GM to cancel the volt.....

mrvette

Phantom of the Opera
Joined
Mar 24, 2008
Messages
15,207
Location
NE Florida
At least for a while.....


:hissyfit:


Can't even find a battery to run a friggin' camera for very long, and they going to run with battery cars???

:nuts:
 
weird, they are hyping up the opel antera as car of the year here..pretty sure it's the same thing
 
You're both talking about the same situation. The car isn't selling anywhere near as much as forecast. They are stopping production for a while to reduce inventory. Presumably they'll be advertising and dealing as well.
 
Ironically I saw two of them on the road today. First time I've ever actually seen one on the road. Not bad looking for a commuter but I wouldn't buy one.
I've always liked the idea of one that just uses a gas motor to continually run a generator. Just seems to make more sense.
 
At least for a while.....


:hissyfit:


Can't even find a battery to run a friggin' camera for very long, and they going to run with battery cars???

:nuts:

Weren't you all fired up about making your own electric car about a year or 2 ago?

I looked into it, but got sidetracked with the motor home project, 'The Clamper' which is operational now.....

at the time, they wanted way too much money for the two projected golf cart motors, and then they had to be the 48 volt variety instead of the more common 36 volt ones, and my motor source dried up when the guy did not go into the golf cart business, seeing the economic collapse coming.....

:hissyfit:
 
Ironically I saw two of them on the road today. First time I've ever actually seen one on the road. Not bad looking for a commuter but I wouldn't buy one.
I've always liked the idea of one that just uses a gas motor to continually run a generator. Just seems to make more sense.

I"m sure you are aware that is how Locomotives run the rails....

:huh:
 
The Volt is made of mostly foreign sourced components, so it's probably not that big of a deal (for job losses) to shut down assembly here.

Batteries and other: Korea
Engine: Austria
Electric Drive/transmission: Japan
 
I'd buy one in a heart beat, but they are just a tad too high. I was hoping they would come down in price.
 
I got a question, how long til the batteries need to be replaced? I run multiple batteries on my boat, once one dies it kills the others.
I'm thinking for $40k and the price of replacement batteries, you could buy a few cheap, used, gas powered econoboxes and the gas to run them.
Do the economics even add up on these cars?
And of course there's the potential "brick" issue.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/02/22/teslas-electric-brick-problem/
 
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I got a question, how long til the batteries need to be replaced? I run multiple batteries on my boat, once one dies it kills the others.
I'm thinking for $40k and the price of replacement batteries, you could buy a few cheap, used, gas powered econoboxes and the gas to run them.
Do the economics even add up on these cars?
And of course there's the potential "brick" issue.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/02/22/teslas-electric-brick-problem/

The econ of the electric cars never adds up, even if you could buy one for 12 grand.....today, now if gas goes to 10 bux/gallon like Nobam wants it to, maybe at 25 grand it may pay for an electric commuter car....

I don't understand why one dead battery on a boat should kill the rest, you need hook them up correctly, that should never happen....mostly they call them dual battery isolators, so use several of them depending on the # of batteries involved.....I just made my own from a old power diode bridge from some stereo amp project decades ago... all it is, is high amp diodes on a heat sink, .....:shocking:
 
There's really only one way to hook multiple batteries up on most boats, in parallel. You cant isolate the batteries when there's only one distribution center per bank.
As for the Volt, maybe we should invent a car that runs on yak urine. I'm sure Obama would give us a half billion dollar subsidy (ie. Solyndra) before he gets booted out.
 
I think we'll eventually have to convert our Vettes to something greener to be able to still use it (for regulation reasons or over gas price concern).
I'm doubtfull we'll ever go very far in the battery technology, from what I've read there is a limit in term of amount of energy you can pack in a certain volume:weight.
The hydrogen solution look much more coherent, especially with scientists coming up with direct sunlight-to-hydrogen solution, cutting the inefficient electricy middleman.
 
My 68 with a 6.0 LSx 6 speed gets 26mpg.
If you want a viable alternative consider propane/LPG. 110 octane, similar energy content, and you get a few thousand back from the gov.

I think we'll eventually have to convert our Vettes to something greener to be able to still use it (for regulation reasons or over gas price concern).
I'm doubtfull we'll ever go very far in the battery technology, from what I've read there is a limit in term of amount of energy you can pack in a certain volume:weight.
The hydrogen solution look much more coherent, especially with scientists coming up with direct sunlight-to-hydrogen solution, cutting the inefficient electricy middleman.
 
My 68 with a 6.0 LSx 6 speed gets 26mpg.
If you want a viable alternative consider propane/LPG. 110 octane, similar energy content, and you get a few thousand back from the gov.

I think we'll eventually have to convert our Vettes to something greener to be able to still use it (for regulation reasons or over gas price concern).
I'm doubtfull we'll ever go very far in the battery technology, from what I've read there is a limit in term of amount of energy you can pack in a certain volume:weight.
The hydrogen solution look much more coherent, especially with scientists coming up with direct sunlight-to-hydrogen solution, cutting the inefficient electricy middleman.



Thing that gripes MY ass is back in '95 I put L98 TPI injection on my stock lo idle smooth running/rebuilt L48 engine with Muncie and 336 rear, had '92 rims on it and stock vette tires....255/40/17 in front and 275/40/17 in rear....in exploratory runs to Florida here, I got 24 mpg at a steady 80 mph, turning nearly 4 grand all the way....

NOW, with all this ethanol, I getting a silly 14 around town....seems to be a huge drop in MPG for the ethanol crap....last time I did enough highway with it to get a good MPG reading was over a year ago got like 16 mpg....

There has been talk of a company that makes mini nuclear plants that can be moved onto a 1/4 acre lot, and power an entire hood for some years on one load of fuel ......kind of an off shoot of the nukey plants they shoot into space....THAT would make all those trans con power lines sort of obsolete, NO??

the trick with PV cells is they only make DC current, fine for charging batteries, but most all households are running with AC current ala Westinghouse not Edison's DC current....and the conversion has lots of losses...

:hissyfit:
 
If you want a viable alternative consider propane/LPG. 110 octane, similar energy content, and you get a few thousand back from the gov.

How about just filling up with E85 adjusting the mixture screws and just keep motoring. Can't find E85. Put standard gas in, turn the mix screws back and keep motoring.

I've already done it. And haven't burst into flames.

Why would i want to put $1000s into a propane conversion?
 
I think we'll eventually have to convert our Vettes to something greener to be able to still use it (for regulation reasons or over gas price concern).
I'm doubtfull we'll ever go very far in the battery technology, from what I've read there is a limit in term of amount of energy you can pack in a certain volume:weight.
The hydrogen solution look much more coherent, especially with scientists coming up with direct sunlight-to-hydrogen solution, cutting the inefficient electricy middleman.

http://www.switch2hydrogen.com/

It's not perfect yet, there are problems with embrittlement of metals when exposed to hydrogen, but still.........
 
I think we'll eventually have to convert our Vettes to something greener to be able to still use it (for regulation reasons or over gas price concern).
I'm doubtfull we'll ever go very far in the battery technology, from what I've read there is a limit in term of amount of energy you can pack in a certain volume:weight.
The hydrogen solution look much more coherent, especially with scientists coming up with direct sunlight-to-hydrogen solution, cutting the inefficient electricy middleman.

http://www.switch2hydrogen.com/

It's not perfect yet, there are problems with embrittlement of metals when exposed to hydrogen, but still.........

Hydrogen fuel cells will probably be the way to go but it will take at least 10 more years. It is the holy grail of energy production. Your home and business could be powered by fuel cells. Imagine no more power lines.

In 2003 the US government started funding research into hydrogen development. A friend of mine was working on a city bus that was powered by hydrogen fuel cells. In 2009, Obama cut funding for hydrogen fuel cells and all development stopped. Development money was diverted to solar panel production. Vehicle fuel cell research continues in Germany and I expect they will take the lead on this technology.

Since 2009, the US government has shifted money from hydrogen to windmills and solar panels without much success.
 
I think we'll eventually have to convert our Vettes to something greener to be able to still use it (for regulation reasons or over gas price concern).
I'm doubtfull we'll ever go very far in the battery technology, from what I've read there is a limit in term of amount of energy you can pack in a certain volume:weight.
The hydrogen solution look much more coherent, especially with scientists coming up with direct sunlight-to-hydrogen solution, cutting the inefficient electricy middleman.

I doubt that, gasoline will be with us for along time. Unless you drive it daily there would be no point. Now if the government forces us to stop using gas in a low use older vehicle, we have much worse things to worry about.
 
I think we'll eventually have to convert our Vettes to something greener to be able to still use it (for regulation reasons or over gas price concern).
I'm doubtfull we'll ever go very far in the battery technology, from what I've read there is a limit in term of amount of energy you can pack in a certain volume:weight.
The hydrogen solution look much more coherent, especially with scientists coming up with direct sunlight-to-hydrogen solution, cutting the inefficient electricy middleman.

I doubt that, gasoline will be with us for along time. Unless you drive it daily there would be no point. Now if the government forces us to stop using gas in a low use older vehicle, we have much worse things to worry about.
Sure, it all depends on how long is a long time.
 
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