Tesla is fun to watch, but GM has the clout to bring inexpensive long-range electric vehicles to the masses.
In general, compared to what Tesla and GM have in the pipeline, the EV offerings by the Japanese and German manufacturers look pretty sad by comparison.
The new generation Prius is butt ugly, and for around the same price you could buy a 2017 Volt, and so long as you have a 120 volt outlet to plug into overnight, beat it on fuel savings every day of the week. It gets almost as good mileage as the Prius when running off its gas generator, too. And actually drive a car that looks like something someone might want to drive.
Why do they sell so many? I honestly couldn't tell ya. I think they just have better marketing.
Dear Detroit, Here is a list of changes needed for your cars:
1 Light switch to turn off all lights with radio on and door open.
2 No alarm system option: then no false alarms again and again
3 No chimes and warning sound option.
Don't park in areas where punks might sit on your hood.
Trying to put me out of business?... I designed one of the first all-electronic chime/beep/bloop noise makers a half century ago ;-) ...Jim Thompson
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| James E.Thompson | mens |
| Analog Innovations | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| San Tan Valley, AZ 85142 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |
I'm looking for work... see my website.
Tesla doesn't have "clout"??? They just raised some $400 million in pre-order money. I think they can do anything GM can.
The Volt only has a 53 mile range on battery alone which can be very useful for sure. I'm not sure if I'm going to want the Tesla 3, the Volt or the Bolt. I really like the self driving features of the Tesla. It could help me avoid accidents.
There is nothing wrong with the Prius. It's a great hybrid with lots of benefits.
Tesla mainly manages to raise and lose money. Musk borrowed (or maybe stole) $400M in deposits on a car that doesn't exist. Fun to watch for sure.
Unless someone vastly improves batteries, EVs may be a silly fad. Gasoline will stay cheap for a very long time; fracking can't be un-discovered. Eventually people will get tired of charging cars for free, and lots of EVs will clog charging stations
I wouldn't want an EV. It wouldn't make it up to Truckee on one charge, and when I finally got there the batteries would freeze and die. Teslas and Priuses and Leafs (Leaves?) are ugly.
This charging station, behind the Safeway in Truckee, is rarely used, even in the summer. Well, other cars are parked there when it's crowded.
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Nice Audi!
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John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc
lunatic fringe electronics
The pure electric Bolt crossover will have a range of about ~200 miles, and be able to fully charge off a supercharging station in about 20 minutes.
I think a 200 mile range is around the sweet spot that will convince people that an electric vehicle could work as a primary substitute for an ICE family car.
The truth is that public charging stations are kind of a gimmick. If you have a car with a 200 mile range that you can fully charge overnight from a 220 outlet in your garage, there's not a huge impetus to use public charging stations. I don't think public chargers will ever be a significant fraction of any future EV infrastructure.
I often see Leafs and Teslas parked at supermarket near me where there's a public charger 100 feet away, not even bothering to use it. They have the range such that it's not worth their time.
Keep in mind that the purpose of a plug-in hybrid like the Volt was never really to make a "pure" electric car, though it's certainly possible to use it that way if one has a short commute. The point was more along the lines of making a hybrid with a battery assist to kick the MPG numbers up.
I drive about 250 miles a month and my total fuel costs are around $15 in gas and $8 of electricity.
It got down to -10F on several occasions in Boston last winter, and to my knowledge my battery didn't "freeze and die." When it was at its coldest, the ECU briefly complained about "Propulsion Power Reduced", then the ICE switched on for about 2 minutes and brought the battery coolant up to temperature. After that everything was normal.
Yup, that's a proprietary Tesla supercharger. There are only two vehicles in the world it can charge: the Model S and Model X. The Volts, Leafs, etc. can't do anything with it. Not particularly surprising that nobody is fighting over those spots at the moment, since the only vehicles it can charge cost around 100 grand.
If you meant why Toyota sells so many I can answer that. The core reasons are reliability and reputation. For the same reasons we have a Toyota and a Mitsubishi in the garage. Both are around 20 years old and neither caused any major repair costs. Not even a light bulb has dared to burn out.
Our big three have a long way to go to reach that sort of status because it takes decades to build such reputation. Actually with one of them I can assure you that I will never buy a vehicle from them as long as I live.
Yes, Tesla has historically been pretty good about not turning a profit. So far they've managed to release some luxury automobiles they haven't made any money on, and whether this will change with the Model 3 remains to be seen.
Meanwhile, GM actually has affordable electric and hybrid options in full production, that they're actually making bills with.
Keep in mind that the "53" mile figure for the Gen 2 is a conservative estimate. I know guys with 2016s pulling 70 miles off the battery in good conditions, no problem at all.
Even in my lower EV range first generation, the all electric option is certainly very useful. In the sense that I'm only putting in around $20 worth of fuel a month useful.
There's nothing "wrong" with it, except that if you were to test drive a Prius and Volt side by side, and then someone said "So you can have one of these for essentially the same price" I can pretty much guarantee with 90% certainty which one you'd walk off the lot with.
I bought a Ford LTD in 1977... since then only Nissan/Infiniti products. ...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson | mens |
| Analog Innovations | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| San Tan Valley, AZ 85142 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |
I'm looking for work... see my website.
OK, but the power grid will need a lot of work. Especially with solar adding daytime power and cars mostly charging at night.
The mileage increase of a hybrid comes mainly from making it small and ugly and aerodynamic. Hybrids don't get especially good mileage in San Francisco, with the hills.
Around 10 cents per mile. Not extraordinary for a small car. I wonder if it would be worth it, without subsidies. My Audi is roughly twice that, but it's a 4WD 250 HP hatchback beast. I think the ski rack wrecks my highway mileage, too.
A pure EV like a Tesla may need to be towed if you leave it out in the cold. Unless you run an extension cord to the battery heater.
Maybe some Tesla bigwig lives nearby.
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John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc
picosecond timing precision measurement
jlarkin att highlandtechnology dott com
http://www.highlandtechnology.com
That is absolutely true. The vast number of people will be very happy with that. Heck, my friend's car only holds 14 gal of gas which will take here about 320 miles, not so much more. Most people would do well with a 100 mile range given their driving habits.
It is a fact that most vehicles spend >95% of their life sitting, not doing anything. Electric cars can be fully charged during those times for 99% of usage. On those few times when you need to travel after driving for about four hours you can stop to charge in about 30 minutes while eating and taking a break. Some vehicles have a longer range of 5 to 6 hours of highway traveling before needing a charge.
John has a bug up his butt about electric vehicles. His arguments have been exposed many times and yet he continues to repeat them. Heck, I just looked and San Francisco to Truckee is 187 miles according to Google so a 200 mile EV would do the trip ok. If he is not sure of making it he might make a *brief* stop somewhere to get a small charge to complete the trip. No different than topping off your gas tank before reaching your destination.
When John starts talking about how "ugly" EVs are, you know he has run out of arguments against them.
They are building a lot more of them over the next year so the Model 3 will have plenty of charging spots on trips.
Whatever it needs, at the end of the day sending the energy over wires certainly seems like it would be a more efficient solution than burning liquid hydrocarbons to truck/ship liquid hydrocarbons all over creation!
It'd be interesting to see. At least with a hybrid the excess energy that you always use to go up a hill can be recovered a bit when you go down.
I dunno. Do you honestly think this is an ugly car:
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Compared to this...thing?
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Even my first generation gets a lot of compliments on the styling. Someone said "Oh, looks like GM is making hybrid cars I'd actually want to drive."
Ah, but the Volt is nearly a foot longer and a couple hundred pounds chunkier than the A3. ;) They call it a "compact", but it has a ton of room inside. At about 180 inches it feels more like a midsize.
I'm not sure exactly what the Teslas and Leafs do on really cold days. If you're plugged in at the time, at least, AFAIK they can all use wall current to bring the system up to temperature before departure.
I certainly find it shocking that a fair number of "electronics guys" seem to have their heart set on driving a 300 hp gas-guzzler on the side.
For my part I'd rather run off locally-sourced energy than hand over my dinero to the House of Saud...you know, the guys who probably helped facilitate 9/11 (maybe we'd know for sure if they'd ever let us look at the documents Bush 2 locked in the basement.)
Fuck 'em. I'll give 'em couch change, if they're lucky.
Huh? Peak usage is around 6 PM. If charging is at night it would be using off peak energy and helping to even the loads on the grid, not stress them. Or if charging is done during the day it is using solar power which has a problem because it is not matched to the peak usage times, again the EV can help to deal with that. Most EV charging is flexible and so it can be used to offset the current peaks and imbalances in electricity generation.
Where did you read that? Or did you make it up? I bet it is just the opposite with gas vehicles having very poor mileage and EVs with regenerative braking getting good numbers.
God! That it horrible! I drive a pick up truck and am paying $0.10 a mile for gas. That means you are getting less than 13 MPG. Oh, my truck is 190 HP, not that far from your 250, oh yeah, it has over 220 kmiles and is still getting 20 MPG.
can't remember a time when the temp got that cold here.
What fully electric vehicle would that be? The Bolt is not yet shipping so it would be hard to make any profit.
How do you know they are making money on the Volt? GM as a whole makes money, but that is from established gas and diesel vehicles. Tesla doesn't plan to stop with the Model 3, so don't expect them to make huge amounts of money since they will be pouring it all into more research. What is GMs next move?
You are missing the point. Getting 70 miles under special situations is still nothing like 200+ miles.
Why? What is so better about the Volt? You mean the plug in option?
I wish I could say that. I've spent some $5-6000 on repairs for my T100. In fact, I am going to have to drive it today with a bad U-joint because I can't get it repaired today.
Sounds like Chrysler. I know every one of their cars I've driven was a dog other than the Valiants from the early 60s with the slant 6.
So it was YOU ! I am sending Rollo the legbreaker over.
I KNOW I am not wearing the seat belt and I know the trunk lid is open (not a jar), I am NOT putting the seat belt on and there happens to be a piece of furniture hanging out of the trunk. So shutup !
I would pay a thousand dollars to have that SOB ripped out in a most destru ctive way.
Some of them now feed through the amp in the car stereo, I imagine there is probably a wire that could be cut.
These new cars are annoying. Another thing they need is an "English" option . Is it so hard to print DEF, HEAT, VENT ? All icons.
Friend of mine, well read and kinda degreed said he read that the Japanese and Chinese were held back in some ways because of having iconic writing ra ther than alphabetic. It kinda makes sense because you can't make up words easily. German is one of the best in that respect, they got words 43 letter s long. Seems cumbersome but one of their 43 letter words translated to "tr i cellular combustion chamber". Well actually I guess that one is a bit cum bersome. But for example studying medicine you take Greek and Latin so that you can make up a new word and others will understand it, likewise when th ey make up a new word you understand it.
He was referring to Windows and other icon based OSes at the time, but it a pplies to cars. All these little pictures, like we're illiterate. (well som e are, but should they really be driving ?)
What's next ? Take the numbers off the speedometer and put a picture of a s trip mall where 25 used to be, a house where 35 used to be, a horse and bug gy where 50 used to be (let's see a foreigner figure that out, who is used to driving twice as fast anyway) and a police car with the lights on where like 80 used to be ? Maybe jail bars where 100 used to be ?
Fuck all this multicultural bullshit. You come here you learn English.. No, it was never declared the official language but the Constitution is writte n in English so that's how it is.
I suggest these idiots start learning how the f*ck to use it.
Well I think one problem is that charging takes time. It would be alright m aybe at motels. They still have to have the range of course, but there is n o way you could pull into a station and be right out after filling your tan k with that petroleum distillate that is to die for - literally.
What they need is universal, removable batteries. They need a meter or some way to show the state of charge, and a counter to tell how many times they have been recharged. The life cycle is determined and then the price of th e exchange is calculated. The more charge in the battery you are leaving, t he less you pay, the more recharges on it the more you pay.
They could build some sort of docking station and the exchange could be lar gely automated, which the industry should like because they don't want to h ire anyone period.
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