales.
“I’m not interested in spending a $100,000.00 on a car”
Not even if the US borrowed $10,000 from China to give you if you did? [Obama’s latest proposal]
Actually we pretty much cut way back on borrowing from China quite a while ago, when the Obama regime discovered they could just have the Fed Reserve create the money and the markets accepted it.
Yeah you are correct in my case anyways.
Still after driving it, I plan on installing a 200 amp service level 2 charger at my house and getting another once this lease runs out (without the incentives).
It’s not for everyone but I love mine.
All evidence seems to point to the opposite being true. Shoot, even oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens wrote an article titled: We Are Paying to Protect Chinese Oil.
Furthermore, you can see lots of information on this subject if you just google: cost of protecting oil supplies
True. The E-car subsidies are still, nonetheless, bills our children and grandchildren will pay.
It would be fun if someone proposed an E-car tax to pay for the E-car subsidies LOL!
“I do love challenging and dangerous weather events and climates and mountains, and I don’t need a generator built in to my automobile as a deal clincher.”
Via says the truck outperforms the regular gas model.
Rugged 4WD with more torque.
We would even still have to guarantee mid-east security for oil shipments to Europe, China, Japan, etc so those countries would buy our bonds!
... so we could use that money to subsidize E-cars.
Is the goose-neck hitch to pull my RV standard equipment?
They must be paying you well to spout that bull!
Nothing but GM welfare through mandated purchase quotas from the fed gov to taxpayer funded GOs.
You’ve got to take GMs performance post-bailout. Their quality sucks!
What did Ford say to GM? - “I don’t Recall!!!”
Where will the electricity come from for 150 million electric cars? Solar? Wind?
Unicorn farts.
If that is the case the great, why didn’t you just post that rather than all these teen girl like chatty posts?
Are you female?
T.Boone says a lot of things. Have you been in favor of all his ideas?
So have we reduced our military with the reduction of our oil imports so far? Any serious talk that we will be doing so?
The government should not be selecting winners and loosers in technology and private business. It is not their role, and their certainly suck at it when they try.
Some time I need to post a photo of the WWII era Harley in the Museum at Fredericksburg, TX.
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.